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.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS