By Chen Yi-ching
Staff Reporter
Several of the authors of comic books that won awards at the Excellent Comics Awards on Saturday featured material that touches on traditional beliefs in Taiwan, including deities such as Nuozha (哪吒), Di Ji Zhu (地基主) and Matsu (媽祖).
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The Excellent Comics Awards, which have been held annually for the past two decades, gave ratings to two groups of authors — those who have already published and those who have yet to do so.
First and third place in the first category went to Shou Hu Ling TOUCH (守護靈TOUCH) by Huang Chia-li (黃佳莉) and Ming Zhan Lu (冥戰錄) by Wei Zhong-cheng (韋宗成).
Xing Fu Tiao Wei Liao (幸福調味料) by Juan Kuang-min (阮光民) and Liu Se Dao Yuan (六色稻遠) by Chang Yi-lin (張宜琳) were in the top three in the second category.
Huang’s comic used the subject of Taiwan’s religious figures, such as Nuozha and others, and narrated the stories of their coming to the mortal realm.
Because of the heavy influence of Japanese comics on the domestic comic industry, “it’s as though we don’t have roots of our own,” Huang said, adding that this was what prompted her to start with figures that were best known and popular in Taiwan.
Religion was one of the most common as well as traditional aspects of Taiwan, Huang said, adding that her mother used to threaten her younger brother when he was unruly that she would send him off to be Nuozha’s son.
The saying stems from the traditional folk belief that children should be raised by their own parents and that if they were given to someone else to be raised, it was a sign that they were not wanted.
Huang received NT$250,000 in prize money for her comic, winning first place in the first category.
Wei’s Ming Zhan Lu had Matsu as the central character, departing from the usual depiction of the goddess and turning her into a cute girl, accentuating the image with Taiwan-centric overtones such as her eating meat buns and drinking honeyed Chinese Meson.
Juan’s comic focused on using condiments made by the main character as the adhesive “glue” in the story’s theme of familial and romantic love.
“Juan’s style is very simple, but the storyline surrounding the main character’s hand-made soy-sauce reflects the extraordinary aspect of the lives of ordinary people,” said Chen Chih-hua (陳治華), chairman of the judges’ panel.
Chang, the other winner in the second group, finished her comic while working at Sanyo Electric (Taiwan) Co Ltd. The content of the comic was about the life of farmers, but Chang herself had no experience or background in farming and had to travel to Taitung to observe the lives of farmers.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS