Tainan: A key figure behind Taiwan-Vietnam literary exchanges said Saturday he hopes mutual understanding can be strengthened through "people-to-people diplomacy," as Taiwan marked the March 14 Taiwanese Poetry Day with an event promoting literary dialogue. Taiwanese Poetry Day was established to commemorate the death of Ong Iok-lim, a Tainan-born poet and prosecutor who was killed during the 228 Incident of 1947. This year's event was held alongside the Taiwan-Vietnam Literary Festival at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan. The gathering brought together more than a dozen Taiwanese writers and five Vietnamese scholars to discuss Taiwan's history and culture and featured poetry readings in Taiwanese Hokkien and Vietnamese.
According to Focus Taiwan, Chiung Wi-vun, director of the Center for Vietnamese Studies at NCKU, stated in a phone interview that such interactions help foster closer ties beyond official channels. Nongovernmental diplomacy is essential because official exchanges often face pressure from China, while civil-level cultural activities allow participants to speak about Taiwan more freely. Chiung mentioned that he helped establish the Association for Taiwanese and Vietnamese Cultural Exchange in 2009 after observing that exchanges between the two sides largely focused on trade, with limited opportunities for deeper cultural engagement.
Since then, writers, scholars, and students have taken part in visits, seminars, and workshops, while native Taiwanese works have been translated into Vietnamese, and modern Vietnamese literature has been rendered into Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien. The exchanges have also drawn attention in Vietnam. Chiung noted that poet Trn ang Khoa has written about his experiences in Taiwan, helping introduce the island to a wider Vietnamese audience.
Among the visiting writers at this year's event was Kiu Bch Hu of the Vietnam Writers' Association. She said learning about Taiwan's White Terror period-an era of political repression from 1949 to 1992-resonated with Vietnam's own colonial history. After hearing about poet Lin Tsung-yuan, who insisted on writing in Taiwanese Hokkien despite restrictions during the authoritarian era, Kiu said she wrote a poem titled "White Terror" in tribute. She told CNA that while she previously knew Taiwan mainly as a travel destination, literary exchanges had helped her better understand the island's history and its people's pursuit of democracy and freedom.