Jumping off the Page: Picture Book Transformations

A tranquil shop occupies a corner location in East Tai­pei’s bustling commercial district. But rather than selling the latest fashionable items, its racks are full of colorful picture books. When people enter this youthful and fun space, they leave their worries behind them.

Ted Hayashi hopes that the imaginative spaces created by picture books can help children and adults alike experience the joys of reading.

Conveying an intangible treasure

This is Shi­ma­risu Picture Books, which was opened in 2010 by Ted Ha­ya­shi. His rationale for selecting the neighborhood was not to maximize profit, but rather because “Tokyo’s ­Ginza, New York’s Manhattan and other ritzy areas of international cities all have stores specializing in illustrated books.” Bustling Tai­pei ought to have its own stylish children’s bookstore, he thought.   

Not long after Shi­ma­risu opened, Ha­ya­shi organized its first book reading. Although the activity was held with little fanfare, it surprisingly attracted six families. That greatly boosted his confidence, and over the years he has added a 0‡1 infant class, “English Funtime,” a children’s illustration workshop, and a “secret base for stories” class. Nowadays, participants need to register a month ahead of time.

Hayashi’s decision to open an illustrated books shop is connected to his childhood. He recalls how his grandmother would recount folktales and his mother would take the time to read bedside stories to him. When he was six, he received two picture books that a friend of his parents brought back from the United States. The rich illustrations spurred Ha­ya­shi’s imagination. For a long period, he would read those two books over and over, utterly captivated.

From his deeply felt experience with the charms of picture books, as well as an irreplaceable sense of intimacy with the members of his family that grew out of books and storytelling, he has steered Shi­ma­risu toward increasing parent‡child activities and cultivating children’s reading habits.

Apart from the operations of the store, some years ago, in the wake of the floods caused by Typhoon Mo­ra­kot in August 2009, he volunteered for a service mission to affected Aboriginal villages. Out of that experience came Ha­ya­shi’s plan to read stories in kindergartens nationwide. Although resources and compassion were pouring into the devastated areas from across Taiwan, there wasn’t a strong reading ethos in the tribal villages, so donated books were just stacked idly in warehouses. That pained him. Consequently, he worked with nonprofit kindergartens from various places and brought his employees to tell stories to the children and promote picture books. Ha­ya­shi grew up mostly in Japan and his Mandarin is weak, so he used Taiwanese to read the books. Sometimes, they would dress up as Santas. Seeing the children’s rapt attention and sense of expectation, he understood that he was planting seeds of reading, which would germinate in them.

Shimarisu Picture Books

Listen! Illustrations are singing

When the National Symphony Orchestra played Handel’s “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba,” they projected onto the stage’s backdrop The New Clothes of the King of Yasi. The author of the book’s text, Liu Qing­yan, read aloud up on stage. The majestic symphony sounded to accompany the bright illustrations, leading everyone to enter the world of beetles as explored by Yasi, who has Asperger’s.

The “My Little Big World” concert was held in April of this year as part of the NSO’s longstanding Kids’ Concert Series, which has since 2003 integrated music and art, hoping to spark children’s aesthetic sensibilities. 

When the concert series was first established, the orchestra looked for a performance repertoire from within the Western classical tradition. Peter and the Wolf is a famous symphonic fairytale that uses a flute to represent a bird and a French horn to represent the wolf. Percussion is used to signify gunfire. The music and narration create an alternately tense and joyous atmosphere. It is a classic among musical performances oriented toward children.

Joyce ­Chiou, executive director of the NSO, explains that back when they originally started planning this program, they would first decide on the music and then plan and structure the narrative elements. A fan of picture books, she has discovered that Taiwan is producing illustrated books of ever higher quality, so the NSO has started looking for suitable art first and then looking for music to match. They have even asked composers to write music for the illustrations. 

For instance, they invited composer Chen Ting-­chuan to create music for Bei Lynn’s picture book Granny’s Favorite Toy, and they asked Lynn herself to get up on stage at the concert and read from her book.

