photo by Kent Chuang
As a liberal and open-minded modern democracy, Taiwan encourages public exchanges of ideas and is home to a prosperous publishing industry. Our flourishing and highly competitive cultural sectors have been attracting professionals of Chinese origin from different parts of the world. In this article we interview editors Chu Anmin and Woo Kamloon. Brought up in Korea and Malaysia respectively, why did they choose to settle in Taiwan? What was it about publishing which so powerfully touched their hearts that they have never looked back?
Chu Anmin editor-in-chief at INK
Being an editor confers power, enabling you to put your literary imagination into practice.
Chu Anmin
Born in 1957, Chu Anmin grew up in South Korea, although his family originated from Muping in China’s Shandong Province. He came to Taiwan to study for a BA in Chinese literature at National Cheng Kung University. A poet, writer, and senior professional with more than 30 years’ experience in the publishing industry, Chu currently serves as editor-in-chief of the literary magazine INK.
In his 60s now, Chu comes across as an aging man, but the passage of time has also endowed him with a distinctive charm. You can perceive an aura which results from the fusion of his literary dreams and an intellectual’s apprehensions about the nation’s future—an aura which bespeaks his perennial struggles to bring his visions to bear in the real world, and is blended with a small dose of self-mockery.
Growing up with Chinese literature
Chu’s father came from Yantai in Shandong Province. Working as a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, he was one of very few intellectuals in what was then a predominantly agrarian country. At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, he decided to flee from mainland China but was unable to find a ship that could bring him to Taiwan. He ended up in Korea.
Born and brought up in a rural area in South Korea, Chu Anmin was adored by his father, who was already advanced in years when Chu came into the world. But the old man also subjected his son to strict discipline. Chu grew up without toys, and rarely was he allowed time out of doors. Instead of playing with him, his father told him his own life story and taught him the classic books they had at home, such as the Analects and the Zuo Zhuan, translating them from classical to modern Chinese as he read them to his son.
“He didn’t leave me much money. What he left behind was an inner legacy: his mind and spirit, his remembered country, and his grief for the loss of that country,” Chu says. As a young man, Chu inherited his father’s sorrowful longings for his homeland, as well as his yearnings for the “Free China” then represented by the ROC government in Taiwan. Literature was the only reliable source of spiritual sustenance in the young Chu’s world.
Becoming an editor
Most people think of Chu as an editor; his own creative work is rarely discussed, even though he started his writing career at an early age and has made remarkable achievements.
For Chu himself, being an editor is a lifelong commitment, a vocation to which he is happy to devote himself. He thus describes his editorial work: “At first it was just something I liked, then it became a mission, and eventually I started to feel a huge sense of obligation.” Chu proudly says that throughout his life, he has done only two kinds of work. His first job was as a teacher at Mingdao High School in Taichung. There he realized that teaching was not for him. After just one year, he resigned without a second thought. By that time he and his partner were in a stable relationship, so he felt free to be more venturesome.
He went on to serve as a literary editor for 35 years, spending two decades at the literary magazine Unitas, where he progressed from an entry-level employee to editor-in-chief. Subsequently he established another literary magazine, INK. For a time he also edited a journal dedicated to short stories. He has been pursuing this career single-mindedly, without ever looking back.
The Japanese writer Saburo Kawamoto famously said that only through literature are we able to hear the murmurs of disadvantaged people. Chu agrees: “Literature is my religion. It alone lives on and on, recording the stories of generation after generation. More real than history itself, it is capable of seeking justice in the long vistas of time. This kind of work is a blessing, and it calls for unflagging energy.” During our interview, Chu keeps self-deprecatingly referring to the conflicts between reality and his dreams, but whenever he speaks of his editorial work his unwavering determination shines through.
A garden of freedom
At INK Literary Monthly Publishing, Chu wants to cultivate a literary garden where all sorts of flowers bloom. Personal backgrounds, preferences and allegiances are all laid aside, and literary works are considered on their own merits. “In literature we find a republic of letters that transcends existing national borders.” What better place to pursue these ideals than in a country that tolerates difference, welcomes diversity, and defends freedom of speech? “What makes Taiwan so precious in the Chinese-speaking world is that for more than 50 years, it has maintained a tradition of open-mindedness, freedom, and diversity. And you don’t see this just in publishing; it’s also in language education, academic training, and scholarly writing,” Chu opines.
