Has the image of comics already changed? They proliferate everywhere: on the street, in the neighborhood, in specialty rental shops and convenience stores. In history of literature class, university professors passionately discuss the contents of comics. On a graduate student's bookshelf, stacked alongside his classical Chinese dictionary and The Anthology of Su Dongpo are such comic books as Tale of an Assassin and Crayon Shinchan. A few schools and clubs, seeing how much students like comics, have even set up special comic reading rooms in libraries, so that kids big and small can happily gaze. But in many people's hearts the dark impression of comics cannot be erased.

Is the influence of the comic-book industry omnipresent? When Slamdunk was made into a movie, it did rather well at the box office. （courtesy of Crown Films）

Reversing the verdict on "kiddie books"?

Tseng Shu-chun, a graduate of the National Taiwan University law department, originally went to work for a prestigious law firm, but because she couldn't drive her love for comics from her mind, she quit her job and devoted herself to working in the comic-book publishing industry. "Children who read comics won't necessarily have bad grades," she often reminds worried parents, using herself as an example. But when asked if she will allow her own future children to read comics, she answers that the material would "have to first be filtered." Even though she loves comics so much, she cannot completely trust them.

"Just like potato chips, they can help satiate the munchies when you're just relaxing, but they're definitely not whole meals. They're just snacks. You can take them or leave them." This is the clever analogy of Chang Hsien-jen, whose children are comic-book lovers.

Most parents experience deeper anxieties toward comics. Hung Teh-lin, an expert on the history of comics, often expresses his wish that "comics can be like text books," accompanying children as they grow up. Sometimes his ideas meet with agreement, sometimes with opposition. And whenever there is controversy over the contents of the comics, he will certainly be the target of a backlash. Since the Japanese comic strip Crayon Shinchan recently became all the rage, he has been resoundingly excoriated by parents at several seminars.

"When you mention it, perhaps the reactions aren't overly exaggerated," says Hung Teh-lin. For a long time, parents' qualms about comics have always focused on two areas--sex and violence. In fact, Crayon Shinchan often unabashedly touches on taboos. Of course, many adults will not find it acceptable.

Look closely at his haircut. Does it show the influence of a cartoon character?

Teacher, your underpants...

Mama is busy in the kitchen, and she calls five-year-old Shinchan to come help her go buy some groceries. Shinchan answers, "I'm drawing a picture. I have no time." Mama thinks she should first compliment him. She imagines having a beautiful conversation with her son: "The picture you drew is so pretty! What a clever boy! What do you say to helping Mama buy some meat? Shinchan will then say okay!" She is all smiles and is getting ready to compliment Shinchan's "drawing," but it turns out Shinchan has painted his wee-wee to look like an elephant, and he is busy making its "trunk" swing back and forth. Mama goes crazy with anger.

Mama brings Shinchan to a department store. Shinchan throws a tantrum, demanding a bicycle. Mama refuses, so Shinchan lifts up Mama's skirt and yells to onlookers: "They're blue!" Furiously, Mama roars, "I'd rather die than buy it for you!" As if nothing has happened, Shinchan walks over and stands next to a girl, asking, "What color are her panties?" The little child blackmails the adult, and Mama surrenders.

These are a few storylines from Crayon Shinchan. When thirty- or forty-year-old parents thumb through a comic book for the first time in years, trying hard to read with their children in the hope of "sharing their growing up," and they see something like Crayon, they can't help but have a conniption. It turns out that the character most popular with children of all ages is this irritating little guy who pulls down his trousers at the drop of a hat, calls his mother a "stinky broad," and does mon key business with his mommy's bras and underwear.

Mothers in particular feel ill at ease. One after another they speak out about their disquiet over Crayon Shinchan. "As a female, I feel that Crayon Shinchan makes fun of the focal points of women's sexuality, and that makes me feel uncomfortable," says Children's Literature Association chairwoman Chang Hsiang-chun. She worries that if students read of Shinchan's speech and behavior, they may project it into their real lives. Maybe someday children will announce to everybody, "The color of Teacher's underpants is..."

Grown-ups and kids frolic in the world of comics together--who says it's impossible?

Touching on sexual taboos

Others, however, stand up to defend Crayon Shinchan. Tseng Chiung-eh, who serves as director of the Hsing Tien Temple library's reading association, says that many parents can't stand Shinchan lifting up girls' skirts wherever he goes, but according to her understanding, practical jokes of this kind are common among grade-schoolers. Those actions regarded by adults as undignified are probably just mischief among kids. One time she saw two junior high school students walking down the road, playfully touching each other's members as they strolled along. "The two were just patting each other back and forth, to be 'fair,'" says Tseng Chiung-eh. In adults' eyes, this is licentious, but for a kid, the interpretation is totally different.

The Japanese comic series City Hunter is very popular among junior high students. The protagonist, who calls himself the "bad-guy sweeper," is a professional killer. Beautiful women are often at his side, and whenever he sees a comely lass "his smile goes crooked, his eyes bug out, and his penis goes erect like a bullet." Wang Jui-chi, a part-time teacher at Fujen Catholic University, is strongly opposed to it. "When kids accept the brave and humorous hero, they unknowingly identify with such a wolf who behaves like that when he sees a pretty girl. In real life how many men would act like that when they saw a girl?" she says. When asked about whether the City Hunter is lustful, one child replied, "Adults are the lustful ones."

Will kids who read comics go astray?

The "reality" displayed in the comic world is indeed a more exaggerated version of "social reality." Therefore, parents worry that children may take stories they read in a comic book to be the "reality" of society.

In the 1970s, kungfu comics had already become popular. One widespread notion was that children who read them would become obsessed, and it was rumored that there really were kids who ran off into the mountains looking for a kungfu master. Horrified parents began to lash out against comic books.

Several years ago, the juvenile squad of the Taipei City police headquarters dealt with a youth who claimed his life was suffocating. He had read a comic book and, in imitation of its main character, had run away from home, forming a gang and roaming all over. In another case, a 26-year-old Japanese man kidnapped and dismembered four little girls. The subsequent investigation revealed that the culprit had for a long time been reading comics which portrayed such crimes. The police believed his criminal behavior might have been related to this habit.

Just like the influence TV violence has on kids, the effect of sex and violence in comics is still not agreed upon. Those who oppose comics think many of the criminal methods as well as the violent behavior of murder and arson depicted in comics may very possibly distort youngsters' philosophy of life and enhance the chances of their own committing crimes if they read comics over a long period of time. Those who stand up against this viewpoint think that--due to the fact that kids often repress their tendencies toward violence and aggression in front of adults--comics provide children with the fantasy of violent games and offending adults. They are a "healthy outlet." Youngsters commit crimes for a number of complicated reasons. How can we blame it all on comics?

Do comics make people superficial?

Besides sex and violence, parents and children often have different attitudes toward the humor in comics. Chang Hsien-jen has two kids who like to read the funnies. One is a third-grader, and the other is a sixth-grader. Chang fails to find the humor in such plots as: "Sailor Moon sets out to someone's rescue, but she helps to kill that very same person during her rescue effort." He doesn't like the crude language which is omnipresent in comics, like calling someone a "stinky old man."

A mother surnamed Lin, who lives in the Taipei suburb of Waishuanghsi, took her child to see the retrospective on the comic strip The Old Confucian. Ms. Lin thinks that it's not fair that the Old Confucian teases foreigners and fashionable young people. She recalls a story titled "Imported Goods" in which a white person meets the Old Confucian, who has golden hair. The old man says: "I used a bottle of imported hair tonic, so I have foreign hair now!"

In another story titled "Serpent Monster," a provocatively dressed girl is twirling around a dance floor. The Old Confucian is aroused and makes frequent passes at the girl. They dance and dance, but all of a sudden, the slender maiden turns into a black mist and then into a black serpent, scaring the old man away. Maybe the story has a profound moral: Don't linger over the transitory beauty in front of your eyes, because it may very well be a serpent in disguise. Ms. Lin says she wishes children would realize this, but kids only see the more direct humor that "the old man has found the wrong lady."

It probably has something to do with reading habits. "When adults read comics, they are 'reading the words.' But kids can enjoy the simple joy of looking at pictures," says Chen Shu-mei, who has a child in kindergarten. Whenever her child reads Crayon Shinchan, and sees someone being abused--for example, Shinchan is spanked by his mom, or clerks are crushed by cabinets or Shinchan's mom screams in anger--she will burst into laughter. But Chen, who reads the comic books with her child, always feels that something is wrong with the author. He is always picking on women, and tends to be violent.

Slow going wins the race

Many parents worry that children may become accustomed to the influence of this kind of comic, and they may simply "react directly in the same manner." Will they become superficial? Will their linguistic skills degenerate?

Chen Pai-ling, an associate professor in National Chengchi University's journalism department, points out that thinking in words is linear. Just as water flows more slowly in a thin stream, thinking in words requires the skills of synthesis, induction and analysis. Thinking in pictures, however, emphasizes "seeing through" concepts at the first glance. It often accentuates the obvious focal points, hoping that everything is captured in the eye in a single glimpse. "In terms of deep-level thinking, some comics indeed lack space for imagination," holds Su Heng, a professor in Chengchi University's journalism department. But it also depends on the author's expressive power. Take The Old Confucian for example. People of different ages find it funny for different reasons. Chinese people can especially see reasons to chuckle. How can we call it superficial?

Comic books are immediately accessible, because they are direct and have emotional impact. This is one of the special features of the graphic narrative. And they are no different from conventional books--they can be divided into ones which merely stimulate the senses, and ones which contain deep thought. Su Heng does not believe that perusing comics will make a person superficial. She is nonetheless concerned that present-day comic strips all transcend the confines of time and space, civilization, and technology, and portray bestialized characters, such as the half-human, half-reptilian Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which stand erect on two feet. They are obviously very different from what was published in the era of Bambi. "If you read quite a lot of these 'post-modern' comics that leap back and forth between all sorts of realms, will it make you less eager for orderly, rational thought?" she wonders.

Concerning the issue of a deterioration of linguistic skills, Su Heng contends that the problem is not only comic books. Today's children watch TV and video cassettes and play video games. The opportunities to absorb graphic images are too great. Research in the United States indicates that watching television a lot definitely does have an impact upon the reading levels of children. Because comic books emphasize pictures and have few words, she feels that if they are a child's only source of reading material for a long period of time, they will unquestionably have a negative effect on their language abilities.

The magnetism of Sailor Moon

Yet one cannot overlook the impact that comics have on young people. Chang Hsien-jen says that when her daughter became entranced with the comic Sailor Moon, her purchasing behavior began to change. The girl, who "had always counted her spare change with exceeding care," began to splurge on accessory products, like puzzles, video cassettes and cards. Her mother found this extremely unsettling. "Something's just not right about this kind of buying-focused, obsessive idol worship," she says.

The hairstyle fashion with middle school boys right now is parting their hair down the middle, and letting a bunch flop down in front of their eyebrows. Girls leave one side long and cut the other side short, letting the long side veil their faces. They also like to wear miniskirts and tight shorts, to look "cool." "This is one small indication of the impact of popular comics," says Tseng Chiung-eh, a former middle-school teacher. She expresses no value judgments about comic books, but "envies" their power to influence.

The happiness that adolescents gain from the world of comic books is evidently hard for adults to imagine. Su Heng's research indicates that more than 90% of adolescents have read comic books, and 15% spend more than five hours a week on them. From Slamdunk, youths learn about basketball. From Young Guns they learn about human relations. From Crayon Shinchan they learn about the world of adults. Comics are a tool to relieve pressure, and also a source of conversation topics among peers.

As long as it's natural!

Comics are becoming more and more a part of young people's lives. How should parents address this reality? Chang Hsien-jen says that she has adopted a strategy of "not encouraging, but not forbidding." One mother, while taking her child to choose books at a comic shop, adds, "The truth is, it's impossible to forbid today's urban children from reading comics. If they can't read comics, what are they going to do?" Su Heng observes that more than half of parents select comics for their children and read comics with them.

Hung Teh-lin believes that the best way for adults to resolve their many doubts about comics is to read them alongside their children. Tsao Chun-yen, whose child is in middle school, treats comics as household reading material. He rents them for the whole family to read. "They say Crayon Shinchan is disgusting. Well, let everyone have a look, and we'll talk about what makes it disgusting," he says. Caterpillar Academy teacher Cheng Ming-teh recommends that when reading a comic, just as with other kinds of reading material or movies, "reflect a while on the plot, analyze its relation to reality, enjoy it with the kids, talk about it, then sweep up, class dismissed, go home!"

In truth, there's no need for adults to worry. At a speed that exceeds their imaginations, the variety of comic book themes is growing broader, going beyond topics that concern teens, like "fighting and chasing girls," to ponder life and human nature. Adult comic books which may have little to do with "sex and violence"--like Black Jack or Houseplant People, a series about horticulture and the domestic affairs court--are gradually gaining in popularity. They are not yet in the mainstream, but perhaps some day both generations will look at comics as a source of pure merriment, not conflict.

[Picture Caption]

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(courtesy of Tong Li Publishing Co.)

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Is the influence of the comic-book industry omnipresent? When Slamdunk was made into a movie, it did rather well at the box office. (courtesy of Crown Films)

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Look closely at his haircut. Does it show the influence of a cartoon character?

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Grown-ups and kids frolic in the world of comics together--who says it's impossible?