Introducing Taiwan Chinese Contemporary Short Stories in Poland: Cultural Contexts, Fields of Representation and Equivalence

This paper investigates basic issues related to the translation of Taiwanese literature in Poland. Assuming the Juliane House’s definitions that translation is “a cognitive procedure and a social, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural practice”, I discuss this matter theoretically and practically on three major levels pertaining to literature and communication between both languages and cultures. According to the system approach, the model is divided into: 1) Source/Taiwan literature; 2) Target/Polish reader; 3) Mediation/Translator and is imbued with reflection on representation, cultural and political context and equivalence in translation’s polysystem. In the practical dimension the analysis refers to a particular case, which is the preparation of the first Polish translation of Taiwanese Contemporary Short Stories. This article also reveals the decision-making process concerning the most representative selection of different genres, periods, stylistics, authors and messages. The anthology of contemporary Taiwanese short stories[1] debated here is being compiled from the perspective of translators, who are Sinologists teaching at the University of Warsaw. In line with the concepts of anthology theoreticians, this kind of academic edition with references and critical comment supports the Polish reader in the process of correct decoding of the text and many contexts of Taiwanese literature. [1] In Polish: Na drugim brzegu. Antologia współczesnych opowiadań tajwańskich, red. Lidia Kasarełło, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 2020 [On the Other Shore: Anthology of Contemporary Taiwanese Short Stories, ed. Lidia Kasarełło, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 2020].

China will not prevent Western support for Taiwan

Headline TAIWAN: Chinese pressure will not stop Western support

China's threat to Taiwan is real but not imminent

Headline TAIWAN: Chinese threat is real but not imminent

Intracultural differences in dining behavior and preferences among Hong Kong and Taiwan tourists

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the perceptions by owners and staff working in causal full-service restaurants in Macao of their two major subcultures of customers: Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwan Chinese in terms of their dining behavior and preferences. Design/methodology/approach Face-to-face interviews with 36 service staff of casual dining restaurants in Macao were conducted through the purposive convenience sampling method. Thematic content analysis was conducted in the data analysis. Findings The results reveal that although the customers from the two Chinese subcultures have a similar appearance, use the same Chinese characters and share common cultural inheritances; their dining behavior and preferences are perceived as being different. Practical implications Practical implications are given on how to better design the products and services to meet each subgroup’s needs for enhancing customers’ experience and service quality in restaurant settings. Originality/value This study focuses on examining if there are any sub-cultural differences in food behaviors and preferences among Hong Kong and Taiwan visitors, who are the major tourist sources in the world market. It contributes to the scarce literature on intracultural dining variances of sub-groups within Chinese.

WeChat, we sell, we feel: Chinese women’s emotional petit capitalism

Through multi-situated and virtual ethnography, this article investigates the link between mobilities, subalternity, emotions and digital economies. Drawing on the case study of Chinese migrant women’s digital labour and e-commerce in Taiwan, it elucidates the social and emotional construction of translocal virtual markets, which connect online and offline the different temporalities, spatialities and emotions of women’s mobilities. In Taiwan, Chinese migrants contest a local condition of social, economic and cultural subalternity by exploring physical and digital, material and emotional markets. Setting sail through local consumption and translocal logistics, through the online application WeChat an emotional petit capitalism is socially and emotionally produced within women’s daily microcosmos of experiences and practices.