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Wǎn-wún Lin (Chinese:林婉文 /ˈwɑːnˈwɛnˈlɪn/ born in 1980), more known by her pen name Maniniwei, is a Malaysian writer, painter, and illustrator currently living in Taiwan, with 1 offspring and 3 cats.

She grew up in Malaysia and later sought academic advancement at the Fine Arts Department of National Taiwan Normal University on 19, 1999, and met her husband after graduation. However, her life after marriage wasn’t going well. Her new identity as an immigrant and foreign wife made her fail to accommodate the expectation of her mother-in-law. After that, she divorced and is currently living with her cats in Taipei, Taiwan.

Inspired by her marriage life, Maniniwei began her career as a writer at the age of 30. Her books center on themes including marriage, parenthood, and family.

Maniniwei writes prose, poems, and picture books. Her works are mostly about herself, describing her hate and abjection in her own words with a dark, sharp style.

The first achievement that Maniniwei earned is in 2013, her works ’’shine on your impurities‘’ was nominated for ‘’China Times OpenBook Award’’. Up to 2022, Maniniwei has won four awards and two works for nomination. Maniniwei usually participates in The National Culture and Arts Foundation’s project to earn grants for her writing career.

Early life
Maniniwei whose real name is Wǎn-wún Lin, was born in Muar(or Bandar Maharani), Johor, Malaysia, on 1980. She decided to study abroad in Taiwan at the age of 19 and graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the National Taiwan Normal University and the Fine Arts Institute of the National Taiwan University of Arts. She would later tell people about the friends she met before becoming a famous writer by putting her stories in articles. She talked about how she was mostly alone during her time in Taiwan.

She stated that she only has three friends, the first one was a fellow countrywoman, Ling, and they were inseparable. Her second friend would be an overseas homosexual student from Myanmar, Hao, whose father was the principal of a Chinese school in Myanmar. Her third friend is, in her words, a weird Taiwanese girl, Qing. She mentioned how her friend, Hao, although has a good background, had never looked down upon them. She would then lose contact with Hao when he moved to London.

She then mentioned about a senior she rented an apartment with, whose name she said was Shan. She talked about how Shan was better than her because she had more friends, seemed genuinely happy talking with others, and even went to her friends’ houses in Taiwan. She would later mention the activities they did together, how they painted, smoked, and even worked together at one point. Shan would later move back to her country, due to her inability to find work in Taiwan. She talked about how the senior was unsuccessful in her job, dated a blind man, and then died due to breast cancer.

Personal life
After graduating from the Fine Arts Institute of National Taiwan University of Arts, in order to stay in Taiwan, Maniniwei married her husband soon after they met, and had given birth to one son. However, she did not fit in well and faced many obstacles in her marriage. Since her husband, who worked in mainland China, had been away from home, she had to take up the burden of parenthood alone. Inspired by these experiences, Maniniwei, at the age of 30, started writing and published her first book Shine on your Impurities in 2013, which was nominated for China Times OpenBook Award in the same year.

After publishing her first book, Maniniwei started to teach in the community college, and gained a different understanding of picture books as she read thousands for course preparation and column writing, influencing her later works and writing style.

Maniniwei’s works are mostly inspired by and based on her own experiences, centering around family issues, especially the dark side of marriage and the frustrations of parenthood. In Maniniwei’s novel Not Born to Be A Mother published in 2015, she said “The role of mother was hailed as a glory, but I feel broken and incomplete.”

In 2016, Maniniwei published three picture books The Sea Hotel, The Cat with Old Man’s Face, and after, known as the Oblique Household Trilogy, to relate her marriage life. Maniniwei said in an interview “People think that picture books are made for children, but not necessarily. For me, writing picture books is the way I revenge.” In several of Maniniwei’s books, such as, We‘ll talk tomorrow, and The Cat with Old Man’s Face, she expressed her hatred for her husband by making him die in the plot of the books.

Maniniwei is also a cat and dog lover. She has three cats with her in Taipei, and works as a volunteer in an animal shelter.[6][10] Maniniwei said in an interview “Cats are the redemption for life. A life without cats has only pain and despair. If possible, I want my soul to grow like a cat. What a quiet and warm state."

Career Details
Maniniwei's first book was published in 2013, Shine with your impurities. It is a collection of Chinese proses, which are mainly about the sad part and difficulties a foreign spouse encountered in a traditional Taiwanese family. Maniniwei has published many other prose collections since 2013, like I wasn’t born to be a mother (2015), No avenue (2018), and I recalled Taipei after many years (2022).

Maniniwei also releases picture books. In 2016, she published the Oblique Household Trilogy. This trilogy included three picture books, The sea hotel, The cat with old man’s face, and After. The sequel of this trilogy was published in 2019, called Oblique Household Trilogy 2019, which is also composed of three picture books. In addition, she also published other picture books like The Velveteen Rabbit (2017), The poet's inn (2018), My sister’s empty house (2022) and Princess of Mount Ledang (2022). She also released some dual language (Malay and Chinese) picture books like 馬惹尼 Mat Jenin (2018)and 吃風集 anjing makan angin (2018), and illustrated handbook 100 Malay ghosts (2021).

