Book Review: Dear Ak’i, Please Don’t Be Upset

C. J. Anderson-Wu reviews Faisu Mukunana‘s memoir Dear Ak’i, Please Don’t Be Upset translated by Yao-Chung Tsao and calls it a treasure.

• Author: Faisu Mukunana(Taiwan)
• Translator: Yao-Chung Tsao
• Editor: Cort Smith
• Genre: Memoir, Essays
• Publisher: Serenity International
• ISBN: 9789866245053
• Date: Mar 2021

Faisu Mukunana started her writing career quite late, but once she started, she became really good at it. Born in 1942, three years before the Japanese colonialist government retreated from Taiwan after its defeat in WWII, Faisu Mukunana’s mother tongue was the indigenous Tsou language, and her second language was Japanese that her parents used on formal occasions. Later she struggled to learn Chinese in school and was punished for slipping out her own languages from time to time. Today, Faisu Mukunana is an acclaimed writer who publishes in the Chinese language. Throughout her writing, Faisu Mukunana keeps raising a question: What does the word “nation” mean to indigenous people?