Yao-Chang Chen 陳耀昌, born in 1949 in Tainan, Taiwan, was a professor emeritus, hematologist, and medical doctor at National Taiwan University (NTU). From 1978 to 1981, he was a research fellow at Rush University Medical College, Chicago. In 1983 he successfully conducted the first bone marrow transplantation in Taiwan. After his retirement from NTU, he remained active in stem cell research. In 2012, he started writing historical fiction, which encompasses Taiwan history from 1624 to 1946. Several of his novels have been translated into English, Japanese, and Korean. (Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa was published by Columbia University Press in 2023. A Tale of three Tribes in Dutch Formosa was published by Plum Rain Press in 2024. Lionhead Flower: A Novel of 1875 Formosa will soon be released by Cambria Press. Dr. Yao-Chang Chen passed away in 2025 in Taipei City.
About the Translators:
Timothy Smith 史天慕 is a long-time Taiwan resident and translator with an M.A. in Translation and Interpretation Studies from National Taiwan Normal University. His interests are in Taiwan literature and Taiwanese Indigenous, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Hakka languages, literatures, linguistics, and folklore. He is also the translator of Banana King Ngôo Tsín-sui (《蕉王吳振瑞》) by author Lee Wang-tai (李旺台), longlisted for the 2025 PEN America Literary Awards Translation Prize.
Tung-jung Chen 陳東榮 received his B.A. and M.A. from National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, and his Ph.D. in English from Michigan State University, USA. He is a retired professor of English who taught American literature at Taiwanese universities. He is a co-translator of Yao-Chang Chen's Puppet Flower (Columbia UP, 2023) and Lionhead Flower (Cambria Press, 2026).
