The Ministry of Culture aspires to create an environment conducive to the creation of literature, comics, graphic novels, and other original works through publishing rewards, talent cultivation programs, digitization and interdisciplinary incentives, and regional and international marketing channels. This is part of efforts to support the cultural economy and promote Taiwan's literature on the world stage through the export of Taiwanese values and books.
Key Initiatives
1. Cultivate new talents:
By offering talent cultivation programs including subsidy mechanisms for new writers to kick start their careers and financial incentives for digital and physical releases of manga content. Measures include priority consideration for stipends for writing, research, living expenses, information collection, and assistance fees to support creative professionals and bolster the nation’s output in literature and comics.
2. Organize residency exchange programs:
Through cooperative pacts with the International Writing Program (IWP) of the University of Iowa to residency exchanges between the Taiwan Comic Base and France’s Angouleme (la Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image) and Blois (bdBOUM-Maison de la BD) regions, such exchanges broaden the worldviews of all participants, introducing Taiwan to visiting artists and making Taiwanese works more readily available overseas.
3. Assist independent brick-and-mortar bookstores:
By offering consultant services and subsidy mechanisms for opening, operating, and expanding the scope of independent bookstores.
4. Facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration:
By holding matchmaking events for publishing and audiovisual sector representatives, organizing trade delegations for international fairs, and seeking new models for adapting literary works for other mediums.
5. Lead digitization efforts:
By improving research and development in pioneering practices in digital publishing and services, subsidizing the cost of producing digital publications, training new talents, and enhancing international engagement for small- and medium-sized enterprises.
6. Enter new markets:
Through the translation and distribution of Taiwanese works by foreign publishing houses, negotiation of copyrights, and book fair attendance, Taiwan's literature will maintain its high international visibility and its eminent position in the Mandarin-language publishing market.
7. Operate the Taiwan Comic Base:
By holding Taiwanese comic exhibitions, matchmaking events, workshops to offer legal consultations and other services that can help ensure the wellbeing of Taiwan's comic artists and promote the industry's development. Based in a four-story connected building numbered No. 36 and No. 38 on Taipei's Huayin Street, the Taiwan Comic Base was launched in 2018 as a creative headquarters for Taiwanese comics creation.
8. Launch the National Comics Museum:
For preserving the nation's comics heritage, promoting research into Taiwanese comics, and introducing local works to the world.
Global Exchanges
1. International literary residencies and other exchange programs.
2. Book fairs and international publishing events.
3. Training camps for publishing and copyright professionals.
4. Books From Taiwan, a digital resource hub for contacts and subsidies pertaining to literary translation and overseas distribution of Taiwanese works.