The predicted crowd at this year’s Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival is a sign that Taiwan’s manga industry has built an international following, Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hui (李靜慧) said yesterday.
The five-day event started yesterday at the Nangang Exhibition Center, hosting more than 800 stalls and expecting to welcome 500,000 visitors and sell NT$250 million (US$7.9 million) in merchandise, organizers said.
Chinese Animation and Comic Publishers Association president Su Wei-chuan (蘇偉銓) said that the event’s theme, “Great Anime, No Limitations,” symbolizes the boundless creativity not only in manga, but also in associated products.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The event has attracted more than 100 businesses this year, 40 of which are also working with the Ministry of Culture’s “culture points” policy, Su said.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said during an opening speech that he had not paid attention to the event “for a long time,” but was told by his eldest daughter that he must buy some merchandise from the Chiikawa manga.
Chiang said that the event was growing in size every year, and special expos on renowned anime series, such as Naruto, The Apothecary Diaries, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and One Piece have given fans more opportunities to share and experience anime.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Culture is responsible for content generation and leading the industry to meet international standards through subsidies and competition events, Lee said.
Lee talked about the Youth Manga Award event, the first time the ministry hosted an event targeting high-school students, and said it drew 200 competitors in the single participant category, showing that the nation’s manga creative capabilities are growing.
Taiwanese manga has performed well at other international festivals, such as those held in Japan and Naples, Italy, Lee said, adding that President William Lai (賴清德) had bought several manga books at the Taipei International Book Exhibit and hopes they would become daily reading material for Taiwanese.
Meanwhile, under new Taipei MRT safety regulations, attendees wearing gas masks or costumes resembling terrorist equipment would be asked to leave the venue.
The rules restrict the use of overly realistic prop firearms and swords.
Some student cosplayers said that while the regulations prevent them from portraying certain characters, they believe the measures help improve overall safety.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS