Claiming to be the most important event for Asia's publishing market, the annual exhibition's slogan of "See the world from a different angle -- read," took on new meaning as renowned Taiwan author Li Ang explained to the audience that Taiwan's literature -- and culture in general -- is far too rare and inaccessible in the world.

While her opinion was somewhat supported by the two guest professors who spoke at the event, the two men were more optimistic about Taiwan's current and future literary influence on the world.

Huang Ying-che, a Taiwan-born professor of China Studies at "Love Knowledge" University in Japan, commended Li, saying although the island has not yet seen any native Nobel Prize winners, Li is the most likely candidate to do her native homeland proud by winning the prestigious award. Li laughed heartily with the audience.

Things turned more serious when a well-travelled Li told the audience of her concern over mounting political and economic pressures preventing Taiwan's culture from reaching the rest of the world.

"It's so rare to run into Taiwan literature in places such as Europe and the United States," said Li, who was praised at the event as Taiwan's most broadly distributed author, with translations of her works in English, French and German, among many other languages.

Li said in her travels and career as an author, she had come to realize that "Taiwan people are isolated from the rest of reality, living away from the world in a land of their own." While expressing her support for her homeland, Li appealed for the public to take a realistic approach when dealing with the real problems that face the island.

"We are really just like the frog in the story of the well -- when we look up we think there are only blue skies," said Li, drawing on a Chinese saying denoting a naive and narrow-minded way of looking at complex issues. Li expressed dissatisfaction with the current government, bringing up the recent example of what she considered misinformed comparisons between newly independent Kosovo and Taiwan, without fully understanding that the two alleged renegade provinces are far from similar cases, she said.

Huang and Liao Bing-hui, a foreign literature professor at Tsinghua University, both joined Li in acknowledging political pressure from the mainland has not only severely restricted ties with other countries, but has also taken a heavy toll on Taiwan's channels of cultural communication.

Liao said most foreign publishers, such as world-renowned Sharpe and Routeledge, release few if any Taiwan titles, with the majority of those focusing on cross-strait relations with China, with too few names from Taiwan's "culturally rich" literature.

Pointing to a series of novels, short stories and poems translated into English by an American scholar and his Taiwanese wife over the last decade, Liao argued the way for Taiwan to avoid the trend of slipping into cultural obscurity on the world stage is to attract upcoming academics and students to foster a genuine interest in Taiwan culture, so they will devote the time needed to properly translate works into their native languages.