Moscow this morning.
I was thinking about something: as a result of the severe socio-economic consequences of this catastrophically failed war against Ukraine, Russia is facing a long and painful economic decline, social upheaval, massive disorganization, a huge rise in organized crime, and the shock of defeat -- the new 1990s after the collapse of the USSR.
And the most "amusing" part is that when the reckoning for this barbaric invasion of Ukraine finally comes, and the consequences of their deranged fascist regime in the Kremlin become apparent, Russians will once again be sighing and saying how good life was "under Putin" and how everything needs to be put back the way it was.
Deeply moved by the simple elegance of this acceptance speech from Lin King, translator of Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s TAIWAN TRAVELOGUE—which just won the Booker Prize. Her words deserve to be heard widely:
“In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, I made the explicit decision that, rather than translating Sinophone works indiscriminately, I would only translate writing from Taiwan for the foreseeable future. I will continue to do so, I told myself, until the day comes that my homeland’s sovereignty is no longer a provocation or a punchline. Until no English speaker feels comfortable saying to me, glibly, ‘I really should come visit you in Taiwan while it still exists’.”
#Taiwan #TaiwanTravelogue #BookerPrize
Video from Threads/trista__bear: https://t.co/0R6nDayt24