In 2017, She published We’ll talk tomorrow, the first poem collection she ever published. After that, she started to published more poem collection, like I slept with that boy named cat (2019), Now I am a dog (2019), Help me do the dressing change (2020) and Parang before, metal scrap now: Malay Pantun (2020) (picture and poem collection).

She also participated in the writing of books like Isolated Island: Us in the post-epidemic era (2021), Children meet poems: Five mothers (2021) and Children meet poems: Want to bask in the sun with you (2021).

Apart from that, Maniniwei has held many exhibitions of her works and publications. She also participated in many joint exhibitions. She also writes and updates article on websites like "OKAPI, the document of reading and life" (since 2017), and artouch.com (since 2020).

Writing Style
Maniniwei is a Malaysian Chinese Literature immigrant female writer. adjection to the duty of a mother and her new family is her motivation to create. Hate is the reason why she writes. She uses her family and marriage as her writing materials, portraying the difficult situation of living in a foreign land as a foreign spouse. From proses, picture books to poems, her theme never detaches from "writing herself". In her picture book series Oblique Household Trilogy, there are no sweet or beautiful images of her family, just an honest description of the imperfections of real life.

Besides that, Maniniwei never worries about misspellings, uses of rhetoric, or weird sentences. She calls for the delocalized literary composition of Southeast Asian Chinese. The words that Maniniwei uses to describe the life experience of being an immigrant in Taiwan are dark and pointed. She emphasizes informal, incomplete, and thinking out of the box. Her picture books use a small number of pages and simplified dialogue to tell a story, have a very concise and neat style and use colors to put the inner sight of the storyteller instead of the objective scene.

Prose
《帶著你的雜質發亮》，小寫出版 Feb 2013

《我不是生來當母親的》，小寫出版 Feb 2015

《沒有大路》，啟明出版 May 2018

《我的美術系少年》，斑馬線文庫出版 Aug 2021

《多年後我憶起台北》，新經典文化 Oct 2022

Poem
《我們明天再說話》，南方家園出版 Feb 2017

《我和那個叫貓的少年睡過了》，啟明出版 Feb 2019

《我現在是狗‧老貓簡史》，斑馬線文庫出版 Nov 2019

《幫我換藥》，黑眼睛文化出版 May 2020

《以前巴冷刀　現在廢鐡爛》馬來班頓，斑馬線文庫出版 Jun 2020

Picture book
隱晦家庭繪本三部曲《海的旅館》 、《老人臉貓》 、《after》 ，南方家園出版 Aug 2016

《絨毛兔The velveteen rabbit》，南方家園出版 Dec 2017

《馬惹尼 Mat Jenin》，步步出版 Jun 2018

《吃風集 anjing makan angin》，步步出版 Jun 2018

《詩人旅館》，啟明出版 Nov 2018

隱晦家庭繪本三部曲II《老人臉狗書店》、《我的蜘蛛人爸爸》、《貓面具》，啟明出版 May 2019

《姐姐的空房子》，斑馬線文庫出版 Jan 2022

《金山公主》，玉山社 Mar 2022

Illustrated handbook

《馬來鬼圖鑑》，斑馬線文庫出版 Oct 2021

Exhibition
《我們明天再說話》詩畫原作展, Taipei/ Kaohsiung, 2017/3/19~4/8,2017/4/30~6/30

童年旅館裡的男孩與兔子《絨毛兔》The velveteen rabbit原作展, Taipei, 2017/12/13~ 12/24

《沒有大路》馬尼尼為個展, National Taichung Theater, 2018/7/7~ 8/20

《詩人旅館》，當你不是原本的你：活印新譯 ~ 日星鑄字行2018年度展, Taipei, 2018/11/24~ 12/16

《我現在是狗》詩集原作, Kaohsiung, 2019/11/22~ 12/22

《我現在是狗》詩集原作, Kaohsiung, 2020/1/4~ 2/2

此刻我覺得自己是畫家，馬尼尼為個展, Taipei, 2020/2/8~ 3/1

藝想生活——水墨創作聯展，劉興欽漫畫教育博物館,

Hsinchu, 2020/11/18~ 2021/2/28

寫一首春天的詩，桃美館X故宮 書藝體驗展, Taoyuan, 2020/12/18~ 2021/2/28

滾詩不生苔，馬尼尼為插畫展, Taipei, 2020/10/9~ 11/15

書和日麗，馬尼尼為 x 舊香居書店, Taipei, 2020/10/17~ 11/15

注定好命──馬尼尼為個展, Taipei, 2022/4/23~5/15[25]

Awards and Nominations
Although Maniniwei has only started winning awards in recent years, in fact, as early as 2013, Maniniwei’s book ‘’Shine on Your Impurities’’ was nominated for ‘’2013 China Times OpenBook’s award’’. Tile 2020, Maniniwei gradually lights out in the circle of writing. Her book ‘’Dahulu Parang Sekarang Besi: Pantun Melayu’’ won the Book of the Year from OpenBook, which also helped Maniniwei win the 35th Golden Tripod Awards in the literature category in 2021. Around the same year, the Taoyuan Chung Chao-cheng Literary Award also awarded the first prize to Maniniwei for her ‘’Country Girl  (山河少女)''. Continuing in 2021, Maniniwei won Kaohsiung municipal Takau Literature Award in the category of Chinese proses for ‘’When I Fall Asleep  (我睡覺的時候)''. Still, in 2021, Maniniwei was nominated in the category of writing grants from the 24th Taipei Literature Award for her ‘’Useless Hometown  (故鄉無用).''

