Seven Taiwanese illustrators and three intellectual property licensors are being featured at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, the world’s largest international licensing rights fair for children’s literature that opened on Monday.
The creators are being showcased at the show’s Taiwan Pavilion, which is aimed at expanding Taiwan’s reach in the global children’s publishing industry, Taiwan Creative Content Agency international marketing head Theodore Huang (黃俊華) said.
The seven Taiwanese illustrators are 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nominees Chang Yeou-yu (張友漁) and Liu Hsu-kung (劉旭恭), as well as Ballboss (周宜賢), Chang Hsiao-chi (張筱琦), Lin Wei-ting (林蔚婷), Dong Dong (咚東, 劉韋廷) and A-meow (阿喵, 蔡佩蓉), Huang said.
Photo: CNA
Three Taiwanese intellectual-property licensors were also present to raise the international visibility of Taiwan’s content creators.
Among them were Lee Yu-chieh (李郁婕), who oversees cartoon character Takokuma’s international licensing operations, and her husband, Tsai Wei-hsin (蔡瑋信), the designer and copyright owner of Takokuma, Huang said.
Takokuma is a unique mix of an octopus and a bear, and cannot be kept in a zoo, because it has not been included in the encyclopedia of animals. Therefore, it started an adventure, said Lee, who serves as the producer of the animated series Takokuma’s Adventure Story, while describing the story book.
Through the story, the writer hopes to convey the importance of self-identity and friendship, and the idea that being different from others is worth embracing, she said.
After the release of the picture book, there have been multiple international collaborations related to the character, including a launch event of capsule toys featuring the image in Japan, she said.
Takokuma stickers in the colors of the Italian flag were made especially for the illustrators’ exhibition at the book fair, Lee said.
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair ends tomorrow.
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