Arts and culture
Taiwanese Literature in a Global Context: Diaspora, Memory, and the Search for Identity
- Akira Higashiyama, Wu Ming-Yi and Florian Schneider
- Date
- Thursday 25 June 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Anna van Buerenplein
Anna van Buerenplein 301
2595 DG The Hague - Room
- Auditorium
Join us for an inspiring literary and cultural event featuring award-winning authors Akira Higashiyama and Wu Ming-Yi in conversation on Taiwanese literature in a global context.
Organised by Leiden University, the Leiden Asia Centre, and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), this event is supported by the Spotlight Taiwan Project of Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture.
The event explores how literature travels across languages, borders, and cultures, and how stories shape our understanding of memory, migration, ecology, identity, and belonging in a global world.
Together, the two authors will reflect on their literary journeys and discuss how stories can transcend borders, connect different histories, and open new ways of thinking about identity and belonging.
The programme will include authors’ reflections, a panel discussion, audience Q&A, and a reception.
Registration
For more information and registration, visit the Leiden Asia Centre Website:
Register hereAbout the speakers
Akira Higashiyama
Akira Higashiyama, born in Taipei and writing in Japanese, is the author of Ryu, a novel set in Taiwan in the 1970s. The novel won Japan’s prestigious Naoki Prize in 2015 and has recently appeared in English translation as Ryu: Live, Love, Die in the Shadow of the Dragon.
Wu Ming-Yi
Wu Ming-Yi is one of Taiwan’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary writers. His novel The Stolen Bicycle was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018, and his fiction is widely known for its engagement with memory, history, ecology, human–nonhuman relations, and Taiwan’s changing landscapes.
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider (moderator) is Professor of Modern China and Academic Director of the Leiden Asia Centre. He specialises in political communication and digital media in the PRC, with his book Digital Nationalism in China (OUP, 2018) analysing online constructions of Sino-Japanese history. His broader work addresses Chinese foreign policy, governance and soft power, as well as political messaging in popular culture. He also serves as Managing Editor of Asiascape: Digital Asia.