Jimmy was born in the 1950s and was originally named Liao Fu-pin. Lee Yusan was born in the 1970s, has a degree in Chinese literature from National Cheng Kung University, and has always worked in publishing-related industries. While Jimmy is responsible for the creative side of their partnership, Lee concentrates on marketing the Jimmy brand. By complementing each other's strengths, the two partners have created the global "Jimmy phenomenon." (left photo by Jimmy Lin, right by Hseuh Chi-kuang)

Jimmy Liao is a Taiwanese author of il-lustrated books that have inspired numerous play, film, TV drama, and animated film adaptations over the past decade. Action figures based on the main characters in his picture books, reproductions of his illustrations, and other licensed products are part of a cultural phenomenon that generates more than NT$1 billion in annual sales in Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and even as far away as Europe and America.

Lee Yusan was born in the 1970s, during Taiwan's economic takeoff. Thanks to her unique vision and Jimmy Liao's creative genius, the two were spared a trial-and-error period such as the one that was so evocatively portrayed in Jimmy's book A Chance of Sunshine and formed a collaborative partnership that has brought Jimmy's art onto the global stage.

"I don't like people calling me Jimmy's manager!" insists Lee Yusan, executive director of Jimmy S.P.A. Co., Ltd., a company exclusively devoted to marketing the Jimmy brand. Lee thinks that a cultural broker shouldn't view her client as an individual author or an individual work, but as the core of a cultural brand and business.

Lee and Jimmy Liao first forged a good working relationship in late 2000, when she was head of marketing design at Grimm Press and helped him design his website. When Lee left Grimm Press, she worked with Jimmy to found Jimmy S.P.A.

Lee told Jimmy that she hoped to work with by setting up a company, rather than serving as his personal agent. Jimmy agreed, and he, his elder sister, and Lee together put up NT$1.5 million to start the company.

When they began their partnership, Jimmy was a middle-aged man who had survived a battle with leukemia and was determined to devote himself heart and soul to his art, while Lee was a young woman with a background in literary publishing who had no inkling of what it would take to get a business off the ground. Who could have predicted then that the dream they hatched in an old apartment would today be a cultural brand that generates annual sales of more than NT$1 billion and is loved by Chinese-speaking people around the world?