Taiwan comics on the rise: Local storytellers, global aspirations
A Taoist detective on the prowl, surreal sexcapades in the city and a dystopia teeming with werewolves and vampires — these are among the motifs that contemporary readers might encounter on a gleeful romp through the world of Taiwanese comics.
Known as
manhua
in Mandarin (the word uses the same Chinese characters as the Japanese term 'manga'), the illustrated medium is enjoying a new heyday thanks to a thriving ecosystem of indie creators, publishers, distribution platforms and government benefactors.
Among the industry's major patrons is the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), established in 2019 by the Ministry of Culture, which supports homegrown cultural production across visual, audio and other domains and operates a number of initiatives especially tailored to manhua.
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