Amidst a misty afternoon rain, the "Little Taipei" suburban development in the mountains beyond Hsintien seems extraordinarily refreshing and quiet. The home and workshop of the cartoonist Cheng Wen are located right here. However, because his latest production "Profoundly Beautiful Asia" is now being carried in Japan's Afternoon comics monthly, the heavy pressure allows him little time to appreciate the beauties of the mountains and the rain.

　"At this time I only have one assistant to help me do the drafts," explains Cheng Wen. Since becoming renowned in Japan, promotions and negotiations keep him hustling back and forth to Japan and Hongkong, which takes up a great deal of time. Compared to even marginally well-known Japanese animators, who are likely to have several or even tens of assistants, he says, "the only thing to do is just to get up all my energy and throw myself into making the deadlines by working day and night."

But he broke into the Japanese market only three years ago with "Legendary Heroes of the Chou Dynasty," and just last year won an "Outstanding Performance" award given by the Japanese Animators Association, widely perceived by those in the comics industry there to be an extremely high honor. Is it possible that it was not merely the spirit of "throwing himself into his work night and day" that he relied on?

"It is in my nature to want to do things a little differently than other people," states Cheng. You have to go back nine years to his "change of career" to get to the root of his relationship with cartooning.

More than a year spent in transformation: A graduate of the Fu-hsing Trade and Arts School, 34 this year, Cheng Wen used to be an illustrator for the literary supplements in the newspaper. He would do up to ninety drawings in a month, and, with the feeling that he had been "drawing until he couldn't face it any more," he set himself to finding some new creative space, and he thus entered the world of cartooning.

"When I switched over to doing animation, I carefully observed the market," says Cheng, speaking rapidly but logically and with his thoughts well-organized," and as a result I found that the contents of the cartoons on the market were, if not in the humorous, silly vein of 'The Good Little Boy' or 'Little Ding Dong,' then they were stories of puppy love with teenagers drawn with long hair and big eyes." As a result, Cheng deliberately avoided these two types, and chose a hardy, masculine style. His first efforts, "Black Badger Warrior," "The God of War" and "Armored Field Marshal," were carried in the China Times Weekly, leaving a strong impression. "I read them passionately," says animator Hu Chueh-lung, who became a loyal fan.

This transitional period took Cheng Wen more than one year. Besides choosing new subject matter, Cheng also insisted upon the principle of "being different for the sake of being different" in drawing technique.

"At that time those in the fine arts world saw traditional Chinese painting as a 'dead art,' and paid it little attention." But, owing to his experience as an illustrator, Cheng had discovered that, "The free brushwork and color effects of Chinese water and ink painting turns out to be just right for depicting Chinese history or legendary martial arts heroes."

Two works which then followed, "Assassins Tales" and "The Sword of Ah Bi," were new innovations drawn from Chinese history or martial arts novels. This was a level which had not yet been developed by other animators.

Because Taiwan's comics market had always been the domain of Japanese works, Cheng's efforts to break the mold of the "domestic" cartoon world ended up unintentionally opening a road for him to sell in Japan. Out of two hundred comic books provided by Taiwan publishers, Japan's Kodansha publishers sagely selected but one--Cheng Wen's "Assassins Tales." The reason he was awarded his prize from the Japanese Animators Association was to thank him for pioneering a new type of illustration rarely seen in Japan.

Who doesn't understand the Japanese Mind? Although the drawing techniques were a unique sensation in Japan, the culture gap between the two countries remains large. How did Cheng Wen win the acceptance of readers from another land?

"It wasn't a direct hit right from the start," admits Cheng, who went through a chastening experience. Before Kodansha, he had worked once before with another Japanese publisher. His partner had put forward the idea of the story of "The Manchus Enter China," with Cheng both writing the script and doing the layout. Little did he expect that after turning in the storyboard, after waiting for more than half a year he would get a letter on which was written: "Japanese tears and Japanese laughter, you foreigners do not understand, so it is with regret that . . . ."

The partnership plan was thus cancelled, but this sentence really got Cheng--who hates to lose--up in arms. He began to constantly observe and reflect upon the places where the other culture differed, and finally came to comprehend the reason for his failure. "The company had originally proposed using the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty for subject matter. Besides a basic curiosity that Japanese have about Chinese history, might it not be that the Ch'ing dynasty, which was a case of a minority population being able to defeat the Han majority which outnumbered them many times over, matched the Japanese national character of external expansion?" Later on, in "Legendary Heroes of the Chou Dynasty," he took special pains to depict the keys to success or failure for each character.

What will the next step be? Cheng Wen's latest, "Profoundly Beautiful Asia," has again broken with the past, and taken the path of science fiction and cops and robbers. The story line encompasses all of Asia. In the drawing stage, Cheng Wen was constantly wracking his brains to come up with new techniques, looking to see for example if he could come up with any new effects using a thumb print. "Japan is rather strange. Although it is known as the Comic Book Kingdom, it is still very traditional and conservative. They might use one technique for several decades without getting tired of it." This point leaves Cheng perplexed.

From the other side, is not his spirit of courage to innovate his strongest suit in finding a place for himself in Japan?

[Picture Caption]

Cheng Wen's "Profoundly Beautiful Asia," carried in a Japanese comic monthly, marks a shift from his previous emphasis on history and martial arts heroes to science fiction and crime topics. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)