Sugar and Salt Literary Award—The Literary Flavors of Tainan

"Sugar" and "salt" have been daily necessities since ancient times. The sugar production and salt-drying industries in the Tainan area have played a pivotal role in Taiwan's development history for over 400 years. Salt mounds and sugarcane fields, vast lands and the alleys of Fu-cheng (府城), carry Tainan's historical changes and local memories, transforming into the literary landscapes of writers and poets. Between salty and sweet, they are all blending agents for the myriad flavors of life. This exhibition selects excerpts from 32 writers, including writings by locals from Tainan and close observations by travelers from elsewhere. Using the all-too-familiar sugar and salt from everyday scenes, the writers distill inner sweetness, bitterness, and the flavors of human relationships, traversing time and space to connect literary feelings of past and present. Please savor them slowly in your heart and secretly rate them—how sweet and how salty is this rich Tainan flavor?