Organized by Taichung Information Bureau, 2018 Taichung Comic Arts Festival begins now until 7/29 at Taichung Cultural and Creative Industries Park. The “Taiwan Monster Treasure Game” themed event started by the legend of Huludun’s “White Horse & White Rabbit, the Treasure Guardians” which presented in the form of comics, animation, game and music to roll out a treasure hunting game. The festival welcome public to download APP to interact with 9 monsters over AR technology and experience the bizarre world of fantasy.

On the opening press today (13), Tz Deputy Mayor Lin Yi-Ying performed the ceremony with Chief Secretary Wu Hua-zong of Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture, city councilman Zheng Gong-jin, Curator He Jing-yao. Comic artists Nofi, Salah. D, Tiezhu, Tike, Zeng Guo-cheng and Tang Wei-jun, Councilman Liu Shi-zhou, and delegate of Tsai Ya-ling’s service, were present at the event.

Animation and comics are critical in art culture, as per Deputy Mayor Lin. Taichung Comic Arts Festival is cultivating its popularity in the recent years. Taking theme from Europe last year, this time Taiwan is incorporated as the main subject, featuring 9 monsters such as Hugupo, Shuigui, Denghou, Shelangjun, etc., and their own histories. This summer bring the family and be familiar with local culture.

To better advance Taichung comic development, the fourth market of old town area is going to be renovated in this October and expected to be completed next year. Comic artists and illustrators are welcomed to station in for creativity boost, says Deputy Mayor. Moreover, the fund granted by Ministry of Culture will be put into the construction of national comic museum in Shuinan Smart City’s Central Taiwan Film Center. Set to be completed in 2020, the base expects to foster more talents of the industry into an international comic base.

Great progress has been made over recent years on the study of Taiwan monster and its academic research, said Curator He Jing-Yao, and the outcome furthered the creation about local monster and its legend. One of the goals of this project is to familiarize our next generation with Taiwan based legends such as Hugupo, Shelangjun, and the festive Denghou during CNY, which all serve well in cultural creative products.

Following the example of “Kitaro”, which was popularized by its creator Shigeru Mizuki over the years from an unknown character, Taiwan shall make ways to our original monster culture.

This year the Taichung Comic Arts Festival - Taiwan Monster panned our into three exhibition zones, says Information Bureau, of which the first zone begins with Curator He’s original creation “Yaoguai Minggelu” and its smartphone APP that expands a treasure-hunting storyline of Huludun’s “White Horse & White Rabbit, the Treasure Guardians”, AR is incorporated to locate Taiwan monsters in the scenes; for the 2nd zone there is a collection of every local monster in comic form; as for 3rd zone, it features Taiwan monsters game in a traditional “Huluwen” (Gourd asking) mode, and more such as monster theatre, DIYs, etc. The exhibition is enhanced with comic, animation, games and music.

Other than above exhibition zones, 7/14 (Sat) there will be a “summer comic & animation concert” at Central Plaza of the Cultural & Creative Industries Park starts at 16:00. The event will present songs by Meeia Foo, the singer for APP game “Yaoguai Minggelu”, Kanako Ito and Mariko Honda, the Japanese singer for video games and anime, and many more Taiwanese groups, bringing the charm of animation to the public in the form of music. In the Weekend DIYs, experts of comic, illustration and model design take you to design and hand paint your postcards and model of cute monsters.

Moreover, this year a series of comic forums invite authors and professionals from HK, Japan, and Taiwan to talk about the presentation of monster culture in animation, literature and music. “Monster Lecture”, for example, is joined by Japanese Anime director Akitaro Daichi, HK chief editor Yeh Zi-song of literature review Sample, local comic authors Qiu Sheng-yang, Nofi, Salah. D, Sa Xiang-shen, Jiaosi, and Curator He, to exchange opinions and experience over the topic. Every forum is not to be missed by fans of monster and comic/animation creation.

2018 Taichung Comic Arts Festival begins now until 7/29 at Taichung Cultural and Creative Industries Park. Families are welcomed to play with Taiwan monsters and get familiar with local culture through the monster game interaction. For detail information, go to Taichung Comic Arts Festival’s Facebook Page and the Summer Animation Concert webpage.