National Taiwan Museum of Comics:

New attraction for cultural tourism

Visitors to the NTMC are delighted to discover that Taichung has this kind of venue. They are also astonished by the house-sized silvery banyan tree on the campus.

After a six-year search for a location for the NTMC, the then culture minister Shih Che chose the Japanese-­era Taichung Prison. The decision brought about the reopening of this mysterious historic site, which had been fenced off and encircled by vines for a decade.

“This is one of the reasons why nearly 50% of the visitors to the NTMC since its opening in December of 2023 are not comic-book fans,” says Huang Shuo, head of the NTMC Preparatory Office. The beautiful wooden structures are themselves part of the appeal. The tranquil atmosphere and the exhibitions of comics and animations make the NTMC a major new attraction for cultural tourism in Taiwan.

The prison site includes the Budokan Martial Arts Hall (built in 1937 to train prison guards) and the officials’ quarters (built in 1915). Exhibition space 05, popular with children, is the former prison bathhouse. Today it boasts interactive technology allowing visitors to add colors to comics. The design by manhua creator Tpcat includes a bathing giraffe and rabbits to convey the idea of “soaking” oneself in comics. It has become a popular check-in spot.

Huang Shuo, who has been reading manhua since she was a child, argues that comic books are part of the collective memories of ordinary people and an integral part of life.

Comics in popular memory

Older visitors to the NTMC often declare to their kids: “Look! These are comics from when I was a child. I wasn’t as lucky as you, who have them right on your phones.”

Huang Shuo says: “We hope that visitors of all ages can rediscover their memories here.” Where there are comic books, there are memories.

The NTMC replicates the atmosphere of early comic-­book rental shops. Here people can relax and read comics free of charge. One area is labeled “unlicensed Japanese manga” (so-called pirate editions), which Huang notes is also where collections research takes place.

She explains that regulations adopted by the government in 1966 inhibited publication of home-grown comic books, so many publishers resorted to selling pirated Japanese manga.

The NTMC invited illustrator KCN to do some drawings on site; the final work forms a screen.

A mecca for comic-book fans

There is one room with a display of comics magazines from 1950 to 2020, giving comic-book fans a chance to trace the history of comics in Taiwan while also offering inspiration to researchers, creators, and people seeking memories. There are periodic book launch events in the new book exhibition area, enabling creators and fans to interact.

A highlight of the NTMC is its special exhibitions. The current Yeh Hong-chia Centennial exhibit is the museum’s first such event. On October 26, 2023, Yeh’s son Yeh Chia-lung donated to the NTMC all of his father’s drawings, numbering over 10,000, of which a selection are on display in the exhibition along with awards and other artifacts, numbering 100 items in all. Besides the exhibits relating to two-dimensional comics, there is also a section on animation that gives insights into such aspects as the design of traps and hazards in animation, as well as character design.

Yeh’s creation Jhuge Shiro (Zhuge Silang), Taiwan’s earliest superhero, has been made into a stage play by Paper Windmill Theatre (from whom Yeh Chia-lung took only NT$1 in royalties) and has been performed nearly 50 times so far. “We hope we can inform more young people about Jhuge Shiro,” says Huang Shuo.

The Yeh Hong-chia Centennial exhibition at the NTMC incorporates a rich variety of items including manhua, animations, and original drawings by Yeh Hong-chia (1923–1990).