Organized by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia and carried out by the INXO Arts and Culture Foundation, Tea Philo invited the founder of the comic shop Mangasick, Huang Ting-yu (黃廷玉), to share her journey of running the comic book shop and exchange ideas with the president of Malaysia Comicker Union (馬來西亞漫人協會) Lau Shaw-ming (劉少鳴).
Situated in an inconspicuous basement in Gongguan, Taipei, Mangasick began its operation in 2013 as the first independent comic book shop in Taiwan. It aims to introduce comics and graphic works of all kinds to local readers. The founders Huang Ting-yu and Huang Hung-yen (黃鴻硯) collect non-mainstream comic publications from around the world and offer in-store reading for a fee. The founders also organize monthly comic book exhibitions in their store, translate and self-publish works that cater to niche markets, and even go beyond operating the space to publish translated Taiwanese comics in Japan.
Huang always had a passion for manga ever since she was young. Influenced by subcultures like Taiwanese indie music during college, she dived into the world of manga and attempted to explore more aspects of manga culture. At the Tea Philo talk, Huang shared her decade-long journey of running Mangasick and anecdotes happening in this base of indie comics subculture. As for the host, Lau Shaw-ming has been promoting the development of the Malaysian animation industry and pushing the culture and creative industry communication between Malaysia and Taiwan, Japan, as well the United States.
Tea Philo is a series of salon talks aiming to build the connection between Malaysia and Taiwan and has held 58 courses since 2017. The event is free of charge and open to all audiences with registration, for more information, please visit the Tea Philo Facebook Page.