Taipei Cultural Center in New York

New York-based Taiwanese vibraphonist and composer Yuhan Su, along with the other members of her quintet, will be presenting her newest original compositions at Soapbox Gallery on March 1 at 8 pm. The concert, titled “Liberated Ges-ture,” features a suite dedicated to German-French artist Hans Hartung. Su wrote this series of music during her 6-month artist residency, supported by the Taiwan Cultural Center in Paris, at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2019. The concert is free of charge and made possible by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture.

Elaborating on the concept behind “Liberated Gesture,” Su said that “Among the various museums I have visited [in Paris], I was most deeply amazed by the ab-stract master Hans Hartung's work in the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. His work motivated me to develop my jazz series ... I intended to use a musical language to deliver linear, dotted, and color-block motifs in this work. It shows dramatic pow-er and visuals. The music is movable to unknown places without any limitation.”

Su was listed for the 2018 DownBeatCritics Poll in the category of “Rising Star” for vibraphone. Her previous records, City Animals (October 2018, Sunnyside Rec-ords), A Room of One’s Own (2015, Inner Circle Music), and Flying Alone (2012, Inner Circle Music), were released to widespread acclaim. She has also received numerous awards and nominations such as Best Jazz Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Jazz Single, and Best Instrumentalist at the Golden Indie Music Awards; Best Performance Album of the year and Best Composer at the Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan; and Best Release of the Year by both All about Jazz and Downbeat.

“Liberated Gesture” features Yuhan Su on vibraphone, Caroline Davis on saxo-phone, Matt Mitchell on piano, Chris Tordini on bass, and Dan Weiss Bell on drums. For more information, please visit Soapbox Gallery’s website: https://www.soapboxgallery.org/.

YAN (閻鐵花), a one-of-a-kind comic book from Taiwan, has been selected for the Taiwan Comic City Exhibition, which is presented by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA, 文化內容策進院). The online event showcases some of the best comics from Taiwan and turns them into voiced comics, inviting you to see and hear a wondrous world of Taiwanese comics.

The comic book illustrates how a Peking Opera performer, Yan Tieh-hua (閻鐵花), becomes a superhero. As with many of the best superhero stories, YAN’s storylines often center on vengeance and retribution. The main character’s origin story revolves around one crucial turn of events in particular: Yan's family was murdered and the only survivor, Yan, was wrongly convicted and sent to prison. Yan died in custody, yet a woman who bears a resemblance to her mysteriously appears to seek her own form of justice 20 years later.

Chang Sheng (常勝), a Taiwanese comic artist, created a story that combines Chinese traditional art with science fiction elements. The bold and ambitious work has drawn significant attention since its release in 2020.

“Chang Sheng made a major breakthrough in the field by moving across the divide between comics and Peking Opera,” Liu Chia-hou (劉珈后) , a prestigious performer at the GuoGuang Opera Company (國光劇團), stated in a written recommendation for YAN’s first publication on books.com.tw.

Liao Ming-yil (廖明毅), a Taiwanese movie director, liked the story so much that he jumped at the chance to create a film adaptation. After Liao successfully pitched the idea to Chang Sheng and Dala Publications (大辣出版社), the adaptation was officially announced in March 2021. Director Liao is teaming up with movie producer Steve Wang (王師) to bring YAN to the big screen in 2023.

TAICCA CEO Izero Lee (李明哲) believes that YAN and other Taiwanese comics have the potential to enter the global market, as the rich history and cultural diversity of Taiwan produces excellent talents. “As a result of Taiwan's freedom of expression, its creators thrive in all sorts of narrative graphics, including Japanese manga, European bande dessinée, and graphic novels,” TAICCA notes on taiwan-comic-city.taicca.tw.

TAICCA collaborated with 14 publications to present the Taiwan Comic City Exhibition. 49 Taiwanese comics are on display, and 15 of them have been turned into voiced comics. To see and hear the fantastic world of Taiwanese comics, please visit https://taiwan-comic-city.taicca.tw/.