Participating authors at the Taiwan pavilion’s opening at Seoul International Book Fair. Image: TAICCA
By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox
A Growing Connection Between Taiwan and South Korea
From June 18 to 22, a reported 150,000+ people attended this year’s sold-out Seoul International Book Fair, which Publishing Perspectives previewed here.
At the heart of this year’s book fair was Taiwan as the guest of honor country, sponsored by the Taiwan ministry of culture, organized by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), and executed by the Taipei Book Fair Foundation. The Taiwan pavilion and the program—which featured 85 publishers, more than 550 books, and 23 Taiwan authors—represented six themes of “Taiwan Sensibility,” showcasing the country’s rich, complex identity.
The selection of Taiwan as this year’s guest of honor highlights a growing connection between these two countries. According to a 2023 publishing industry survey conducted by TAICCA, the Korean market accounted for 11.54 percent of the revenue generated from Taiwan’s book rights sales abroad.
In addition, the third most-searched keyword at the National Library of Korea was Taiwan and the fourth was Ghost Town, a novel by internationally renowned Taiwan writer Kevin Chen, published in Korean in January of 2024.
Socially Relevant Themes
Kickoff at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Seoul International Book Fair. Image: TAICCA
The success of Taiwan’s film and television drama has also fueled Korean audiences’ growing interest in Taiwan culture with the popularity of the novels and films of Giddens Ko, whose blockbuster film Kung Fu is to be released in February, bolstered by the popularity of actor Greg Hsu for his roles in the television series Have You Ever Fallen in Love, Miss Jiang? and Someday or One Day.
Taiwan’s literature addresses diverse, socially relevant themes that are of interest to South Korean readers. Those themes include LGBTQIA+ issues, women’s writing, campus incidents, historical memory, and human rights, many elements of which are increasingly relevant and important to younger Korean readers who see parallels in their own lives.
As freelance journalist Wu Pei Ju notes in an article at K-Book Trends—Suffering and Romance: Two Things Korea and Taiwan Share—“Low income, high prices, and a severe gap between the rich and poor are problems shared by the MZ generation in Korea and Taiwan.” This, perhaps, is why there were such huge crowds at the book fair in their 20s and 30s.
That buzz is also backed by industry momentum. Recently, prominent Korean publishers including Minumsa and Geulhangari have released a wave of titles from Taiwan, signaling a noticeable shift in the market.
In February, Littor, the literary magazine published by Minumsa, dedicated a special issue to the theme “Taiwanese Novels Are on the Rise,” highlighting the richness, diversity, and growing relevance of Taiwan’s literature for Korean readers.
An Expansion in Rights Trade
Fans line up for a talk at the Taiwan pavilion. Image: TAICCA
Building on this momentum, the guest of honor success included more than 550 rights meetings conducted during the fair.
Taiwan’s rights trade in general has expanded over the years, with increasing deals in multiple languages.
Recent successes include A Perfect Day to Put Your Head in the Oven by Li Chia-ying, which was the winner of the 2025 Taipei Book Fair Award and was acquired by Doubleday in the United Kingdom in March; and Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, published by Graywolf Press in the United States in 2024 and the winner of the US National Book Awards for translated literature, both with Korean rights already sold.
Programming Highlights
Authors Chen Xue and Kevin Chen onstage with moderator Roh Yuda, co-CEO of Oomzicc Publisher. Image: TAICCA
The guest of honor program featured more than 60 talks, events, and workshops on the fair’s main stage and in the Taiwan pavilion. These were packed with hundreds of attendees.
Kevin Chen, who attended the book fair for the first time last year, returned again this year as part of the guest of honor delegation. His event with novelist and short-story writer Chen Xue at the “Book Salon,” the fair’s largest stage, drew a crowd of approximately 200 attendees. They were greeted with warm applause and cheers from the audience—an emotional moment that spoke volumes about their impact to these Korean readers.
Both authors are icons of queer literature, well-known not only in their native Taiwan, in Korea and many parts of the world, their work being translated into a number of languages. Following his recent tour across Germany promoting the new German edition of Ghost Town, Kevin Chen is to attend Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19) later this year.
More talks at the Taiwan pavilion featured authors with notable Korean-translated titles, including Wu Ming-Yi; Wu Xiaole; Huang Yi-Wen; and Lin Lian-En. These events also had strong audience engagement and good attendance. Writers who participated said they could feel the excitement for their events and shared in the celebratory mood. On X, formerly known as Twitter, Kevin Chen shared photos from the book fair, highlighting his “Splendid Memories in Seoul” (see below).
Attendees from other international delegations who had participated in previous editions noted that the Taiwan pavilion’s stage and scale of programming surpassed those of past guest of honor countries. This occasion brought together approximately 300 publishing professionals from Taiwan, underscoring the strong ties between the two countries’ industries and the deeper, lasting connection with Korean readers.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Taiwan’s book publishing industry is here; more on the South Korean market is here; more on guest of honor programs at various fairs and trade shows is here, and more from us on international book fairs, trade shows, festivals, conferences, and other events is here.