Taiwan and Britain signed an agreement covering the training of literary translators and exchange between them. Institutions on both sides plan joint workshops and residencies.

The aim is to widen the channel through which literature written in Chinese reaches readers in English, a field where the supply of translators has long been the bottleneck.

The bottleneck

Literary translation carries cultural context and voice rather than words alone, and the sheer number of skilled practitioners has long been said to determine the size of the market.

Analysts attribute part of the recent attention to Korean literature in the English-speaking world to translation grant schemes and programmes that train specialists.

The shape of Chinese-language writing

Literature in Chinese has accumulated along different lines in the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and the degree to which each is introduced in English is uneven.

The accord's value will rest on how many works reach publication and whether a career path for translators takes shape. The schedule for the first programme is to be announced.