Chinese
Name: 劉興欽
Born: April 13, 1934
Birthplace:
Hsinchu
County (Northern Taiwan)
Liu Xing-chin, born in Hsinchu County
in 1934, is a Taiwanese cartoonist who is considered a national treasure. In
the early 1950s, Taiwanese primary school students loved to read comic strips
printed in Hong Kong. Most of these books were about absurdities, such as
ghosts and monsters. In 1954, Taiwan’s education authorities asked the schools
to prevent children from reading comics with superstitious content. Liu, who was
a teacher at the time, decided to draw a 16-page comic book titled “Seeking the
Immortals” in an attempt to modify the incorrect mindset of the students. He
didn’t expect this book to become very popular after it was published.
After the success of his first comic
book, Liu continued to teach in school while drawing comics. Based on his
mother and himself, he created comic books centered around two characters “Great
Auntie (大嬸婆)” and “Brother
A-san (阿三哥),” which
became the most widely known cartoon characters in Taiwan at the time. “Great
Auntie” in the cartoon series is an ordinary Hakka woman, hard-working, unpretentious,
and kind. This familiar figure was created by Liu at the age of 21 with his
mother as the prototype. With a humorous style, he cleverly introduced the
customs and humanities of Hakkas to people all over Taiwan. His series have
been serialized in newspapers and magazines at home and abroad, and have gained
popularity. After decades, the comic books have had a far-reaching effect in spreading
publicity for Hakka culture. As a result, Hsinchu’s Neiwan township proposed using
Great Auntie as a tourism ambassador to promote the local tourism industry. Liu
immediately agreed.
In 1991, Liu moved to the United
States where he actively participated in Hakka community
activities, such as lectures, teaching, television interviews, and drew Hakka folk paintings to show Hakka people’s true
colors. Liu also continued to create another series “Great Auntie in the U.S.A”
while he lived in America. Based on his childhood memories, he completed hundreds
of the folk paintings of Hakka ancestors. In 2002, Liu donated more than 20,000
comics and invention manuscripts to the National Chiao Tung University’s
Library as collections. He felt that the Hakka people in the United States have
a sense of crisis that their culture will be assimilated into the cultures of
other ethnic groups, so in 2007 Liu founded the “Great Auntie Creative School,”
which aims to promote Hakka culture in the United States. It has received
enthusiastic support from overseas Taiwanese people.
In 2017, with the assistance of the
Hsinchu County Government, the Liu Xing-chin Comic Museum was established in
Neiwan Elementary School. He hopes that this place will not just be a
sightseeing spot, but a space that can show more works of Taiwan’s new generation
of cartoonists, making this museum a bastion of comic art.