A cartoon exhibition depicting the life of former Qing Dynasty imperial commissioner for Formosa Liu Ming-chuan (劉銘傳) opened on Friday last week at Ming Chuan University’s Taipei campus.
The exhibition, jointly hosted by the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, Ming Chuan University and the Chinese Cartoonist Union, commemorates Liu’s 180th birthday and aims to promote Liu as more than a name in history.
Union director Yang Hsin-yi (楊心怡) said the union created 87 cartoons for the event based on stories written by Liu Ming-chuan Research Association deputy director Sun Di (孫迪), who is based in Anhui Province, China.
Photo: CNA
More well known for his works published under the pen name Ling Chun (凌群), Yang said that the comics were a great challenge, as they have a historical basis.
Using the Sino-French War as an example, Yang said that most Qing Dynasty ships were only partially Westernized and the majority of its fleet was made out of wood with steel plates nailed over the top. While most had steam engines, the ships still kept the masts and sails of earlier designs.
The Sino-French War began when French imperialist ambitions in Vietnam ended the Nguyen Dynasty and the region largely became a colonial protectorate under France. The Qing court declared Taiwan as an independent province in 1887, appointing Liu commissioner.
Liu was most well-known for installing the first railroad tracks in Taiwan and erecting multiple coastal defenses around the nation.
Yang said that Qing Dynasty ships had both smoothbore cannons and breech-loading cannons, meaning that he and his team had to pore over historical data to be certain of the details, including things such as the style of clothing and architecture in the mid-19th century.
Of the 88 cartoons drawn for the exhibition, only three had to be redrawn, such as the Victory of Huwei (滬尾) which took place in current-day New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), where experts said fighting happened at the Hobe Fort, not the woods, which the cartoon portrayed, Yang said.
Despite the attention to detail, Yang said that the cartoons incorporate some humor, such as Liu’s beard drawn as a splotch resembling tangled seaweed, and a cat sitting on a wall in one of the street scenes.
Yang said he had also drawn himself into a comic among a ship’s crew.
The process of creating these comics was difficult due to the amount of detail and preparation needed, Yang said.
Yang said that he felt he must not only stay true to his work, but hoped that his work would allow more young people to recognize Liu as more than just a historical figure, but as an individual that had, in his own way, “loved Taiwan.”
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