Title: Home of Raifuku (Raifuku no Ie)
Author: Wen, You-Rou (溫又柔)

Original Language: Japanese
Read in: Translated Chinese
Originally Published: 2009 

This book is written with 4 languages. Enjoy the book cover to take it in visually 🙂

The cover art demonstrates the same sentence is written in the 4 languages that the author grew up with: Japanese, Mainland China Mandarin Chinese, Traditional Mandarin Chinese, and Taiwanese.

It also shows the elements of the flags and symbols these languages originate from: the blue and red, circle and rectangle of Taiwanese and Japanese flags.

Credits to ACST Design for such beautiful cover design.

 

Growing up with mixed identity and multiple languages is not a new topic.

It is always intriguing, and more and more of us feel the same way. We could always use some more compassion from others, as well as some laughs.

As a writer, “What language am I supposed to be writing in?” is becoming more and more of a theme for me as well. There are certain pieces I want to distribute in Chinese. There are certain I think would be fun in English as well. There are certain Chinese pieces I want my English-speaking friends to know about. It’s the back and forth of living in different languages that I want to put into words that could be companions in our daily lives.

Home of Raifuku is such a companion, although one that would be hard to translate into English.

On the same vein, I am also reading Speak Sunlight, a memoir of an American remembering his boyhood in an affluent Paris household and Spanish servants.