The NSO also once invited the illustrator He Yun­zhi to paint during performances, with a feed of her works-in-progress projected on stage. At the four concerts she joined that year, she used different media and materials, such as sea sponges, toy car wheels and other improvised materials, to convey the spirit behind “Spring” in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Chiou’s enthusiasm for picture books has infected other members of the NSO. Everybody pays attention to the latest children’s books to hit the market, so that they can collect the ones that are suitable for performances. From these, three of four are selected to match performances of various kinds, as the NSO continues to imagine boundless new possibilities for blending picture books with music.

Shimarisu Picture Books is filled with the sounds of storytelling, laughter, and children’s voices.

Picture books to virtual reality

Jimmy SPA Plus Co., Ltd. has long been working on transforming Jimmy Liao’s books by crossing disciplines—such as by turning them into movies and plays. In a similar vein, take the huge mural at the Nan­gang MRT station in Tai­pei or the “Happy Station” at Yi­lan’s train station. Both have turned scenes and characters from Jimmy’s books into large-scale installations, bringing a picture book’s imaginative flights of fancy into the reality of everyday life.

Last year smartphone maker HTC and Next Animation Studio collaborated to bring virtual reality to Jimmy’s book All My World Is You, moving what had existed on the two-dimensional surface of the page to the three dimensions of VR.

All My World Is You tells the story of a little girl who loses a puppy she loves dearly. Missing the puppy, she traipses through the rooms of an abandoned hotel formerly run by her family, trying to find memories of herself and the dog. Many different characters wander into the drama as she gradually accepts the little black dog’s death, eventually happily embracing her memories.

With a VR headset strapped on, the vivid illustrations from the book are turned before one’s eyes into imaginative three-dimensional spaces. This time one could choose among four separate segments spun off from the book: “The Gardener and the Big Fat Tree,” which discusses the idea of letting go; “The Monster and the Television, which expresses the value of cherishment; “The Mover and the Piano,” which interprets the importance of making new starts; and finally “The Wandering Woman’s Reminiscences,” which delves into forgetting.

As the little girl sits with a wandering woman on a boat being buffeted about by the dark sea, the VR controller becomes a flashlight that illuminates wherever the hand moves, lighting up the virtual scene and leading the players into the wandering woman’s memories. Eventually she ends up out in the middle of the sea, surrounded by colorful balloons as the crescent moon emerges from the water and the girl and the little dog happily wave goodbye.

Illustrated books are two-dimensional media, and to be experienced in VR, “You’ve got to extend the book’s story and provide 360-degree scenes,” says Lee Yu­san, general manager of Jimmy SPA. “The graphics must be very detailed. Otherwise it’s easy to spot the flaws.” When you combine one of Jimmy’s picture books with VR, you not only have to create something entertaining and interactive, but it’s even more important that you produce something that conveys the original creative spirit of Jimmy’s illustrations.

HTC Vive’s VR experience “Jimmy Liao’s All of My World Is You” was a hit at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016, and areas have been establised at both Tai­pei’s Syntrend Creative Park and Yi­lan’s Happy Station for people to try it out, breaking down the distance between Jimmy’s work and the public.

As the creative imagination found in these illustrations is brought to life, the lines between the real and the imaginary start to blur, and the power of imagination pierces everything.

The National Symphony Orchestra’s Kids’ Concert Series cultivates an aesthetic sensibility in children. (courtesy of the NSO)

The National Symphony Orchestra’s Kids’ Concert Series cultivates an aesthetic sensibility in children. (courtesy of the NSO)

Jimmy Liao’s books have been turned into large-scale installations, bringing their rich imagery into everyday life.

For virtual reality to be convincing, meticulous consideration must be given to the relative size of the characters. (courtesy of Jimmy SPA)

Wearing VR headsets brings people inside the landscapes created by Jimmy for his picture books.

courtesy of Jimmy SPA

courtesy of Jimmy SPA

courtesy of Jimmy SPA

courtesy of Jimmy SPA

A trip to Yilan’s “Happy Station” will give you a sense of the childlike innocence of Jimmy’s world.

Reinterpreting picture books across disciplines suffuses life with imaginative possibilities.