In Conversation with The Membranes Author Chi Tai-Wei

Taiwanese Bookshelves' surprising pop-up events this December as the final chapter for this year. With THE MEMBRANES, author Chi Tai-Wei joins in Sydney Level 1 The Bookshop Darlinghurst on 10 Dec, with moderator Benson Wu. 

THE MEMBRANES author Chi Tai-Wei

​《膜》作者紀大偉

Ta-Wei first published THE MEMBRANES in 1996, queer science fiction set in the twenty-first-century futuristic city (it was very futuristic 26 years ago). The short novel has been translated into seven languages and is currently being translated into Spanish. 

Ta-Wei (he/him/his) is also an associate professor in Taiwanese Literature at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His monograph in Chinese discusses LGBT and literature in Taiwanese history from the 1960s to the new millennium. The monograph is currently being translated into Korean, Japanese, and English.

"Chi's novel is rich in its exploration of queerness, gender fluidity, identity politics, memory, the digitalisation and mediation of reality, and the act of reading. The Membranes rewards repeated reading, growing increasingly poignant as it builds toward its startling – and haunting – conclusion." by Declan Fry, ABC. 

紀大偉，國立政治大學台灣文學研究所副教授。著有學術專書《同志文學史》（日文版正在翻譯中），科幻小說《膜》（已有韓文版，日文版，法文版，英文版，義大利文版，丹麥文版，以及芬蘭文版。西班牙文版正在翻譯中。

《膜》是一本中篇科幻酷兒小說，曾得到第十七屆聯合報文學獎中篇小說的首獎。中文約在1996年出版，英譯本於2021年出版，時光消逝卻未將故事發生在21世紀的《膜》過時，主題以生化人的視角出發，旨在探討性別與慾望的流動與多樣性。

「在愉悅的閱讀情緒中不知不覺地被作者狠狠地在胸口刺上一刀，是近年來少有的閱讀經驗。我想，這是個人希望〈膜〉能得獎，能被多數人閱讀的主要原因。」— 吳念真

「紀老師的小說豐富的探索著對於酷兒、性別、身份、記憶、科技與現實等議題。從淒美的劇情到驚人的轉折，最後配上難以忘懷的結局。《膜》絕對值得一讀再讀，」Declan Fry，ABC。