Playwriting awards have always been a promised land for playwrights. For emerging storytellers, being awarded is like being recognized not only as an enthusiast but as a professional; for established writers, winning a major award serves as an acknowledgment of their mastery. This power to bestow prestige on individual playwrights makes awards a strong motivator for creating new works, indirectly helping to discover new talent and foster innovative plays.
In the U.S. and the U.K., honors such as the Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Relentless Award, Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, George Devine Award, and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize have seen the emergence and refinement of numerous contemporary classics. In Taiwan, similar recognition comes through awards like the Taipei Literature Award, Taiwan Literature Award, and the Ministry of Education Creative Writing Award, where fresh voices often emerge.
Birdy Fong’s Love Song: Rhyme for You (Revival) (我為你押韻——情歌Revival). Courtesy of Yang’s Ensemble. Photo by Hsin-Che Lee.
Taipei Literature Award
The Taipei Literature Award was established in 1998 by the Taipei City Government. Although it may appear to be a regional literary award, the Taipei Literature Award calls for submissions from Sinophone writers worldwide, with no restrictions on their place of residence or country of origin. Three winners are selected from the playwriting category each year, and the first-place winner is awarded a subsidy of $9,000 to assist with production costs if the play is staged.
Throughout its history spanning more than twenty years, the Taipei Literature Award has served as a launchpad for several acclaimed playwrights. For example, Birdy Fong was a multiple-time winner before building a name for himself in the film industry. His first and most-known winning play, Love Song: Rhyme for You (我為你押韻——情歌), blurs the line between straight plays and jukebox musicals, with several revivals to its name. Another multiple-time winning playwright is Chien-Cheng Chen. His plays—Normality (日常之歌), Millennium (在世紀末不可能發生的事), and Dissociation (解離)—dive into nuclear disasters, white terror, and totalitarian governance to depict an apocalyptic world.
The Taipei Literature Award has also helped emerging voices find their unique styles. In 2016, playwright-director Peng Hsu caught the jury’s attention with her distinctive writing style, known for its sharply nagging characters. Cheng-Chun Lee, whose winning play Middle School Daily (中學生日常) requires a minimum of two actors to play a classroom of gossipy and bullyish students, was also praised for the moderate design. The play will have a staged reading at Chungbuk Theatre Company in Korea in March this year.
Chien-Cheng Chen’s Millennium (在世紀末不可能發生的事). Courtesy of Genesis Ensemble. Photo by Yung-Yu Yang.
Taiwan Literature Award
The Taiwan Literature Award is a national literary award organized by the Museum of Taiwanese Literature. The Museum used to announce a shortlist for the playwriting category every July, with the number of shortlisted works ranging from two to four. However, possibly due to a decline in both the quality and quantity of submissions, the jury has stopped announcing the shortlist and has occasionally withheld the award, citing that the submitted plays still have room for improvement.
As its name suggests, the Taiwan Literature Award often features works that reflect the complexity of Taiwanese history and the diversity of contemporary culture. Ming-Lun Wu delves into the collective sorrow of the Taiwanese people under the Japanese colonization in Trance. Yu-Chia Wei weaves together multiple scenes in A Fable for Now (現世寓言), where animals and humankind share a doomed future, illustrating how civilization has gone too far. In 2018, The play was translated by Singaporean translator Jeremy Tiang and given a staged reading at the PEN World Voices: International Play Festival. Sayun Nomin makes her characters perform aboriginality in her shortlisted play qalang ima’ (泰雅精神文創劇場), showing her audience how problematic it is when Indigenous people in Taiwan have to “otherize” themselves for survival.
Because of its representativeness, the award appears to uphold an unshakable standard. Indeed, winning or shortlisted playwrights have proven themselves to be the top players in the game. The most esteemed recipient is Wei-Jan Chi, who won the award in 2007. In his winning play Countdown (倒數計時), Chi explores the vanity and hollowness of contemporary Taiwan through six characters waiting for the new year. Later, in 2013, Chi was given the National Award for Arts, solidifying his place at the top of Taiwan’s theatre world.
Sayun Nomin’s qalang ima’ (泰雅精神文創劇場). Courtesy of Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group.
Ministry of Education Creative Writing Award
The Ministry of Education launched the Creative Writing Award in 1981, making it one of the longest-running writing contests in Taiwan. Originally established to promote creative writing on campus, the award accepts submissions only from students or teachers currently in school—those who have graduated or left are not eligible. Notably, the award has been taking submissions of plays since its inception, a time when modern theatre was still finding its place in Taiwan. Since then, the Creative Writing Award has encouraged the writing of traditional and modern drama, and for almost half a century, it has served as a springboard for talented writers-to-be.
Hsueh-Chun Chao and Yu-Hsuan Chou are two playwrights who have brought traditional drama back to the public’s eye through the award. Inspired by the film Sunset Boulevard, Chao wrote the play The Sun Has Just Risen (日頭初起), which received an honorable mention in 2017. She reimagined the story in the Yuan Dynasty and portrayed an actress in denial about losing her place in the spotlight. Chou, on the other hand, is a multiple-time winner of the award whose plays are often characterized by intertextuality. For example, Cold Food (寒食) features a play-within-a-play structure, while The Ding with Taotie Decor (饕餮鼎) adapts a folktale about a legendary man who cooks his son to serve the emperor.
The Creative Writing Award has also spotlighted writers of modern drama, such as Yu-Hui Wang and Chien-Jen Wang, who introduced themselves through this platform. Yu-Hui Wang, now a veteran playwright, won the award four times during the 1980s and 1990s. Prolific during a period when freedom of speech was still new to Taiwan, he is recognized as one of the forerunners of playwriting on the island. Chien-Jen Wang, who is known for his dark and humorous writing style, won the award in 2018 with his play A Man and His Broken Left Hand, and the Stomach that Refuses to Get Under Control at Times (男人與他斷掉的左手，偶而還有不聽使喚的肚子), a comedy about a civil servant attempting to escape from blackmail.
Yu-Hsuan Chou’s Under the Skin: Seven Tales (形色抄). Production by the NTCPA Jing Ju Troupe (國立臺灣戲曲學院復興京劇團). Photo by Chen-Chou Chang.
While these awards may appear to offer a promised land for playwrights, the reality is that even after winning, many playwrights and their works face a bleak future. The term “literature award” itself is telling–playwriting awards in Taiwan are often categorized under literary honors, which can overlook the fact that playwriting is an integral part of theatre—a collaborative art form where writing, acting, directing, and design complement one another.
One reason for this perception could be the lack of comprehensive drama education in schools. When introduced, drama is often viewed merely as a branch of literature rather than as an independent art form. This overemphasis on the literary aspects of drama, while underestimating its theatricality, has influenced some playwrights to produce works that are compelling on paper but difficult to stage.
Nonetheless, the Taipei Literature Award, Taiwan Literature Award, and Ministry of Education Creative Writing Award remain essential to Taiwan’s playwriting scene. They continue to nurture emerging talents, providing a platform for both new voices and seasoned playwrights. By encouraging playwrights to create works that reflect the here and now of Taiwan, these awards will play a key role in shaping the future of Taiwanese theatre.
Kuan-Ting Lin is a dramaturg and translator based in Taiwan. He currently serves as the Literary Manager at the Prologue Center for New Plays.
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Kuan-Ting Lin.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.
