America’s biggest comic convention, Comic-Con International: San Diego, will be held on July 23-25, 2021, as a free, online event, Comic-Con@Home, due to the pandemic. Participating in its third consecutive year, the virtual Taiwan Exhibit has taken “Future Island” as its theme and will present 10 original works of science fiction brimming with mystery and hope. It will also hold an online talk to discuss the original Taiwanese animation, Mayfly Island, to present the unique cultural charm and stories of Taiwan, and to uncover some of the secrets and perseverance behind the animation process. Stay tuned!
This year, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, the Chinese Animation and Comic Publishers Association (CCPA) has helped programmed a virtual Taiwan Exhibit which will present 10 brilliant, handpicked creations, including FIRST DIVORCE, THEN MONSTERS? (Aniyong), DE BUG (Chou Yen), SOUL (Chiyou), OPUS: THE DAY WE FOUND EARTH 1 (PN Chen), Pirate Town (Richard Metson), Mayfly Island (Evergreen Yeh), Mechanical Souls (Yu-Yu Hsu), Pigsy Express (Li-Wei Chiu), MU Empire (KCN) and Zigma (Oscar Tsai & 6 co-creators). The Exhibit signals a Taiwanese cyber-punk vision of the future and takes the audience on an escape from reality and the hardships of the pandemic, through hope and the unexpected future of the world to come. All 10 works are included in the limited edition 2021 Taiwan Exhibit Guide, and available to viewers in Taiwan and abroad to browse and download: https://reurl.cc/qgpOVy.
Moreover, there will be an online talk on “Survival is the Adventure! Mayfly Island's Dream of Near-future Animation.” Dr. Wan-Chun Ma, winner of the Scientific and Technical Achievement Award at the Academy Awards, Klimt Lin, director of the Taiwanese animation Mayfly Island, and its screenwriter, Shang-Chiao Li, have all been invited to share on Mayfly Island’s story and worldview, ecological crisis and Austronesian culture. They will also discuss the power of Taiwanese animation, challenges faced during the animation process, how 2D and 3D technologies complement each other and how they can innovate animation content and special effects production. The exclusive animation sketches of Mayfly Island will also be disclosed during the talk. All are welcome to watch the online talk through the Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles’ YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxEfHKoDsDUXsROj_QGTPzA. For more highlights and the latest updates from the Taiwan Exhibit, please visit: https://www.comic-con.org/.