In stark contrast to the impossibly good-looking characters of Japanese comics, those in Taiwanese manga artist Li Lung-chieh’s (李隆杰) works are often chunky, bald or strange-looking.
“My worries about a receding hairline started when I was still in senior-high school,” the artist said.
“Since then, I have always wanted to create a different appreciation of beauty by ‘brainwashing’ my readers into thinking that bald is the new handsome,” Li added.
Li, who was selected to represent Taiwan at the 38th Angouleme International Comics Festival in 2011, is known for infusing Taiwanese culture into his works, for example drawing on traditional lion dance culture and busy motorcycle-packed streets.
His latest publication, Taiwan Determination: Legend of Beigang (新世紀北港神拳), was featured in January and June in the bestselling magazine Creative Comic Collection and is set in Yunlin County’s Beigang Township (北港), a place dubbed the “Fists Den” (拳頭窟) because of its reputation as the home of Taiwanese-style kung fu.
The book is based on the real-life stories of a Beigang kung fu legend, “Beigang Six Foot Four” (北港六尺四), and features in detail the violent martial arts battles that ensue when a US wrestler arrives in the township to learn about Chinese medicine.
Li’s equally famous work is Love in the Sea of Motorcycles (愛在機車之海), drawing on the nation’s scooter phenomenon.
The work revolves around a scooter enthusiast who aspires to establish a religion that worships motorbikes, dubbed “Motorcycle-ism.”
Li has also created a dialogue-free comic piece, A Lion Head on the Street (流浪的獅頭), saying that the absence of words makes the physical interactions between characters more important.
“Also, writing dialogue for comics is a real pain on the neck,” Li joked.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS