A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader: A Conversation with Ian Rowen, Ti-han Chang, and Darryl Sterk

A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader showcases cutting-edge works on ecological themes by essential and emerging Taiwanese authors, revealing the vitality of their engagements with environmental crises. Taiwan is a biodiversity hotspot and geopolitical flashpoint, home to both Indigenous peoples and settlers. The pieces collected in A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader give voice to this human and more-than-human diversity, telling tales that are disturbing yet hopeful, serious yet sensuous, speculative yet grounded, down to earth yet spanning the seas. They span Indigenous eco-writing, oceanic hybrid narratives, ecological sci-fi, and speculative Indigenous fiction. Together, these stories navigate the landscapes of Taiwanese ecoliterature, illuminating its past and pointing toward its future.

Join us for a conversation with the co-editors of the volume, to discuss the book and more broadly ecological and indigenous writing, and eco-translation in contemporary Asian contexts.

Ian Rowen is Associate Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study of Kyushu University and author of One China, Many Taiwans: The Geopolitics of Cross-Strait Tourism, published by Cornell University Press.

Ti-han Chang is a Senior Teaching Fellow and the deputy director of the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her books include Reorienting Taiwan: Ocean, Selfhood, and the Pacific (2025).

Darryl Sterk is an Associate Professor of Translation at Lingnan University. He has translated works by a number of Taiwanese writers, including Syaman Rapongan’s Eyes of the Ocean (Columbia, 2025).