He counts himself lucky to have settled in Taiwan, finding here a fertile garden where he has enjoyed nourishing a dazzling variety of literary flowers. Despite having reached retirement age, he vows to continue his work as an editor, “until I burn myself out.”
Woo Kamloon editor-in-chief at China Times Publishing
Taiwan is in the forefront of the global market.
Woo Kamloon
A Chinese-Malaysian, Woo Kamloon was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1971. After obtaining a humanities degree at Universiti Sains Malaysia, he spent two years working as a journalist and then came to Taiwan to study for an MA in Chinese literature at National Chengchi University. After graduating he went into publishing, and has been in the industry for nearly 20 years. Having worked at Rye Field and Linking, he now serves as editor-in-chief in a division of China Times Publishing.
Over the past 20 years, Woo has transformed himself from a sharp-witted youth who fearlessly pursued his literary dreams into a professional editor who is widely known in the publishing world. His dreams have come true in this foreign country.
I come from Malaysia
“For many young culture buffs in Malaysia, Taiwan was an ideal place to pursue literature and culture,” says Woo, recalling his youthful days. That was in 1998. Having just obtained his BA, he found a job as a culture and education journalist at Malaysia’s Sin Chew Daily. Yet although he had always been passionate about art and literature, he didn’t feel fully satisfied during his two years there.
For those of us who are always chasing the latest trends in Japanese and American popular culture, it may be hard to imagine that Taiwan’s journalism, culture, and various forms of entertainment have long enjoyed tremendous popularity among ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. “Taiwan’s literature, films, and popular songs had a huge impact on us,” Woo says.
At that time, Woo was inspired by fellow Malaysian writers such as Chan Tahwei, Chong Yeevoon, and Ng Kimchew, who were just two or three years older than he was. They all came to Taiwan to study, and went on to win literary awards and publish their books here. This seemed to be a preordained career path. In order to create a better future and to move one step closer to his literary dreams, he too decided to come to Taiwan.
Southbound
Woo has spent a long time on this island, but for him, settling here has not been a process of wholesale transplantation. Being a Chinese-Malaysian means that his imagination has been nourished in a different creative soil, and he has the support of an established literary network.
Throughout his time at Rye Field, Linking, and China Times, Woo’s passion for literature has led him to focus on publishing creative writing and literary criticism. His publishing agenda has had much to do with Chinese-Malaysian writers in Taiwan. Chan Tahwei, Chong Yeevoon, Ng Kimchew, Chang Kueihsing, Li Zishu, and Ko Chiacian have all collaborated with Woo.
Hailing from Southeast Asia, Woo feels an obligation to promote understanding of Southeast-Asian cultures in Taiwan. In 2014, as Linking’s editor-in-chief, he brought out the Chinese translation of Joel Brinkley’s Cambodia’s Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land, pioneering the discussion of Southeast-Asian issues prior to the inauguration of the Taiwanese government’s New Southbound Policy. The enormous popularity of this book also reflected the scarcity of Southeast-Asia-related publications in Taiwan. Subsequently Woo devoted a new book series to humanities and social sciences titles exploring Southeast Asia. Many of these books have become long-term bestsellers.
A global perspective
Like many Chinese-Malaysian singers who started out in Taiwan and then became popular in their native country, quite a few Chinese-Malaysian writers have followed the same route, gaining a readership in Malaysia only after being published in Taiwan. But the real picture is more complex. “In addition to Malaysia, our books are being sold in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, and even mainland China. Some have even been translated and introduced into the West.” Woo concludes: “Taiwan is an important gateway to the global market.”
As Woo’s words suggest, Taiwan’s uninhibited publishing industry—and its cultural stature in the Chinese-speaking world—have long attracted countless ethnic Chinese writers from overseas who seek to have their say here. In addition to Woo, there are many other long-serving publishing professionals in Taiwan who come from abroad. Some have even invested in establishing publishing companies themselves. This tells us that even in a clickbait-driven digital world, Taiwan still occupies a crucial place in Chinese-language publishing.
For more pictures, please click 《A Font of History and Memory Springs Back to Life—The Return of Taichung’s Central Bookstore》
