China market turns frosty for Taiwan books, as tensions rise

These days, just being an author from Taiwan could dash your chances of getting a book published in China

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese author Iris Chiang hardly seems like the type whose work would be banned from publication in China. Yet four years after being sold to a Chinese publisher, her book teaching children how to appreciate art has yet to go to press, a victim of heightened tensions between China and Taiwan that are spilling over into the cultural sphere. It’s not just about losing access to the huge Chinese market, authors and publishers say. It’s also about losing opportunities to exchange and connect, after three decades of growing contact between the two. In recent years, China has cut the flow of Chinese tourists and students to Taiwan and blocked its artists from taking part in Taiwan’s Golden Rooster and Golden Melody awards, regarded as the Oscars and Grammys for Chinese-language movies and music. “It feels like in these few years, the flow of exchange is diverging. Taiwan is going further in one direction and China is going farther in one direction,” said James Chao, head of the China Times Publishing group, one of the largest publishers in Taiwan. “It’s getting farther and farther apart.” China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off China’s east coast, as its territory. The election of Tsai Ing-wen, who favors Taiwan’s current de facto independence, as the island’s president in 2016 ushered in a period of deteriorating relations. China has tried to isolate the island diplomatically and pressure it militarily.