Chiu Row - Long - Tradition versus modernity part i 邱若龍

CHIU Row-long When I was young My father was a Manga artist Later because of the NICT⋯ Before, it was quite big It was hard to earn a living from Manga So my dad gave it up He hoped we would not become Manga artists either because we wouldn’t earn enough to survive It was too late, however My younger brother and I had already become totally hooked We never paid attention in class We would draw all over the textbook When we weren’t drawing we didn’t know what to do because early on My dad said he gave us paper and a pen as toys Everyone knows that for a long time Manga in Taiwan, especially me, when I was growing up, was all Japanese Manga There were a few Taiwanese artists like Liu Shin-Chien and Ye Hongjia and a few others My father didn’t want us to keep it up but he didn’t want to forbid us from doing anything He just said to us If you do like drawing or reading it, don’t⋯ He said, don’t just draw in one style Don’t try and mimic someone else’s work That way you’ll draw something of your own You lose the form of the original, but you’ll have your own style The Wushe Incident, or rather aboriginal⋯ Or even just Taiwanese History⋯ Actually, history itself is quite dry but it is actually very interesting too Textbook history is dry and dull If everything were to be translated into Manga studying would be more interesting for kids The reason I’m so interested in aboriginal people⋯ I’m sure everyone knows the film Seediq Bale ’Seediq’ means ‘person’ in the Seediq language ’Bale’ means ‘real’ So the film’s title means ‘Real people’ In their language this, of course, refers to those who have passed certain ritual tests, earning tattoos on their face, thus becoming “real people” So it’s cultural and spiritual You just have to look at how the aborigines carried out Wushe and maybe that can allow us to explore how people interact with each other and with their environment In that era Mona Rudo took pleasure in beating the Japanese, so I wanted to do the same with Manga I wanted to use the Mona Rudo Manga to oppose the domination of Japanese Manga in Taiwan So I set to drawing it I wouldn’t have lived past elementary school without Manga I would have died of boredom Because I really didn’t like reading when I was young I thought it was boring Only images could get me excited Manga gives kids hope to keep going, the only reason they go to class in the morning is because when class is over they can go home and watch cartoons and read Manga, that’s how they get through every day how they continue living Well, that’s what it was like for me