Comic artist Chiu Ruo-lung, who created the original Seediq Bale comic that inspired the movie of the same name, was invited to attend the Planete Manga festival at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris during its “Taiwan week” activities last month. While he was there, he taught young French children how to draw Taiwan Aboriginal tattoo designs. He says comics are a great medium for letting the reader explore the author’s world through his or her creation, and says art can be used to express so many different things, making it easier to communicate with young people.
This trip to France allowed Chiu to gain a better understanding of how the French respect various cultures. According to Chiu, Taiwanese have never made a serious attempt at letting people outside Taiwan know that there are Aborigines in Taiwan. Instead, they have usually given the impression that everyone on the island is Chinese, but actually the Aborigines are the true “masters” of Taiwan, which is similar to the meaning of “Sediq bale.” The exhibit at the center showed the world that Taiwan does not have a monolithic culture. When the film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale was shown there on April 22, it allowed people to understand that, aside from movies in Chinese, Taiwan also has films in Austronesian languages, and that Taiwan is a pluralistic, democratic, and multilingual nation.
Chiu says that in order to get rid of the impression people have of the Sediq as always fighting, he has included many cute stories in his bilingual graphic novel, which was released in Taiwan last month. It also includes a CD of Iwan Nawi reading in Sediq. Chiu says the book is very suitable reading for children. The graphic novel will be translated into French and published by the France-based Akata publishing house. The editorial director at Akata , Dominique Veret, says the book is to be launched in January during next year’s Angouleme International Comics Festival, the biggest comics festival in Europe.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
Photo: Chen Yi-ching, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者陳怡靜
啟發同名電影的《賽德克‧巴萊》原漫畫創作者邱若龍,受邀參加巴黎龐畢度中心「漫畫星球」特展台灣週活動,現場指導法國青少年畫台灣原住民的刺青圖案。邱若龍說,讓讀者透過創作探索作者的世界,漫畫是一種相當好的媒材,可用藝術型態展現許多不同的內容,跟青少年溝通起來更親切。
這趟法國行讓邱若龍認識法國人對多元文化的尊重態度,台灣過去都沒認真讓外界知道這裡有原住民的存在,讓人以為這個島上多是中國人,其實原住民是台灣真正的主人,就像賽德克巴萊的意思。龐畢度此展,讓國際知道台灣是一個非單一文化的地方,台灣電影《賽德克‧巴萊》於四月二十二日的播放,更讓法國人知道台灣不只有華語電影,還有南島語電影,是一個多元民主多語系的國家。
邱若龍表示,為了避免讓人老有賽德克只是打鬥的印象,由伊萬納威朗讀賽德克族語附CD版上個月出版的雙語繪本,裡頭有許多可愛的小故事,兒童也適合觀看。法國出版社阿卡塔將出版法文版本。阿卡塔總編輯多明尼加‧斐瑞表示,這本書將在明年一月份舉辦的安古蘭國際漫畫節發行,且是全歐洲最大的漫畫節。
(自由時報駐歐洲特派記者胡蕙寧)
Photo courtesy of Angouleme International Comics Festival
照片由安古蘭國際漫畫節提供
Photo: Liu Hsin-te, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者劉信德
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110