Comics are both interesting reading material and an enjoyable way for children and adults to kill time. But now their influence is expanding from the general public to heavyweight politicians and government officials.
One of the best-selling comic books in Japan, titled Taiwan Discourse (台灣論) by Kobayashi Yosinori (小林善紀), is highly recommended by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who said that "now that there is this comic book, we don't need textbooks on Taiwan's history anymore." After that endorsement, Taiwan Discourse sold 240,000 volumes last December -- the first month of its publication in Japan. It also raised Lee's profile in Japan and his popularity among the country's youth.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"[Kobayashi] Yosinori is a very unique comic caricaturist. [The way] he conveys his creative work is more like demonstrating his political ambition, or even political campaigning in search of justice," said deputy secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation Yen Wan-chin (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Yen has studied in Japan and understands Japanese comic books better than most Taiwanese. He has already finished reading both of Kobayashi's masterpieces -- Taiwan Discourse and War Discourse (戰爭論).
Taiwan Discourse is yet to be translated into Chinese and published in Taiwan.
War Discourse tries to help Japanese regain a sense of national identity, which the generations of the post-war era have lost. In this regard, Taiwan is a role model for the search for national identity in the later work, Taiwan Discourse, Yen said.
Yen's enthusiasm for comic books is such that he could be labeled an expert on comic book culture, although he is a government official concerned with cross-strait relations. He puts as much effort into studying comic books as he does into cross-strait relations and China studies.
"The influence of comic books is very comprehensive in terms of its impact on education and entertainment," he said.
Yen said that comic books provided him with as much pleasure as classical music, one of his favorite interests in life.
"The pleasure is two-fold. First, I can be so deeply touched by some of the stories that I feel I can truly empathize [with the characters]. And second, I find [some comic books] both entertaining and enlightening," he said. For example, he said, he learned a lot about how to appreciate red wine after reading Bocho Shima Kosaku (部長島耕作), a comic about industrial relations, featuring a wine merchant.
Yen finds comic books also contain visual effects similar to that of the montage (
DPP Legislator Cho Jung-tai (
"I used to put the content of Political Frontlines into practice in the legislature. That is, I have several times quoted metaphors from the comic books during my own legislative interpellation," Cho said, adding that Political Frontlines vividly elaborated political struggles and strategic infighting between political majorities and minorities.
Having been a voracious and discriminating comic reader since his childhood, Cho recently became interested in and focused on "serious comic books" such as The Eagle (
The Eagle tells the story of a Japanese American who ran in and eventually won the American presidential election while The Silent Service depicts how a Japanese nuclear submarine, the Yamato (大和號), declares its independence as a sovereign state to pursue the goal of world peace.
"The author has obviously done a lot of research. Some of the military details and analysis in The Silent Service are very difficult for military laymen like us to understand," Cho said.
Having become familiar with election processes in many countries other than Taiwan, Cho added that The Eagle provided reader-friendly access to knowledge about the American electoral system.
"Topics [depicted in The Eagle] such as the transfer of power, political reorganization and the young revolutionary generation versus the older generation in politics are close to experiences in my own political career," Cho said.
As realistic as the comic books may be however, Cho said that he fully realized that their plots could never become reality. But still, "the impossibilities have opened up my imagination greatly," he said.
"My heroic fantasies were totally fulfilled by having read about figures [in the comic books] who overcame enormous challenges ahead of them," Cho said.
The scenario which, Cho says, touches him the most is when a politician in the book -- who has been defeated in an election -- has to face voters who throw tomatoes and eggs at him. But then he miraculously turns the situation around and persuades the voters to support him.
Although his wife frequently makes fun of his attachment to comics, Cho is proud of being a comic reader and shares his hobby with their daughter, a sixth-grader.
"She helps me collect comic books and we often go to bookstores together to buy our favorite ones," Cho said, adding that reading comics together provided quality time for father and daughter.
Cho said he believed that these comic books conveyed a sense of Japanese superiority to other Asians, since the authors looked at international relations in the Asia-Pacific region from their own perspective.
He said he hoped, therefore, that the Taiwanese comic industry could some day expand its market to adults and compete with the Japanese comic industry.
Like Yen and Cho, KMT Legislator Lin Jih-jia (
"[Comic books] are full of imagination. One who appreciates comic books will surely know how to appreciate life. Likewise, one who enjoys comic books will enjoy life," Lin said.
Lin, as a pupil of Zen Buddhism (
"The right attitude with which to read comic books is respect," Lin said.
Lin said that some comic books are such tear-jerkers that they sometimes help to release one's emotions -- and that he had wept over plots in comic books. He said he shed tears when he read one of the stories in Shodai's Shushi (
Lin said that he also enjoys reading satirical political cartoons in newspapers. He particularly enjoys the work of Co Co, a well-known Taiwanese political cartoonist whose work is widely published in the Taiwan press, including the Taipei Times.
"He exaggerates so effectively in his work that it is extremely funny," he said, adding that he found reading comics to be "fun beyond words."
SOURCE: TAIPEI TIMES
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