On the occasion of 2020 -- the year of comics in France, a total of six virtual in-depth forums highlighting Taiwan's comic scene will take place from Oct. 5 to 9 during France's Foreign Cultures Week, a fair organized by the Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes in Paris.
The series of events will kick off with an online discussion and the screening of a short clip on Taiwanese comic series "Jhuge Shiro (諸葛四郎)" on Oct. 5. Themed "a special form of expression," the event will be opened by Taiwan's Representative to France Francois Chih-chung Wu (吳志中) and hosted by British comics expert Paul Gravett.
Also on Oct. 5, Didier Pasamonik, editor-in-chief of ActuaBD.com, will offer an inside look of a number of exceptional comic works from Taiwan, which will be accompanied by the screening of a short documentary on Taiwanese artist Li Lung-chieh (李隆杰), whose artwork "Koxinga Z (1661國姓來襲)" was named Comic of the Year at the 2018 Golden Comic Awards.
French curator Fabrice Douar and Pili Muñoz, director of the Maison des Auteurs in the French city of Angouleme, will further explore Taiwanese comics on Oct. 6. The duo will also showcase a documentary introducing Taiwanese artists who were previously selected as artists-in-residence of the Maison des Auteurs.
A screening of a short film on comics artist Zuo Hsuan (左萱) will be available on Oct. 7, which will be accompanied by a discussion attended by two French publishers Timothée Guédon and Frédéric Fourreau.
Together with French award-winning comics artist Emmanuel Guibert, Taiwanese illustrators Lin Li-chin (林莉菁), Huang Pei-Shan (黃珮珊) and Liu Chien-fan (劉倩帆) will look at the comics-themed exchanges between Taiwan and France and the contemporary comics on Oct. 8 and 9, respectively.
Lin will showcase a clip on the comics artist herself, before a discussion on comics-themed exchanges attended by Guibert. On the other hand, Huang, winner of the best editor award of the 2018 Golden Comic Awards, will be joined by Liu in the contemporary comics discussion.
A screening of a documentary on Taiwanese illustrators Ding Pao-yen (丁柏晏), who creates illustrations under the pen name of Morning Anxiety (日安焦慮), will also be available on Oct .9. Visit here for more information pertaining to the events.