Queer Taiwanese writer Natalie Chang (Chang Yi-Hsim) has captivated many readers in her country with novels such as Not Long in Love, Herstory of Sex, and I’m Leaving. Later this month, she’ll discuss her writing at Toronto TAIWANfest.
Chang will speak at an event called Examining the Lived Experiences of Women from a Novelist’s Perspective at 2 p.m. on August 29 in Harbourfront Centre’s Studio Theatre. This free presentation is in English and Mandarin.
“Using her own work, I’m Leaving, published in Taiwan, as an example, Nathalie Chang (Chang Yi- Hsum) presents new perspectives on the relationship between literature and lived experiences,” Toronto TAIWANfest notes on its website.
That will be followed at 3 p.m. with a haf-hour Women’s Story Sharing Workshop, which will be in Mandarin. This requires pre-registration.
“As the discussion may touch on topics such as gender, bodily experiences, and life traumas, we will prioritize maintaining a sense of safety and trust among participants, and primarily admit women into this session,” the festival states.
Toronto TAIWANfest points out that although Chang “is considered a queer novelist who advocates for LGBT+ rights, her novels also present a critique of identity politics, whether based on gender or national identity”. In her books, she explores themes such as sexual trauma, language, and the fate of Taiwan.
Chang earned a master’s degree in film studies from the Sorbonne in Paris. Herstory of Sex won the Openbook Award and was the Mirror Weekly book of the year. Chang also won the Golden Tripod Award for Best Column Writing for her work “All the Grownups Who Once Bored Me.”
In advance of her local presentation, Chang answered the following questions from the Toronto Spark.
Toronto Spark: What are you planning to talk about at Toronto TAIWANfest?
Nathalie Chang: I’ll be talking about “Why do I write?”, which is actually a rather challenging question for me. Mostly because I tend to just say whatever comes to mind.
As a novelist, I sometimes feel that I pour the essence of my life into my fiction. So whenever I’m not writing fiction, I feel like I can let myself go a little. Because I’m seen as a writer who thinks deeply about many things, a young novelist once asked me in an interview, “Do you ever have moments in your life when your mind is completely blank?” I said, “What are you talking about? My mind is blank all the time, except when I’m writing.”
This time, though, I’ll try to rein myself in. I’ll talk about my journey as a writer through two contrasting forces, light and darkness, and how they have intersected throughout my work.
Toronto Spark: Why is it so important for you to focus on women in your writing?
Nathalie Chang: Well, I quite often find that men simply don’t understand what’s going on, sometimes even when it comes to very basic things. And then, whether by chance or fate, they somehow end up being the ones responsible for explaining these things to their readers, women and men alike. That creates an endless cycle of misinformation and misunderstanding.
I’m really not that serious a person, but every now and then, I feel like throwing something into the gears just to jam that “cycle of error”.
Toronto Spark: What led you to add a modern twist to the Plum in a Golden Vase character, Pan Linlian?
Nathalie Chang: You’re referring to my short story “A Woman Doesn’t Become ‘Promiscuous’ Overnight”. It originally came about through a proposal from a Taiwanese literary magazine. At the time, they were preparing to publish The Plum in the Golden Vase (Jin Ping Mei), and perhaps as a way of bringing a classical work closer to contemporary readers, they asked whether we would be interested in adapting any part of the novel.
Like Dream of the Red Chamber, Jin Ping Mei was a book I had already read as a child. I was interested in returning to it, this time through the eyes of an adult.
As I reread it, I discovered that Pan Jinlian had a friend named Bai Yulian. When we think of a “promiscuous woman” or a “femme fatale” like Pan Jinlian, we rarely imagine that she, too, had childhood friends or a life in which she had to grow up. That became the starting point of my story. What would “Pan Jinlian as we know her today” look like through Bai Yulian’s eyes?
The story naturally involved literary invention, but much of the material came from real people. The art teacher who is marginalized and excluded because of his gender expression and his inability to navigate social expectations, and “Pan-Pan,” the highly talented girl who was abused from a young age, were both inspired by people I actually knew in junior high school.
