The four-part graphic novel about Tsai Kun-lin's life is a moving account of her personal fate and at the same time reflects the history of Taiwan over almost an entire century: Tsai Kun-lin was born in 1930, when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule. After Japan's defeat in 1945, Chiang Kai-shek, a military man who had fled China to escape the Communists, settles in Taipei, and the Taiwanese experience more than forty years of dictatorship in their country.
Author Yu Pei-yun and illustrator Zhou Jian-xin had many conversations with Tsai. With each volume of the graphic novel, we delve deeper into the historical context of Taiwan along the lines of his life and realise what political events can mean for an individual person.
In the end, neither the more than 90-year life nor the complex events fitted into a single book - so there were four. The illustrator has chosen a different style and colour scheme for each stage of his life.

Tsai Kun-lin

The graphic novel «Tsai Kun-lin» comprises four volumes and almost a century of Taiwanese history. The first volume tells of Kun-lin's childhood and youth, the second volume of his long years in prison. In the third and fourth volumes, we follow the rocky road back to freedom and the successful struggle for democracy and self-determination. Tsai Kun-lin became the editor and publisher of a popular comic magazine, advocated for Taiwan's indigenous population and campaigned for democracy and human rights in Taiwan until his death at the age of 92. The years of «White Terror» under Chiang Kai-shek's military government lasted until 1992.

Die Autorin

YU Pei-yun (*1967) studied foreign languages and literature at the National Taiwan University in Taipei and did her doctorate at Ochanomizu University in Japan. Today, she teaches at the Institute of Children's Literature at Taitung National University and is involved in children's and youth literature in a variety of ways as a critic, translator and curator. In 2016, she met Tsai Kun-lin for the first time, and in conversation with him, the idea of documenting his life was formed.

Der Illustrator

ZHOU Jian-xin (*1973) was born in southern Taiwan. He studied printmaking at the National School of Art in Taipei, and worked as a printmaker and teacher before setting up his own business as an illustrator. In 2014, he received the Taiwan Golden Butterfly Award for Book Design for his first picture book, and other major awards for his text interpretations followed. With Tsai Kun-lin, he has designed a graphic novel for the first time.