TAIPEI — Taiwan’s internationally acclaimed novel Taiwan Travelogue is heading for the screen, with the award-winning work being developed as a television series through a Taiwan-Japan co-production.

The adaptation comes at a moment of extraordinary international attention for the novel by Taiwanese writer Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子), which became the first Taiwanese work to win the International Booker Prize in 2026.

Taiwanese producer Chang Chen-yu (張辰漁) said his company, World Softest Production Film Co., obtained the screen-adaptation rights after Japanese partners and colleagues recommended the novel.

From literary sensation to television

First published in 2020, Taiwan Travelogue is set in 1938 Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule.

The story follows a Japanese female writer and a Taiwanese female interpreter as they travel around Taiwan by railway. What begins as a journey involving food, landscapes and cultural encounters develops into a much deeper exploration of language, identity, gender, colonial power and the complicated relationship between two women from very different positions within society.

Chang has described the relationship between the two protagonists as more complicated than a conventional romance. Their interactions also reflect the unequal relationship between colonizer and colonized, particularly through repeated acts of translation and misunderstanding.

That combination of history, travel and human relationships is now being reworked for television.

A Taiwan-Japan production with international ambitions

The project is being developed as a Taiwan-Japan collaboration, a partnership that producers say fits the novel’s multilingual setting and historical background.

Japanese producer Sachiko Maehata is attached to the project, while screenwriter Erika Yoshida, known for work including the NHK morning drama Tiger with Wings, is handling the script. Focus Taiwan’s Japanese-language report said the adaptation was already in the script-development stage.

Taiwan’s official creative-content database lists the series as a historical, women’s and romance project, with an intended format of six to 10 episodes, each running approximately 30 to 60 minutes. The project is still listed as unreleased and in development.

International industry coverage has also reported plans for filming in Taiwan and Japan, with a target release in the fourth quarter of 2027. That timetable should be treated as a planned target rather than a confirmed release date, because production schedules can change.

Why the Booker Prize win changed everything

The television adaptation arrives just after Taiwan Travelogue reached a historic literary milestone.

The English-language edition, translated by Lin King (金翎), won the 2026 International Booker Prize, making it the first Taiwanese literary work to receive the prestigious award.

The recognition dramatically expanded international interest in the book and its author.

CNA has reported that the novel’s rights have been sold in numerous overseas markets, with multiple translated editions appearing around the world. The English edition has also attracted attention for its unusual narrative structure and its portrayal of colonial-era Taiwan.

That international momentum makes a television adaptation particularly significant.

Instead of reaching readers one country at a time, a successful series could introduce the story—and its vision of 1930s Taiwan—to a much larger global audience.

More than a historical travel story

Despite its title, Taiwan Travelogue is not simply a picturesque journey through old Taiwan.

Food and railway travel are central to the narrative, but they also become ways of examining cultural power.

The two protagonists experience Taiwan differently because of their positions within colonial society. Language becomes especially important: translation can bring people closer together, but it can also expose misunderstandings, unequal power and assumptions about one another.

Chang has emphasized this layered quality, describing the story as a meeting point between travel, food, language and the complicated relationship between people on opposite sides of a colonial hierarchy.

That complexity could make the television version especially ambitious.

The story is already expanding beyond television

The screen adaptation is not the only project being developed around Taiwan Travelogue.

Focus Taiwan reported that the novel is also being developed into other forms, including a manga adaptation and a musical.

The manga is being created by award-winning Taiwanese manga artist Monday Recover, with serialization expected to begin as early as the end of 2026. A musical produced by musician Wang Hsi-wen (王希文) is planned for the second half of 2027.

That expansion demonstrates how the Booker Prize victory has transformed the novel from a successful literary work into a broader intellectual-property project with potential across multiple forms of entertainment.

Why the adaptation matters for Taiwan

For the production team, the project is also an opportunity to present Taiwan’s history and culture to international audiences through a story created from a distinctly Taiwanese perspective.

Taipei Times reported that Chang’s company had been searching for projects with international appeal while retaining a strong Taiwanese identity. After reading Taiwan Travelogue, he decided to pursue the screen rights.

That approach could give the series an advantage in an increasingly international television market: rather than presenting Taiwan simply as a backdrop, the production puts Taiwanese history, language and cultural experience at the center of the story.

What remains unknown

Despite the growing attention, several major details have yet to be finalized publicly.

No full cast has been officially announced, and the final release date remains unconfirmed. Production details, including the final distribution platform and budget, have also not been fully disclosed. Taiwan News described the project as being in its early development stage.

Those details will likely become clearer as the project moves from script development into production.

The bigger picture

Taiwan Travelogue has already traveled an extraordinary distance—from a 2020 Taiwanese novel to a U.S. National Book Award-winning translated work, then to the first Taiwanese winner of the International Booker Prize, and now toward an international television adaptation.

The television version could become the next major chapter in that journey.

And if the producers succeed in preserving the novel’s combination of Taiwanese history, food, railway travel, language, cultural identity and complicated human relationships, audiences may discover that Taiwan Travelogue is much more than a story about two women traveling through 1930s Taiwan.

It is a story about what happens when two people try to understand each other across boundaries of language, culture and power—a theme that may prove just as relevant to international viewers today as it was to the characters nearly 90 years ago.

WWC ONE MEDIA G.A