As I continued writing, the story suddenly developed a very strong presence of its own, growing beyond what I had originally imagined as a kind of literary experiment. I came to like it very much. It allowed me to explore many of the struggles faced by women who experienced abuse or violation in childhood, something I had never anticipated when I first began writing it.
Toronto Spark: Taiwan is a pluralistic society with Hoklo, Hakka, Indigenous, and Waishengren people, as well as immigrants from other places. Taiwan has also experienced waves of colonization over the centuries. Do you see any relationship between Taiwan’s history and demographics and its willingness to embrace greater equality for LGBTQ people than every other Asian country?
Nathalie Chang: As you said, Taiwan is made up of a remarkably diverse range of communities. As different groups preserve their own cultures, they often also preserve distinct forms of social organization and different ideas about gender. Taiwan’s democratic movement following the lifting of martial law helped encourage cultural diversity. In a way, the ideas of a “democratic Taiwan” and a “rainbow Taiwan” have developed alongside each other, each drawing inspiration from the other.
For example, the term “coming out,” commonly used by LGBTQ+ people, is sometimes also used when someone openly acknowledges Taiwan as a country. Someone expresses how they feel about Taiwan, and another person might say, “You’ve come out.” I find that quite interesting. Whether we call these experiences “repression” or “oppression”, they seem to have made Taiwanese people more able to identify with one another across different experiences. Someone may not really understand LGBTQ+ people, for instance, but they can still find a shared language in the experience of having been forced to hide a part of themselves.
Put simply, Taiwan’s democratic movement has had some positive spillover effects. There is a sense that, as part of this democratic legacy, continuing to fight for greater rights and freedoms is simply a natural thing to do.
Without sufficient research, it would be difficult to say that people in Taiwan care more about equal rights than people in other countries. What we can say is that Taiwan had a relatively smoother path when it came to putting those principles into practice institutionally. In fact, there were technical difficulties in the legislative process at the time, and things could easily have reached a deadlock.
Although LGBTQ+ advocacy groups had a strong understanding of the issues, they did not necessarily know how to navigate the practical side of the legislative process. Fortunately, Taiwan was in a particularly favourable political moment. The governing party at the time, the Democratic Progressive Party, had both the willingness and sufficient political experience to break through that technical impasse.
Toronto Spark: We’re seeing a backlash against LGBTQ rights in some countries, including the United States. How would you assess the situation in Taiwan?
Nathalie Chang: If Taiwan can develop in a stable environment, it has the potential to become an increasingly LGBTQ-friendly nation. My primary concern, however, is the threat posed by China. There is a significant disparity between Taiwan and China regarding freedom of speech and the protection of human rights—differences that directly impact the LGBTQ community.
Were it not for the anxiety surrounding China’s aggressive ambitions, we could devote more energy to cultural initiatives. Of course, we continue to use culture to support the LGBTQ community; yet, we also recognize that without acknowledging the potential devastation China could inflict, even our cultural efforts could be jeopardized.
Currently, several elected representatives in Taiwan identify as lesbians. They do not limit themselves to advocating solely for LGBTQ issues; rather, they have earned voter support through their exceptional legislative and policy-making capabilities. By engaging in public affairs, we ensure that political power does not become overly skewed toward any single gender—a development I believe is highly positive for the diverse growth of the young LGBTQ community.
Toronto TAIWANfest will present Examining the Lived Experiences of Women from a Novelist’s Perspective at 2 p.m. on August 29 in Harbourfront Centre’s Studio Theatre. This free presentation is in English and Mandarin. That will be followed at 3 p.m. with a haf-hour Women’s Story Sharing Workshop, which will be in Mandarin and which requires pre-registration. For more information, visit the Toronto TAIWANfest website.
Toronto TAIWANfest runs from August 28 to 30 at Harbourfront Centre. All events are free though there is a small supplies fee to attend cooking workshops led by Taiwanese celebrity chef Ted Liao.
The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
