Following the success of her spring tour along the East Coast, Jenna Tang, the translator of the Taiwanese novel Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise (房思琪的初戀樂園), is preparing for another extensive tour from September to November. This tour will feature over 16 events across the U.S., spanning states including New York, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, California, Minnesota, Illinois, and Vermont.
Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise is a pivotal work in Taiwan’s #MeToo movement. First published in Taiwan in 2017, the novel was the debut and sole work of author Lin Yi-Han. Its English translation, exquisitely rendered by Jenna Tang, was published in the U.S. by HarperVia in May 2024.
The novel is a chilling tale of grooming, lingering trauma, and the power dynamics that enable such abuse. Deeply insightful and emotionally raw, it is a staggering work of literature that reverberates across cultures and forces readers to confront painful truths about the vulnerability and strength of women and those who use and hurt them.
Jenna Tang expressed her hope that the translation and accompanying book tours will help international readers connect with the emotional journey of trauma survivors. She also aims to bring renewed attention to the Mandarin edition, highlighting the novel’s critical themes.
This fall, Jenna Tang, in collaboration with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Taiwan Academy in Houston, and Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles, will be giving talks at 14 universities, including Rochester Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Florida International University, Trinity University, UT Austin, University of Houston, University of St. Thomas, UC Riverside, Chapman University, UC Santa Barbara, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and Middlebury College. In addition, there will be two bookstore events at Books & Books in Miami and Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis, which are free and open to the public.
FANG SI-CHI’S FIRST LOVE PARADISE:
Fall Book Tour with Translator Jenna Tang (in English)
【California】University of California, Riverside, Monday, 10/21
【California】Chapman University, Tuesday, 10/22
【California】University of California, Santa Barbara, Wednesday, 10/23
About Translator Jenna Tang
Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer, educator and translator who translates between Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French and English. She is a board member and chair of the Equity Advocates Committee at the American Literary Translators Association. Her translations and essays are published in McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, The Paris Review, Latin American Literature Today, World Literature Today, Catapult, AAWW, Words Without Borders and elsewhere. Her translations include Taiwanese feminist author Lin Yi-Han’s novel, Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise (HarperVia).
About Author Lin Yi-Han
Lin Yi-Han (1991–2017) was a Taiwanese writer. Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise was her first and only novel. It sold over a million copies globally, won prizes, including the Open Book Best Fiction Award and the Liang Yu-Sen Literary Award, and became a feminist manifesto across Asia. Lin Yi-Han also wrote for INK magazine and BuzzFeed.
About Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise
The most influential book of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement—a heartbreaking account of sexual violence and a remarkable reinvention of the trauma plot, turning the traditional Lolita narrative upside down as it explores women’s vulnerability, victimization, and the lengths they will go to survive.
Thirteen-year-old Fang Si-Chi lives with her family in an upscale apartment complex in Taiwan, a tightknit community of strict yet doting parents and privileged children raised to be ambitious, dutiful, and virtuous. She and her neighbor Liu Yi-Ting bond over their love of learning and books, devouring classic works—Proust, Gabriel García Márquez, the very best Chinese writers. Yet, it is their lack of real-world education that makes them true kindred spirits.
Si-Chi’s innocence is irresistible to Lee Guo-hua, a revered cram literature teacher and serial predator who lives in her building. When he offers to tutor the academic-minded girls for free, their parents—unaware of Lee’s true nature—happily accept. While Yi-Ting’s studies with Lee are straightforward, Si-Chi learns about things no one teaches them in school—lessons about sex and love that will change the course of her life. Confused and uncertain, Si-Chi turns to her beloved books for guidance. But literature tells her nothing honest about rape or how to cope with the trauma of abuse. For her own salvation, the young girl begins to think of her personal hell as her “first love paradise,” where the power of love, no matter how twisted, gives her the strength to survive.