Grants
Maniniwei’s book ‘’No Big Road’’ in 2017, and then ‘’I’ve Been Slept with the Youngster Called Cat’’ in 2018, was granted by The National Culture and Arts Foundation on literature publishing program. In the same year, ‘’Oblique Household Trilogy: the cat with old man’s face’’ was also granted on visual arts publishing program. In 2019, The National Culture and Arts Foundation granted Maniniwei for Malaysian cultural research. The following year, her book ‘’Taipei Hypothesis Trilogy  (台北假說三部曲)'' earned a grant from the National Culture and Arts Foundation for the visual arts publishing program. And then in 2021, ‘’My Art Boy  (我的美術系少年)'' was the third time granted by The National Culture and Arts Foundation on literature publishing program.

Books Selection
In 2013, Maniniwei’s book ‘’Shine on Your Impurities’’ was selected as the book selection for the Taiwan Pavilion of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Maniniwei’s ‘’Live need to tell the truth(活著需要實話實說)’’ was not only selected for poems of Taipei City Bus and MRT but also selected into "The Best Taiwanese Poetry 2017". And the following year, ‘’My mother's eyes are touching my head (我媽媽的眼睛來摸我的頭了) which is also selected into ‘’The Best Taiwanese Poetry 2018’’. In the same year,  My Art Boy (我的美術系少年) was selected into   Selected Essays of 2018  (2018散文選).

Literary Review
Maniniwei was viewed as an "atypical" female artist with a rebellious soul. In her works, the brutality usually came from the humiliation and pain suffered in real life.

After she migrated to Taiwan and became a mother, Maniniwei used sharp and gray words to depict her life story and things around her and her family"

Response
==== 1.Poem ==== Her poems can usually be connected to the reader’s own life experience, reminding them of the insufficient parts and in turn feel related. Some of her poems are described as intangible, soft as well as ironic.
 * Jia-sin Pan, a Taiwanese poet: “Her poems are like the imperfect moon, and just because of the imperfection, we will naturally be attracted by her poems. If something is perfect, then we seem to find no attachment to them, don’t we? I believe that the urge to compose a poem, usually, corresponds to the imperfection or question in life.”


 * Wei-yun Lin, a Taiwanese poet: "when you are reading her poems, you can also feel the indescribable atmosphere. It's like the light in between the translucent, and there's soft and ironic stuff in it. For example, in her work:

""Translucent mother stops nagging.

Stop washing(chores).

Translucent words stop right before saying out.

Sitting among numerous nobody."" She commented: It reminds me of the time when I was a mother, nagging my children, telling them to wake up, or to do homeworks. However, none of them really listened to what I said, and thus I no longer do so."(translucent here refers to the degree between necessary and unnecessary.)

2.Book review
As for her books, it is usually described as "real" to daily lives.
 * Chun-zih Wang, a Taiwanese artist: “The proses Maniniwei writes are sincere, she leads us deep into herself and the life around her, step by step, layer by layer. Her prose is like a poem, blending reality with dreams, though definitely not sweet dreams. Among those works, Taipei is included, but we (as people live in Taipei) are too prudent to curse others and are always rather bear it than say it, thus her works serve as emotional exits representing us to say it out loud.”

3.Picture book
Later, her art style has transformed from expressing directly in prose into signifying indirectly through picture books.

Maniniwei successively published Oblique Household Trilogy and its sequel Oblique household trilogy 2019, respectively in 2016 and 2019. The usage of “Oblique” clearly express the notion she composed, “I don’t want to interfere in how reader fill up the blank in the pictures or words, this makes the reading process more interesting,”she said.

Maniniwei first published Oblique Household Trilogy, including The Sea Hotel, The cat with old man’s face, and  a f t e r  in 2016.


 * Shùn-hua Cuei, a Taiwanese poet, write the comment for these series:“Maniniwei says:’ Because life indeed has lots of blank space, we don’t need to fill it up real quick‘, in between saying out directly or not, filling up or leaving blank, we experience a kind of descriptive fullness due to the lackness.”

In 2019, under the grant by The National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan, on visual art publishing programme, she published the sequel "Oblique household trilogy 2019, including The dog with old man’s face bookshop, My spiderman father, and the Cat Mask."


 * "Different from all the sweet and wonderful families other picture books depict, I wish my story in picture books can be more closer to reality for reality is always imperfect, and we can still grow soundly in such an imperfect family." said Maniniwei.