For many years Taiwan's fans of comic books
have been fed an almost exclusive diet of Japanese
cartoons. Now more and more domestic cartoonists
are taking action to reclaim the market lost out to
Japan two decades ago.
In the 1950s, many children in Taiwan would spend hours at the bookstores reading comic books, as they could not afford to buy them. The children of the 1960s were every bit as drawn to cartoons, and would watch them on TV for an hour or so every evening. Today's more affluent young fans are bombarded by an ever increasing selection of cartoons in bookstores, on TV, and on the Internet. Japanese cartoons in particular have captured the imaginations of many Taiwanese youths, partially due to the highly developed cartoon industry there and because of a creative setback experienced by local artists in the early 1960s. It was not until the mid-1980s that a wave of Taiwanese artists took the market by storm with their creations that cleverly mirrored local society.
Sustained by a wide readership, the Japanese cartoon industry has developed an elaborate system of division of labor and strategic marketing. Cartooning in Japan is a popular and respected profession, and a rewarding career option for many youths. Normally, those who are able to win the hearts of Japanese readers are also likely to find a huge following in Taiwan. But the industry in this country operates in a very different environment. Whereas even many Japanese adults are devotees of manga, thick Japanese comic books, Taiwan readers typically give theirs up once they leave school and embark on their careers. And once they leave the comic-book fan club, they rarely return.
But even young fans are often discouraged from reading their comics due to heavy school workloads and the influence of parents and teachers who do not consider comics suitable extracurricular reading material. Comics are an obstacle to educational attainment and corrupt impressionable minds, critics say. These factors have served to limit the size of Taiwan's market. Consequently, the number of locally born professional cartoonists--specifically those who create comic strips, illustrations, and books--is estimated at no more than a hundred.
Some determined individuals within this small community, however, are starting to alter the climate and challenge the over whelming dominance of Japanese cartoons. In May 1997, the Comic Artist Labor Union in Taipei (CALU) was established to bring together senior comic-book artists and budding talent to boost the industry, as well as to provide a social net to members of the profession by enabling them to enroll in the labor insurance and the national health insurance programs.
CALU also held the first Annual Best Comics Awards in February this year at the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) amid great fanfare. "These awards serve as our first move to gradually end the isolation of domestic cartoonists," says Max Lai, a cartoonist and president of the organization. "For decades, artists in the film, record, and TV industries have had their own awards to distinguish themselves. Cartoonists, however, were left to compete in the various categories of the Golden Tripod Awards [established in 1976 by the Government Information Office to recognize excellence in the publishing industry]."
Though the Best Comics Awards may not be worth much in monetary value, Lai hopes that their symbolic value may increase year by year through greater prestige and public recognition. In his view, in another eight or nine years, the award might be a widely recognized honor that represents professionalism and provides a goal for every fledgling cartoonist to aspire to, much like the Academy Awards for film. Lai adds that the awards could also act as an incentive for cartoonists to promote their professionalism and thereby raise their social status.
In a strategy to increase public awareness of the event, CALU planned the awards ceremony to coincide with the month-long TIBE, since the annual exhibition usually features long lines of fans waiting to get autographs from their favorite cartoonists. "The local press hardly knew anything about us or our newly launched awards," the CALU president explains. "We had to use this occasion to declare that Taiwan had its own reputable cartoonists. Now the media is starting to pay more attention to what's happening domestically."
The cartoon industry is also getting increased attention from the government. The Government Information Office (GIO) and the ROC Publication Appraisal Foundation, a GIO-supervised organization that promotes the publication-rating system among other tasks, are both supportive of CALU's efforts. Recognizing cartoons as a highly creative art form that transcends national borders and as a form of entertainment with educational and cultural purposes, the GIO's Publication Affairs Department is drafting a comprehensive plan to facilitate the development of the domestic cartoon industry. Though details of the plan have not yet been disclosed, it is understood to include the offering of diverse training courses during the coming school year. Courses encompass drawing techniques, editing and directing skills, screenplay conception, and technological application. Nanhua University is already offering graduate programs in cartoon editing. "The cartoon industry can have a future only with government support," says Fang Wan-nan, president of Tong Li Publishing Co. "Good cartoonists can't be cultivated overnight because cartooning isn't just about drawing. It's more about screenwriting, editing, and directing. Artists need time to grow--this demands financial support that private publishers alone can't provide."
Though the market in Taiwan has grown steadily in the past, young people are now spending more of their allowances on computer pastimes and cell-phone payments instead of comic books. Publishers are suffering from the declining market value, and it is becoming ever more difficult for cartoonists to succeed. Tong Li Publishing used to keep between thirty and fifty in-house comic-book artists on contract since the mid- to late-1980s, but that number has now dropped to fifteen. These artists submit ten to twenty pieces of work a month, which are then reviewed for marketability. During the past few years, despite the dwindling overall market, four or five of these artists have prospered with book sales reaching more than 20,000 copies per volume. According to Fang Wan-nan, these artists, such as Max Lai, are as good as their Japanese counterparts, and their books also sell well in Korea and other Asian countries. "The crucial factor in determining success is whether their work keeps up with modern trends," Fang notes. "That's why Japanese cartoons are well liked even outside Japan. They respond very quickly to social developments."
