Taiwanese mangaka Chang Sheng (常勝) attended this year’s Foire du Livre de Bruxelles (Brussels Book Fair) where he participated in several discussions and book signings.
The creator of notable Taiwanese comics, or T-manga, such as The Hidden Level (隱藏關卡), Oldman (奧德曼) and Baby, unveiled the French edition of his latest series at the fair.
Yan (閻鐵花) is a T-manga that follows a superhero who disguises her identity behind Peking Opera face paint.
Photo: CNA
During the first two days of the fair, which took place from Thursday last week to Sunday, almost 100 copies of Yan were sold, prompting Chang’s sponsors to quickly restock the title.
Chang said he believes a good comic should be able to be described with a simple yet powerful tagline.
In the case of Yan, he came up with: “What if a Peking opera diva becomes a superheroine?”
“I hope that in a different country, people can see that I took something traditional and old and blended it with our modern times,” Chang said. “[I] hope it will create a new visual experience.”
While the popularity of Japanese manga has introduced Asian comics to European nations, Taiwan’s industry has not reached the same heights as its neighbor’s, he said.
However, now is a great time for Taiwan to promote its diversity to the world through comics, Chang said.
“Diversity will give our manga more potential and future, which means we [Taiwanese mangakas] must all work harder,” he said.
Chang is a renowned comic book artist, having won the Golden Comic Award in Taiwan and the Kyoto International Creators Award in Japan.
The rights to a number of his books have been sold to English, French, Italian, Turkish, Japanese and South Korean publishers.
So far, Yan has been translated into English, Italian, Russian and French.
Aside from participating in forums at the fair, Chang hosted book signings at the “Le Quartier Manga” (Manga Theme Pavilion) operated by French digital comic platform Mangas.io.
His appearance at this year’s fair was made possible thanks to a partnership formed two years ago between the French platform and the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).
Mangas.io chief operating officer Yun Inada said that the European market has recently seen an influx of comics from Taiwan, adding that he believes young readers of Japanese manga could become T-manga fans.
With Taiwan’s historical links to the Netherlands, China and Japan, along with its connection to modern Western culture, Taiwanese comics provide a unique dynamism that is not found anywhere else, Inada said.
The recognition of T-mangas was most obvious this year, as TAICCA brought 14 other Taiwanese comics to the fair.
Frederico Anzalone, Foire du Livre de Bruxelles’s manga events curator, said that his section at the fair was tailored to suit the increase in demand for Japanese manga in the French-language market over the past few years.
Anzalone said he invited Chang to the fair after being introduced to his work at the annual Angouleme International Comics Festival in France recently.
“An interesting aspect [of T-manga] is the blending of cultures, like what’s observed in Chang’s style — one that I am astonished by,” Anzalone said. “His style is very technical, so I thought he’d be a good candidate to invite [to the fair].”
Chang is also promoting Yan at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair which started on Monday and ends today.
He said he wanted to take his manga on an international tour to show the world what kinds of superheroes Taiwan has to offer.
When “the world is in chaos, aliens are invading and the world is about to go to war, the US will have heroes from Marvel while Japan will have Gundam. I hope [people] will think of Yan [as well], and that will be great,” he said.
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