Books From Taiwan | Books From Taiwan

Blurb: Taiwanese School Ghost Stories and Where They Come from

Mar 21, 2025 / By Liang Siou-Yi (Writer) ∥ Translated by Jeff Miller

In Taiwanese School Ghost Stories and Where They Come from, the author sleuths out Taiwan’s most iconic school-related ghost stories and their variants. The fact that most readers likely already have a passing familiarity with at least a few of the underlying plotlines ensures this book a place in Taiwan’s collective cultural memory bank. Their placement in familiar school settings, from bathrooms and dormitory rooms to shadowy school-campus corners, imbues these stories with plausible realism. The author accompanies her readers on this journey, allowing both to discover together what makes these stories “scary” and why we sometimes simply need to be scared.

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Blurb: Vendorworld: 100 Vendors, 100 Unique Takes on Life in Today’s Taiwan

Mar 21, 2025 / By Chen Mo-An (Writer) ∥ Translated by Jeff Miller

I compare reading Vendorworld to a stimulating, nostalgia-laced virtual journey through Taiwan’s markets and side streets – from crowded crossroads to shops and stalls with dozens-deep lines of hungry customers outside.   The author’s illuminating focus on these vendors, each a small but important part of their surrounding milieu, paints a fun-to-read, satisfyingly complete picture of Taiwan’s lively street vending scene. Moreover, the myriad stories and insights into vendor owners, clientele, and history add delightful dimension to this work. Taiwanese readers in particular are sure to find fond and familiar memories of their own within its pages.   With Taiwan’s distinctive street vendor culture now in slow but steady decline, Vendorworld is an important new addition to Taiwan’s collective cultural memory bank.

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Blurb: Overexposed: Why Youth Today are Less Happy, More Insecure and Less Self-Assured

Mar 21, 2025 / By Chung Sing-Yiing (Lecturer, Center for Teacher Education, National Tsing Hua University) ∥ Translated by Jeff Miller

How is online social media negatively influencing our young people? In discussing this question, many point to “internet addiction” as the wellspring of related troubles and thus advocate gatekeeping the amount of time allowed online. But this author takes a different tack, arguing this issue must be reexamined from the psychological needs perspective of adolescents if we are to resolve not only the symptoms but also the root causes of this problem.   While written for a general audience, this work is well grounded in relevant theory and practice. Sifting through the varied modes of interaction used by today’s youth, the author points out that, besieged by peer pressure from both online and real-world communities, young people today are bereft of a “mental staging ground” where they can catch their breath and think. Of particular note, the author includes Asian cultural ideas about “shame” and “guilt” in the discussion. Ultimately, this book offers many practical counseling and self-help solutions.

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