RF Kuang's new novel Taipei Story is now available in bookstores, Condé Nast Traveller reported. The book follows Chinese-American college freshman Lily Chen, who leaves New Haven, Connecticut, for an intensive Mandarin-language programme in Taipei for the summer.
According to the publisher's description, Lily believes that perfecting her Mandarin will reconcile the shortcomings of being a diaspora kid. Travelling to Taiwan did not require her to apply for a visa. But she finds that the gulf between her and her complicated family history will not simply mend through diligent study.
Kuang told Condé Nast Traveller that the first place she looked for research was personal experience. She said she was in an intensive language programme in Taiwan when her Gong Gong passed away, and she was trying to make legible a tough time in her life. She described wandering aimlessly around Taipei and following crowds into places to see what they were seeing.
The novel's plot includes the seasonally inappropriate hot springs of Beitou and the souvenir halls of Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. The sudden passing of Lily's grandfather renders her initial motivation to study Mandarin moot.
Kuang said she is fascinated with fantasies of homecoming and the narratives people buy into about how certain cultural experiences can return them to the fold. She said that in Lily's case, the promises of heritage speaker-study abroad programmes hold much meaning, but that every step of the premise – that a Chinese-American could go to Taiwan to study Mandarin to feel closer to family on the mainland – is crazy, because Lily's family has never been to Taiwan.
Kuang said that feeling out of place is generative because she has felt like an outsider culturally for most of her life. She said the ethical argument the book makes is that embarrassment is really good for you.