For the past couple of weeks at Wind&Bones Books, we’ve had our head down editing the final proofs and finalising the cover design for our book Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic, and we’re excited that the book will be out in the world in two weeks’ time. You can buy the book from our Wind&Bones Bookshop, or rummage in your favourite places online!
This book has been a labour of love, and we’re incredibly proud of it. Translating between Taiwanese and Gaelic is something that—to our knowledge—has never been attempted before. And we’re really grateful to both the Scottish Government’s Scottish Connections Fund, and Creative Scotland, for their support in helping this happen.
Before the book comes out, we’ll also be relaunching the accompanying website, where we’ll be uploading readings of the stories from our team of writers and translators, so that by the time the book comes out, you will be able to scan the QR code, and listen to the original stories in Gaelic, Taiwanese, Mandarin and English.
Meanwhile, the endorsements have been pouring in from writers we admire both here in Taiwan and in Scotland. Here are some of the things people are saying!
“I am grateful for the publication of this book. A mother tongue is the root of culture, and a culture that loses its mother tongue is like a plant without roots. This book will greatly inspire the promotion of language equality and literary translation.”
感謝有這樣一本書的出版。母語是文化的根，失去了母語的文化就像失根的植物。這本書的出版，給了我們正在推動的「語言平等」及「文學翻譯」兩大文化政策極大的啓發。
— Li Yuan (Taiwan) 李遠, screenwriter and Taiwan Minister for Culture | — 台灣文化部長、作家李遠（小野）
“Language is the essence of culture, and native languages shape the collective memory of a nation. I am grateful for this publication of this book, which allows us to bear witness to the literary vitality sparked by mother-tongue creativity. Through a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural collaboration between Taiwan and Scotland, this is a book that brings into being a profoundly moving cultural exchange.”
語言是文化的精隨，母語塑造民族的共同記憶。感謝這本書的出版，讓我們見證母語創作所激發的文學能量，也透過台灣與蘇格蘭之間跨語言、跨文化的合作，實踐最動人的文化外交。
Lin Chia-lung 林佳龍, Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs | 台灣外交部長、林佳龍
“In this imaginative and profoundly original book, two seemingly distant worlds—Gaelic Scotland and Taiwanese communities—are brought into resonant dialogue through their suppressed languages, enduring myths, and local beliefs. By placing Gaelic and Taiwanese side by side, the book creates a striking intimacy with the daily lives that preserve them. Both Scotland and Taiwan, small democracies with rich and complex histories, emerge here as sites of cultural resilience and deep-rooted memory. Beautifully translated across four languages, these evocative and subtle stories show, as editors Hannah Stevens and Will Buckingham put it, ‘what it means to seek out connections that might bind us more closely.’”
— Michelle Kuo (Taiwan), author of Reading With Patrick
“Four thoughtful and thought-provoking stories in conversation across languages and cultures - how exciting, and how necessary! This marvellous anthology, full of grace and wit, shows how writers and indeed whole literatures thrive when in contact with other voices.”
— Garry MacKenzie (Scotland), author of Scotland: a Literary Guide for Travellers and Ben Dorain: a conversation with a mountain
“Here, the scattered voices of Taiwanese and Scottish Gaelic meet. Stories rooted in our mother tongues that glow like the sunlight of early spring—these are tales that, in their gentleness, quietly burn.”
—Tân Lêkun 陳麗君 (Taiwan), professor of Taiwanese literature, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan
“Languages are the vehicles of culture; they carry the spirit of their origins from generation to generation. Tâigael is an innovative work created by writers from Taiwan and Scotland, presenting culture-based stories in four languages and five writing systems. It is an important vehicle that brings life to these beautiful cultures worth preserving. I am truly honoured to be one of the first readers of this impressive work!”
—Wen Ruoqiao 温若喬 (Taiwan), translator and poet
“A new generation of writers from two countries writing in their mother tongues—Taiwanese and Gaelic—allowing languages that are less often read to engage in an unprecedented dialogue of literature and culture, with translation as a medium. This anthology adds diverse voices and colours to world literature, making its significance particularly profound.”
— Xiang Yang (Taiwan) 向陽, poet
“Stories told well and without fear invite us in, so we can travel in the depths of their inspiration. In this innovative collection, East and West become travel partners, opening crucial doors between Taiwanese and Gaelic creativity. What a lovely partnership. How much they have to tell each other, late into the night; and how rich our sharing becomes!”
— Martin MacIntyre (Scotland), author, Bàrd and storyteller
“Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic facilitates a storytelling conversation between two minority languages, Taiwanese and Scottish Gaelic. It is a rare thing for these particular languages, these oral cultures, to be put in such comprehensive contact. Drawing parallels between two marginalised territories, Scotland and Taiwan, the central, future-facing lesson of this book is that communication between minority-language writers is not only possible but desirable. Though two quite different national-linguistic contexts are celebrated and maintained here, a shared preoccupation with certain concerns - present-day feminism perhaps foremost among these - animates this unique quadrille of stories (and tellers) beyond their languages of transmission.”
— Colin Bramwell (Scotland), poet and translator.
