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Severe controls on information and education imposed by the Nationalist government after the Second World War effectively disassociated postwar Taiwan from its fifty-year history as a colony of Japan – a period of both rapid modernization and emerging industrial and artistic accomplishment. This lost era has only recently returned into the public consciousness and is only now being incorporated into public education curricula. Thus, for most Taiwanese, popular literature, easy to read and digest, is essential to bringing us all up to speed on Taiwan’s prewar, colonial heritage. Before the Dawn takes an engagingly interesting narrative approach to introducing the stories of several prominent local artists working in colonial-era Taiwan. Accompanied by lively illustrations, this important work sheds evocative “new” light on Taiwan’s colonial art world.

Rather than creating another historiography of the Sino-French War, this unique work turns its narrative lens on the photographs and writings of one French officer serving in Taiwan during that war. Carapatteur not only pieces together the natural and cultural landscapes of contemporary Taiwan and the Pescadores (Penghu); it also sheds light on contemporary Western views of the Far East and reveals the textures of everyday life in late nineteenth-century Taiwan. While showing the perspective of photographer André Salles, these photographs also provide insights into his professional technique, talent, and interests as well as hint at the complexities underpinning the Western imperialist outlook, perspectives on the Sino-French War, and ideations on late-Qing Taiwan. Seeing oneself through another’s eyes is critical both to better self-understanding and to truly understanding history.

Anyone even slightly familiar with Taiwan history has likely heard of Kano Tadao, the Japanese naturalist who made early, groundbreaking advances in the fields of biogeography and anthropology on the island. He arrived in Taiwan first as a student and then as a naturalist fresh into his career. An average student in the classroom, Kano found his calling outdoors – amidst Taiwan’s forests and mountains. In A Blazing Star, naturalist author Liu Ka-Shiang fleshes out young Kano Tadao’s early years in Taiwan as a student and young naturalist. He digs deep into the historical record as well as retraces Kano’s footsteps across mountain wilds to tell a compelling story that, while epic, is tethered to the actual achievements of a dedicated, pioneering scientist.

Bycatch and Wildlife is a collection of the author Lin Jing-Feng’s own thoughts and musings penned during his time as a distracted undergraduate student of theatrical costume design. His extracurricular explorations of forested mountains and harbor wet markets, his predilection for making taxidermy specimens alongside his stage models, and his out-of-the-box ingenuity (such as building an illicit “kitchen” in his dorm room from scrap items scavenged from a metal recycler) naturally sets him apart from his peers. In this work, Lin welcomes you into his world to help you discover the unexpected in the everyday. Bycatch and Wildlife shows how the “happy-go-lucky” college experience can also open the door onto things surprisingly new and unexpected.

Author Huang Chu-Ping joined her first Mazu pilgrimage in 2008 after becoming a devotee of the Taoist sea goddess during university. Over the decade and a half since, she has experienced numerous pilgrimages as well as circled the island on foot, sketching over this period more than 200 paintings of Mazu. Beyond her artistic pursuits, Huang has accompanied her own Mazu idol throughout Taiwan and on trips overseas. Walk with Mazu narrates how Huang’s fifteen-year relationship with her chosen religion is neither superstition nor mere idol worship but rather a way of life that captures the unalloyed essence and spirit of being “Taiwanese”.

Tēnn Sūn-Tshong, from Minxiong Township in Chiayi County, is one of today’s most active and innovative authors writing in the Taigi (Taiwanese Hokkien) language. In Eating Taiwanese, Tēnn takes readers along on a flavorful investigation of iconic Taiwanese foods that starts with one of his home region’s best-known dishes – turkey rice. Much more than a foodie guidebook, this work follows the author as he walks the side streets and chats in the language of street food with favorite snack creators and vendors, piecing together a one-of-a-kind map of authentic Taiwanese eats. Illustrations by comic artist Ruan Guang-Min lift the hood to show how snacks are made, helping bring the narrative to flavorful life.

Smell and taste, two senses deeply entwined with memory, are taken to their extreme in the teas served up in Somewhere in Tea, a novel in which tea leaves are magical storehouses for memories that people wish to either safeguard or forget. The protagonist stumbles into the prospect of a budding romance when she starts helping out in a small Taipei tea shop. While speculating over his feelings for her and pondering their interconnectedness, she deals with the everyday issues of shop operations and learns more about how tea, memories, and emotions are made. The complex, bittersweet flavors in this story leave an enticing aftertaste – much like a cup of good tea.

Siǔ-Moi weaves the life story of a Hakka woman of the same name around twenty-one meaningful dishes. While the narrative centers on the toil and struggles experienced by many women in traditional Taiwan society, its underlying message celebrates the kitchen, the traditional “realm” of women in the household, as a vital source of self-discovery and renewal. Aphorisms such as meals being “a fixture of everyday life” and full stomachs being essential to happiness, provide context for both the plight and redemption of characters in this story. Interestingly, one of the twenty-one dishes at the center of this tale isn’t a “dish” at all, but an ingenious twist readers must discover for themselves.