Snoopy seems headed for Taiwan to the 2024 Hsinchu Animation & Comics Festival. I hope he has as good a time as I expect to have!
July 20, 2024 – Well, we flew to Taiwan on May 22 and spent five days in Hsinchu where the Animation and Comics Festival was being hosted by the City of Hsinchu. The promoters were expecting around 1000 attendees to the free event and wound up with over 3000. Not bad for a first time show in a city know mostly for its windiness and wheat noodles! Since the late Nineties, however, it is now known as the Silicon Valley of Taiwan and is the current major exporter of computer chips in the world. The festival was very laid back and comfortable, in spite of the outdoor climate being in the eighties with humidy at about 80% most of the time. Thank goodness for efficient A/C. The sponsors put together a very professional art display area for me and the other artists, including Philip Tan, who I worked with on a six-issue Phantom Stranger series a few years ago. Philip wasn’t able to attend, but his artwork was well presented.
We enjoyed the Night Markets and their wonderful street food and met some very nice persons, particularly Ann and Jin, for touring us around Hsinchu. The next five days we spent in Tai Pei, seeing the museums, attending Night Markets, and revisiting the building near the University where Shirley had stayed when she was in Taiwan for fourteen months in 1978-79. One of the high points was hiring a taxi to take us on a four-hour tour to Jiufen, a small mountain village, made famous largely due to its similarity to the village in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Miyazaki denies it was an inspiration, and after seeing the film again last night, I believe him. But, inspired or not, Jiufen is a must-see if you are ever in Northern Taiwan. Just don’t get run over by hordes of Miyazaki fans!
