Finding the funny bone

For one week only, a selection of some of the best cartoons from this year's Taiwan International Cartoon Contest (第二屆台灣國際漫畫大賽) will be on display at the Taipei Public Library's Chungren Cartoon Library (台北市立圖書館中崙分館).

Drawing over 800 entries from 40 countries including Taiwan, the UK, Malaysia, Israel, Japan, India, France and even China, the Taiwan International Cartoon Contest is organized by the Chinese Cartoonists' Union's (CCU, 中華漫畫家協會) and is sponsored by the Council of Cultural Affairs (文化建設委員會).

The union, which now has more than 100 members, was formed three years ago by a handful of local cartoonists with the aim of promoting the understanding and augmenting the quality of editorial cartoons in Taiwan.

Although only in its second year, the contest is seen by Yang Hsin-i (楊心怡), president of the Cartoonists' Union, and his fellow editorial cartoonists not only as a medium from which local cartoonists can learn, but also as a way in which to promote cultural understanding through humor.

Whereas last year's contest saw entrants submitting cartoons touching on everything from global war to poverty in a theme-less contest, organizers set "Tourism and Recreation" as the theme for this year's contest.

According to Yang this year's contest was a great success and was "fueled by far more outstanding entries than ever before." Judging the contest were several of Taiwan's leading cartoonists. And like Yang, many of them found the quality of works exceptional, with several of them admitting that choosing three cartoons from the over 800 entries was a demanding process.

The exhibition, which includes 85 of the contest's entries, contains a fair selection of both cynical, in-your-face, thought provoking and mildly offensive cartoons from artists representing 34 countries.

Witty inoffensive works include Leslie Ricciardi's King Kong battling helicopters from the top of the Eiffel Tower and Andrei Puchkaniou's depiction of a rural Evel Knievel using a horse drawn wooden cart to leap over wooden carts.

Blacker works include Seyran Caferli's veiled Muslim woman at an immigration desk, Yuriy Kosobukin's God, Adam and Eve hiding from a group of camera toting tourists in the Garden of Eden and Zaenal Abidin's group of masked terrorists being evicted from a meeting room by a cleaning lady.

While not as cutting as some of the competition's blacker and more cynical works the top prize went to German cartoonist, Valeri Kurtu, for his colorful comic representation of an urban cruise liner. Taiwan's highest ranked cartoonist was Wang Ping (王平), who was placed seventh by the judges for his camera toting tourist with a meat clever for a mouth following footprints in the snow.

Some of the cartoons will, no doubt, leave visitors scratching their heads as to the artists' meanings, but a large number are guaranteed to amuse and tickle, especially among those with a love of black humor.

A selection of cartoons from the Second Taiwan International Cartoon Contest (第二屆台灣國際漫畫大賽) are on display at the Taipei Public Library's Chungren Cartoon Library (台北市立圖書館中崙分館), which is located at 7F, 269, Changan E, Rd, Sec 2 (台北市長安東路2段269號7F), until Dec. 14.