Huang, Yi-Ying
Huang, Yi-Ying, received training in journalism and anthropology. She has worked as a journalist, NGO employee, and researcher. She won prizes of Cross-Strait Exchange Documentary Literature Awards, Hsing Yun Award for Global Chinese Literature, Open Book Award, Zhong Zhao-Zheng Literature Award, TIBE Book Prize, and Taiwan Literature Golden Award. She has published Tristes Frontieres, Intervening Bystanders, and Daily Interruption and co-authored Magazine Beyond Their Time and Invisible Beijing (Provisional translation.). She keeps writing in media platforms such as udn Global and udn Opinion.
- Location USA / Vermont
- Year of the Grant 2017
- Residency Vermont Studio Center
Residency Outcome：
1. Creation
Vermont is a small town located in the northern United States. During my residency, I mainly completed a writing project about an Asian disaster. Escaping from mundane affairs, I could focus on polishing my first two chapters here. Meanwhile, I got the opportunity to speak with artists of different professions and obtain great ideas. For example, I talked with an artist who had participated in city reconstruction after a hurricane hit. We discussed the questions of disaster response to climate change.
2. Public talk/ reading
Writers present a public talk/ reading three times a month. I read the first chapter of my old book Tristes Frontieres. It was my personal story that I crossed the China–Vietnam border. Because I was an extremely rare non-fiction writer, and because I picked a topic about Asia, this was new to other artists. Tristes Frontieres was about ‘identity.’ I started with Taiwan's situation, and I hoped to emphasize the common and mutual understanding regardless of gender, nationality, and region. It also resonated with everyone, and the audience expected to have an English version to read in the future.
3. Cross-disciplinary cooperation
I worked with a Chinese artist by writing my sentences from my books on his painting and co-curated to have an exhibition of the theme ‘Blue.’ Blue reminded us of river, sea, space, and time. I exploited a poem to present time and space. I adopted Su Shi's (who was a poet, politician, and writer of the Song Dynasty) The Former Ode on Red Cliff as my statement and then wrote down my creation concept. The Chinese artist followed my words to create an installation.
Vermont Studio Center is away from the city. I not only had the chance to stay alone but also exchange ideas with other sixty artists. During the residency, I had made significant progress in my writing. It also satisfied my curiosity and desire as a journalist to listen to other people's stories.