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ambershelf 's review for:
蕉王吳振瑞
by 李旺台
First read in Mandarin. Will update review once I finished the English translation.
It’s a very niche topic about banana farming post ww2 in Taiwan. I love that the dialogues are mostly written in Taiwanese with a mixture of Japanese, while the descriptions are written in mandarin. Definitely a challenging read because my Taiwanese isn’t as good—especially the details about how agriculture escaped me. It’ll be interesting to see how the English translation approaches this book that has 3 languages in it lol
I’d recommend this to readers who have a bit more background in Taiwanese history, since there are lots of references to modern TW politics that aren’t always explained in detail. I really enjoyed this aspect though. I’ve read enough Japanese colonization and 228 stories that this is a refreshing angle.
This book reminds me a bit of MATER 2-10 in that the author’s political ideology is quite obvious, and hence it can read a bit biased. In trying to demonstrate the corruption in KMT-controlled authoritarian rule for 38 years (which is ofc terrible), I feel the author was trying too hard to paint the Japanese colonizers in a good light. I think this could’ve been balanced out. Both authoritarian regimes were terrible, and TW people deserve to rule themselves. There’s no need to say one colonizer is better than the other
It’s a very niche topic about banana farming post ww2 in Taiwan. I love that the dialogues are mostly written in Taiwanese with a mixture of Japanese, while the descriptions are written in mandarin. Definitely a challenging read because my Taiwanese isn’t as good—especially the details about how agriculture escaped me. It’ll be interesting to see how the English translation approaches this book that has 3 languages in it lol
I’d recommend this to readers who have a bit more background in Taiwanese history, since there are lots of references to modern TW politics that aren’t always explained in detail. I really enjoyed this aspect though. I’ve read enough Japanese colonization and 228 stories that this is a refreshing angle.
This book reminds me a bit of MATER 2-10 in that the author’s political ideology is quite obvious, and hence it can read a bit biased. In trying to demonstrate the corruption in KMT-controlled authoritarian rule for 38 years (which is ofc terrible), I feel the author was trying too hard to paint the Japanese colonizers in a good light. I think this could’ve been balanced out. Both authoritarian regimes were terrible, and TW people deserve to rule themselves. There’s no need to say one colonizer is better than the other