Taiwanese graphic novelist and manga artist Ruan Guang-min avoids drawing superheroes vanquishing villains. Through his characters, he prefers depicting the mindset, mood, and values of everyday people in his country.
“Every story, no matter if it’s Batman or Dragon Ball, is about interpersonal relationships,” Ruan tells Pancouver in Mandarin over Zoom. “So, every action you see on the page is the result of the connections between people.”
His sensitive and empathetic drawings of working people in comics such as Dung Hua Chuen Barbershop, Yong-Jiu Grocery Store, and Restaurant Paradise have attracted a huge international following. Over his career, Ruan has won a bucket full of awards.
After working as an assistant to manga artist Max Lai (The Little Monk), Ruan branched out on his own in the early 2000s by drawing comics for teenagers. But he switched to more mature themes after realizing the artistic limitations of teen comics.
“Sometimes, these comics are more superficial. For example, anger is shown as a fist slamming through the wall,” Ruan says. “You’ll see a lot of debris flying. These flashy images are very exciting visually, but I found that I couldn’t really explore the character’s inner feelings.”
Pancouver associate editor becky tu translated Ruan’s comments into English prior to his first Vancouver exhibition. The Lantern City is presenting Comics on the Island – Taiwan for free at the Pendulum Gallery (885 West Georgia Street) until February 22. Some of his works are suspended from the gallery’s ceiling on giant Lunar New Year lanterns.
“There are two directions with this exhibition,” Ruan adds. “There are my own original works, which focus on Taiwan’s contemporary culture and what I see in Taiwan’s everyday life. The other direction is adaptations of other authors’ works.”
Ruan inspired by Japanese manga artists
He tells Pancouver that it’s much easier adapting literary works into graphic novels compared to creating stories from scratch.
“There are a few points you have to remember in a graphic-novel adaptation,” Ruan says. “The first is to understand the characters’ inner feelings and motivations. The second is that if there are historical aspects to the work, the visuals must be accurate. And some research is involved.”
In the Pendulum Gallery exhibition, some of the adaptations focus on the period of Japanese colonization of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945. There are also adaptations of contemporary writers.
“In this exhibition, I hope to show people that there is a difference between Japanese and Taiwanese comics, even though they might look similar,” Ruan notes. “The inner spirit of the story or this manga is different.”
He grew up reading Japanese comics, which continue to influence his work. His favourite manga artists include Ryoichi Ikegami, Takehiko Inoue, and Jiro Taniguchi. Ruan has also paid attention to comic books from other countries. According to him, European comics share something in common with Taiwanese comics in that both tend to focus on day-to-day lifestyles.
“In the American comics like Marvel or DC, the characters might have their internal challenges or motivations,” Ruan acknowledges, “but it’s still using the framework of a hero saving the day to tell these stories.”
Life in a barbershop and grocery store
One of his masterpieces, Dung Hua Chuen Barbershop, was adapted into a TV serial. He tells Pancouver that he created this story about a barbershop after seeing these words on a sign. He thought they sounded cool so he decided to name a father, mother, and son after the three words.
“It’s not exactly a happy family story because the father left when the child was young,” Ruan says. “So it’s a story about the process of growing up and coming to terms with all these things that happened when you’re a child—and how you heal from that.”
The father went on to have a child with another woman. As a result, the son, who is the main character, has a half-sister who is 20 years younger than him.
“Because she’s underage, she gets sent back to be taken care of by the main character,” Ruan states. “Both these characters, the half-sister and half-brother, piece together who their father was.”
One of his other landmark books, Yong-Jiu Grocery Store, was inspired by his grandfather’s grocery store. As a grade-school student, Ruan would help him by doing various tasks in the store.
“My grandfather has passed now, but I wanted to use comics to keep this memory alive,” Ruan explains.
He emphasizes that Yong-Jiu Grocery Store is a work of fiction. Ruan hopes that this story and the art remind people of what these family-owned corner stores represented.
Ruan recalls one memorable moment when a middle-school student told him about their grandfather, who operates a traditional grocery store. However, it wasn’t doing so well and the student wanted to know if Ruan had any business advice so that the store could prosper.
“I was quite touched that a child would want to help their grandfather in this way,” Ruan says.
Event details
The Lantern City presents Comics on the Island – Taiwan at the Pendulum Gallery (885 West Georgia Street) until February 22. Admission is free. The Lantern City will offer four exhibited guided tours of Comics on the Island – Taiwan. Two are in Mandarin: at 4 p.m. on February 11 and 1 p.m. on February 22. Two are in English: at 4 p.m. February 18 and 11 a.m. February 22. Register here.
On February 12 at 12:30 p.m. at the Coach House at UBC Green College, Ruan-Guang-min will be part of a free panel discussion with UBC academic Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam entitled “Places of Memory in Graphic Novels”.
Ruan Guang-min will also give two artist talks. The first is at 6:30 p.m. on February 13 with a bilingual question-and-answer session with him, graphic designer Godkidlla, lantern artist Angel Kao, and musician Daniel Lew at the Pendulum Gallery. Mr. Ruan will also speak in Mandarin at 2:30 p.m. on February 15 in the Montalbano Family Theatre at the Vancouver Central Library.
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