Another reason for the enormous popularity of Japanese cartoons in Taiwan is that they were the only available choice for some twenty years. During the heyday of Taiwan cartoons, before 1962, cartoonists such as Liu Hsing-chin and Niu-gur enjoyed mass popularity. Liu, who is also an inventor of 138 patents, created two famous characters--Brother A-san and Great Auntie. He recently dedicated these two characters as mascots to his hometown in Hsinchu County, in northern Taiwan. The senior cartoonist was honored in February by CALU with a Life Achievement Award, which he regards as the greatest prize of his career. The works of Niu-gur--the penname of Lee Fay-mon which he adopted from his Chinese zodiac sign, the cow--are classics in Taiwan's cartoon history. Niu-gur, who was also famous for his novels, created comic strips that sharply reflected social conditions in a humorous, cautionary, and lively manner. His work was hailed for representing a genuine Chinese style.
Niu-gur and many of his contemporaries contributed to a golden age in the industry in the 1950s. But along with the praise and popularity came harsh criticism. After numerous reports of children imitating what they had seen in martial-arts cartoons appeared in the newspapers, moralists condemned cartoons for being a bad influence on youths. In 1962 the government's National Institute for Compilation and Translation (NICT) established a rigorous review system for all comic creations.
"The system essentially gagged local cartoonists," says Nanie F. Lee, better known as Niu-sao, Niu-gur's wife. "NICT found fault with everything cartoonists created. They used ridiculous excuses, such as 'dogs don't really talk,' to censor some work. This effort almost killed the industry altogether." Volumes and volumes of comics were rejected during the tough scrutiny, she points out, while the vacuum was filled by Japanese imports that were smuggled into the country, translated, and distributed. Somehow many of these cartoons passed NICT's review system while many domestically produced ones did not. Even those with violent, vindictive, and pornographic content managed to find channels into the market.
Many publishers turned to the lucrative business of pirating Japanese comics, which in turn contributed to a crowded market and forced them to split profits with their many competitors. Subsequent generations of comic fans have thus been exposed to Japanese culture, which largely contributed to the spread of a cult following of "things Japanese" among youths today, Niu-sao contends.
Niu-gur and his wife publicly condemned the system and took their battle to the courts, suing one NICT official, who countersued. Several publishers also sued the couple for libel. In 1985, the same year that the review system was repealed, the official received a nominal fine, and eventually all the charges against the couple were dismissed.
During the decade that followed, the comics industry underwent something of a renaissance. Many new cartoonists emerged to enjoy extreme popularity. Newspapers began to improve their layout and content with comic strips and illustrations. Political cartoons that were critical of sensitive issues began to appear in newspapers and magazines. And since 1992, as a result of newly enacted copyright laws requiring publishers to pay for the reproduction of cartoons, tried and tested best-selling comics were imported, mostly from Japan.
The long absence of original Taiwanese creations and the dominance of Japanese cartoons have profoundly influenced the newer generation of Taiwan artists, giving their creations a distinctively Japanese flair. "Culture possesses intangible power that is expressed only through people's behavior," says Yang Hsin-i, an in-house cartoonist of the United Daily News and chairman of the Chinese Cartoon Union, a group that represents mostly newspaper and magazine artists. "Cartoons set the ground for culture to develop. Children growing up with Japanese cartoons naturally take in the culture."
Niu-sao, who established the Niu-gur Cartoons Cultural Foundation after her husband's death in 1997, regularly organizes contests and exhibitions of her husband's works on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to foster comic creations in a Chinese style. "We urge children to convey messages in their drawings rather than with words," Niu-sao says. She also notes that many talented individuals have been discovered in Taiwan and China. As the contact between the two sides strengthens, cartoonists popular in Taiwan are also finding fans in China. (Although Taiwanese publishers are banned from entering China by both governments, some main land companies have purchased the copyright of individual works by Taiwanese artists and distributed them in China along with pirated editions.)
"Cartoonists in China continue to use more traditional expressions," Yang Hsin-i says. "In terms of comic strips created for newspapers, Taiwan's artists are more critical, up-to-date, and practical. But Chinese cartoonists are given more encouragement to develop, and their government takes measures to protect the industry particularly from Japanese cultural influences." Yang maintains that Taiwanese cartoonists have passed the "copycat phase" and have established their own styles, even in the creation of political cartoons. In general, Japan's cartoon industry focuses more on plot development while Taiwan's artists possess superior drawing skills and create more artistic works.
Far from the isolation of Taiwan's cartoonists in the 1960s, the Internet has helped integrate the industry in Chinese-speaking markets, Yang says with approval. Also spurring interest in cartooning are events such as Niu-sao's cartoon contest in July and the Chinese Cartoon Union's International Cartoon Contest scheduled for November, both of which attract talent from China. In addition, CALU has regularly taken part in Japan's biennial Cartoon Summit, whose participants include artists from many Asian countries such as China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.
CALU's Max Lai hopes to inject an international viewpoint into the industry, along with such marketing strategies as developing 3-D cartoons and commercial products. Though the market has shrunk due to competition from other forms of recreation and by the economic recession, the cartoon community will likely grow over time. Fang Wan-nan points out that the enthusiastic response to the various contests that have been held are an excellent indication of the wealth of potential talent in Taiwan. The New Comic Artist Awards that Fang established last year attracted nearly 400 competitors, and he received inquiries months in advance of this year's contest in September. "Cartoons will never die," he says. "As soon as good cartoons appear, the fans turn up."