The publishing industry is leading the charge, di­versi­fy­ing its operations to transform itself into a cultural industry through IP translation, and so sparking the rise of independent publishing houses. Kiwi Cultural and Creative is one such enterprise. Kiwi has taken a new approach, using unique methods to develop, produce, and promote original Taiwanese IP. But Kiwi’s concerns go beyond its own cultural and creative products—the company sees Taiwan’s cultural and creative industry as a team. As long as the players (content creators), coaches (culture industry operators), and investors (the government) are ready with good business strategies and models, Taiwanese content can take on the world.

Insisting that “Taiwan manga is not dead,” Liu Ting-kang has invited major publishing houses to invest in the future of Taiwanese comics.

International IP competition: Theme over content

In late 2020, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (­TAICCA) issued a report, “Survey of Cultural Content Consumption Trends,” profiling future “reading” trends in Taiwan.

Kiwi is often invited to offer opinions at TAICCA consultation hearings and has noted that the government is already lending support by continuing the Creative Comic Collection (CCC) digital platform, for instance. Related domestic industries have also realized that IP is going international.

“In the current IP industry, content can be transformed directly into a product. No matter how it’s sold or consumed, content is the commodity. That’s today’s IP,” says Liu Ting-kang, Kiwi’s creative director, explaining why the scope of the IP industry has broadened. Liu also notes another important point: “The IP industry needs digital platforms, and the IP economy relies on product diversity to keep the market hot.”

IP has become a global phenomenon. “If you want to make a YouTube video, from script to screen presentation, everything is there together: video, images, text (sub­titles or keywords that appear on screen) and sound,” Liu says. “The information revolution has given birth to diverse and complex media formats, and some creators have succeeded by adopting IP-based business strategies.”

“Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ franchise is a good example. Since the series was launched, new works based on the IP of Marvel’s comic books have come out one after another, maintaining moviegoers’ interest in the superheroes’ backstories and other adventures. There is also peripheral merchandise, allowing the ‘creative content’ to generate higher value and continue to develop.”

In today’s IP competition, having content is important, but the subject matter of that content is even more important. “People’s reading tastes are no longer limited to classics. Good IP couched in a mass entertainment format can move readers, resonating with them and making them think, prompting them to examine their lives and pay more attention to social phenomena,” says Kiwi editor-in-chief Liao Chih-yun. She believes that this gives IP creations a strong connection with cultural ideas and current issues.

Kiwi’s The Birth of Benben is a sociological work that delves into the topic of hot-blooded fan-created anime and dissects otaku culture. Contributors include scholars, authors, editors, and other manga and anime enthusiasts.

Taiwan IP takes on the world

The IP industry has given creativity wings, connecting it with the world. But what about Taiwan? “Taiwan has its own unique cultural content,” Liu Ting-kang says. “The rise of local cultural consciousness among Taiwanese consumers provides creative sustenance for IP production here.”

A sociologist by training, Liu also has an in-depth knowledge of comic books, which he considers high-value reading material: “Cartoons were originally the combination of a picture with some text. With the addition of further graphics and through division into individual scenes, they devel­oped into a series of images capable of telling a story, subverting and breaking through existing media forms.”

Kiwi publishes comics not for the intrinsic value of the images themselves, but to reveal in-depth issues in IP. “The work of many manga artists in Taiwan deals with Taiwan’s history, local culture, and folk customs. These are very precious; they’re Taiwan-specific but could become international IP,” Liu says.

Kiwi is sparing no effort to make that a reality. “We found a theme that no one in Taiwan has developed before: Taiwan monsters,” Liu says. “This IP includes novels and comics, and some people have even compiled a sort of monster encyclopedia. It’s a complete ‘Taiwan monster­ology.’” Modern people are facing an explosion of information, thus accessibility is an important factor in IP promotion.

In addition to Taiwanese cultural memes, global social issues can be a source of ideas, a way to connect with the international scene by stepping out of the Taiwan market and setting one’s sights on the world. “The Taiwan TV series On Children has been very successful,” says Liu. “Social phenomena and issues are an excellent medium for com­mun­ic­at­ing with international audiences. With governmental support, Taiwan’s IP will amaze the world.”

Kiwi is always ready to investigate intriguing new social developments, and the “yaoi fandom” phenomenon that’s sweeping the world is no exception.

An unorthodox approach

“An unorthodox approach to a gentle revolu­tion in reading” is Kiwi’s mission in a nutshell. The independent publishing house was cofounded by a married ­couple—Liu, a sociologist, and his wife, Liao Chih-Yun, a psychologist who is also a literary author. “We want to make ‘reading’ more exciting and more diverse,” says Liu Ting-kang.

Liu Ting-kang and Liao Chih-yun have clearly defined Kiwi’s approach to “cultural creation”: using creativity to make culture visible and turn it into a business.

Kiwi set out to establish a “creative culture” platform as its ideal and “cultural creativity” as its publishing style. “We want to overturn non-readers’ stereotypical views of reading and provide new materials and modes of reading to people who already like to read, turning them into new kinds of readers.” Liu Ting-kang wants to give people a new reading experience.

Positioning Kiwi as a cultural IP creator may be more indicative of its goals: “We regard publishing itself as a creative activity. That’s based on the fact that we set no limits on reading and have a boundless acceptance of readers’ tastes,” says Liao Chih-yun.

Liao is well acquainted with the publishing process and Liu understands society and culture. Neither of them wants to be bound by convention. They insist that Kiwi’s book selection and publishing be a part of the creative process, giving readers more and more choices. From the Sociology of Anime series, which de­stigma­tizes the stay-at-home crowd, and Challenge Me if You Can!, a record of a group of writers’ decades-long war of words, to Yo, Brother, a collection of posts by a well-known netizen on Taiwan’s largest BBS, Kiwi’s content invariably touches on important issues such as society, human nature, language, identity, gender, and local concerns.

Liao Chih-yun believes the public’s increasingly diverse reading tastes are the inevitable result of the media revolution and information explosion. That’s why Kiwi wants to convince us that “there’s no wrong way to read.”

Read any way you want

Kiwi’s book selection process may be peculiar, but its goals are always clear. Boldly turning its dreams into reality, Kiwi has published what’s been called “Taiwan’s most beautiful high-school Chinese textbook.” An accompanying board game, soon to be released, will allow students to “time travel” to the periods in which the essays in the book were written and engage in critical thinking contests with the ancients using a set of cards. This is Kiwi’s way of getting kids into the habit of critical reasoning through a form of entertainment.

“You can discuss Legalist philosophy with the founder of the Qin Dynasty, talk about gender roles with Mulan or the meaning of life with the Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi, ask Pu Songling, author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, about media literacy, or hold forth on ‘­helicopter ­parenting’ with the mother of the Confucian sage Mencius,” says Liu.

Liu and Liao both laugh. “Reading is no longer a quiet, solitary activity. It can be very interesting and visually graphic. Joining in exchanges with other readers stimulates the brain cells and changes people’s views of reading.”

Kiwi aims to spotlight culture creatively, turning it into an industry to promote a “wave” of profound, socially conscious Taiwanese entertainment.

Building bridges for IP creators

Liu says that today’s entertainment industry—espe­cially film and television, the formats most popular with the public—provides people with alternative perspectives. It’s no longer just for fun and relaxation. “The American sitcom The Big Bang Theory is a good example. There’s a higher level of knowledge amidst all the laughter and celebrity interaction, and that stimulates thinking.” Could that kind of entertaining cultural IP succeed in Taiwan? “We believe so.” Liu and Liao nod in unison. “We’re thinking about how that alternative vision could be adapted to Taiwanese culture.”

Liu notes that Taiwanese TV dramas have successfully used entertainment as a vehicle to translate cultural, intellectual, and socially important issues into story form. He names The World Between Us, Workers, Detention, and the currently popular Tears on Fire as examples. Among these, The World Between Us has been adapted as a stage play, Detention was originally a video game, and Tears on Fire started a podcast. Liu says, “All forms of the IP industry should make long-term plans to combine with different industries to make the pie bigger. Kiwi is doing that now.”

The company is pushing the “Taiwan wave” (Taiwanese entertainment). Kiwi believes that IP creators need a long-term plan to promote Taiwan’s cultural industry worldwide through various creative digital models, with government support. “The ‘Korean wave’ is a successful example of boosting world-class IP internationally,” Liu says. “When the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit, South ­Korea made the IP-based entertainment industry a key inter­national project. Since then, its entertainment industry has taken the world stage, driving cultural and creative IP. Taiwan could learn from that.”

There is an extraordinary rapport between Liu and Liao, who have been together for 14 years. Kiwi’s every move is the result of their combined brainstorming.

Facing a new era of diverse modes of reading, Kiwi is promoting reading in many ways, giving the cultural and creative industry and creators new hopes and new paths forward. With its finger firmly on the pulse of society, the company has redefined reading, breathing new life into Taiwan’s outstanding IP industry, and serving as a dependable teammate in our nation’s quest for world-class IP.                                          

Hailed as “Taiwan’s most beautiful textbook,” Kiwi’s revised and illustrated high-school Chinese text encourages students to think critically.

Kiwi publishes everything from paperbacks to tabletop games, light novels, and picture books. As long as the content instills knowledge, Kiwi will give it a shot.

Unlike most publishing houses, Kiwi opens channels to discuss “others’ content IP,” collaborating with enterprises in different industries. For Kiwi, “if a tree bears good fruit, it’s a good tree.”