The nation’s cultural industries lack the support infrastructure that artists need, especially in terms of agents who can help with advertising and publishing, according to a popular Taiwanese Line sticker artist known only by her pen name, Yukiji.
Yukiji is a graphic designer renowned for a series of rabbit characters known as “Ma Ji the Rabbit,” whose Facebook fan page featuring her drawings has 360,000 “likes.”
Yukiji said that in her sophomore year at university, she saw a classmate’s pet rabbit and began creating rabbit doodles and signing them “Ma Ji the Rabbit.”
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
Because her work was so popular with her friends, she became a professional artist and sold her designs to Line, she said.
Yukiji said her parents encouraged her creativity and are supportive of her career, but Taiwan does not foster creativity in young people the way Japan does, she said, adding that she is familiar with the cultural scene in Japan because of her work.
“In Japan, there are enterprises catering to new creators’ publishing and advertising needs, which allows artists’ creations, such as Kumamon, to become popular quickly,” she said in reference to the official mascot for Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture.
In contrast, Taiwanese artists have to find publishers and publicize their work themselves, which prevents them from focusing on making content, she said.
Yukiji’s mother said Taiwanese artists need professional representation, but in her experience, too many agents in Taiwan meddle with creative work because of their ideological or political views.
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