Ep 197 | Ed Lin: Winner of Three Asian American Literary Awards Talks About his New Book "Death Doesn't Forget"

Jul 19, 2022

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A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Ed Lin is a native New Yorker of Taiwanese and Chinese descent. He is the first writer to win three Asian American Literary Awards. The last time we had Ed on Talking Taiwan (in 2014) we spoke about “Ghost Month” his first book in the Taipei Night Market Series of mysteries. Since then, he’s written a YA novel and now four books in the Taipei Night Market Series. "Death Doesn't Forget," Is the latest book in the series and it will be published in July.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by NATWA, the North America Taiwanese Women's Association.

NATWA was founded in 1988, and its mission is:

to evoke a sense of self-esteem and enhance women's dignity,
to oppose gender discrimination and promote gender equality,
to fully develop women's potential and encourage their participation in public affairs,
to contribute to the advancement of human rights and democratic development in Taiwan,
to reach out and work with women's organizations worldwide to promote peace for all.

To learn more about NATWA visit their website: www.natwa.com

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

Ed Lin’s Taipei Mysteries books series and how he went about planning and writing them
The main character of Ed Lin’s Taipei Mysteries book series, Jing-Nan and how he’s evolved
The premise and what inspired Ed to write Death Doesn’t Forget
How the indigenous tribe that Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei is named after is not officially recognized as a tribe in Taiwan
The lack of representation of indigenous people in Taiwan’s government
The way Ed has described Taipei in his novel
The neighborhood of Guangzhou Street west of Longshan Temple and why he described it as seedy
The training center located near Longshan Temple in Taipei for aborigine people and why the program was unsuccessful
The inconsistent romanization of streets in Taipei
How the stops on Taiwan’s MRT system are announced in four languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese (Holo), Hakka and English
How safe Taipei and Taiwan is
The role of organized crime, good and bad in Taiwan’s society
How the population of Taiwan is not monoethnic as some would assume
Taiwan’s new immigrants from Southeast Asia
The plight of Taiwan’s migrant workers
The “island mentality” of Taiwan that Ed describes as people’s kindness and helpfulness
Ed’s interactions with complete strangers and gangsters in Taiwan
How the characters in Death Doesn’t Forget represent different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds
How Taiwan’s White Terror era has affected the people of Taiwan and its lasting trauma
Some of the intriguing characters of Death Doesn’t Forget
The abuse of migrant fishermen and migrant workers in Taiwan and Ed’s interest in writing about it
The “orphan brigade” of Death Doesn’t Forget and Taiwanese baseball teams from the Japanese occupation period (similar to what was portrayed in the film Kano)
How Japan used baseball as a form of soft power in its colonies
How Taiwan’s Little League baseball team is a form of its soft power
Green Island and how one of the characters of Death Doesn’t Forget in spent time at the prison there
Why murder is the crime featured in many of Ed’s novels
Ed’s observations and thoughts on the intermingling of religions in Taiwan
How Ed would immerse himself in the time period of 1976 when writing his Chinatown Mysteries series
Ed’s thoughts on how the war in Ukraine may or may not be giving China ideas about attacking Taiwan
Ed’s approach to his book readings
How/why the narration of Death Doesn’t Forget was switched to third person, instead of first person for all of the other novels in the Taipei Mysteries series
How the writing James T. Farrell, Irish-American author of the Studs Lonigan trilogy and Danny O'Neill pentology, inspired Ed to write Death Doesn’t Forget in third person
Ed’s foray into YA (young adult) novel writing with David Tung Can’t Have A Girlfriend Until He Gets Into An Ivy League College
How Ed came up with the title Death Doesn’t Forget