Have you seen the popular Taiwanese manga "Shen Ming Convenience Store"? Let's take a look at cartoonist Xie Donglin sharing the mental journey and essence of creation!
In this episode, Taiwanese cartoonist Xie Donglin is invited to reveal his struggles and achievements in the comic world. He is not only a representative of Taiwanese comics, but also made his work "Shinmei Convenience Store" on the international stage. What kind of unknown mental journey is hidden behind all this?
Meet cartoonist Xie Donglin
When asked if he is a person with a sense of humor, Xie Donglin said that he is a boring person, but the sense of humor depends on where it is applied. If you want to present a sense of humor in your work, there are a few ways to do it. For example, in the jokes of talk shows, the sense of humor can be taught.
"What if I want to add humor to my interview with Mr. Donglin?" Wei Xuan asked, Xie Donglin smiled and said that you can relax your posture first, take out the host's tone and manner, and it is easier to produce humorous content when you are relaxed. To the outside world, it is not humorous, but the interaction with the other party will be happy.
Picture: "Talking to Xuan Xuan"
Is "Kamimei Convenience Store" a microcosm of real life?
Xie Donglin thinks that he is a sensitive person to the atmosphere, and if he finds that the other party is not in a good mood, he will self-examine first, and if there is no problem, he will not take it to heart. He further said that he may also be angry because it may be the other person's emotional problem, and he also uses it to draw a line to protect himself.
For him, it is very important for him to have a stable mood, and his creation needs a stable frequency to output, and it will be difficult to concentrate if he does not have spare time. Many external emotions are not their own, and there is no way to change them. "Is there a way to throw it away?" Wei Xuan asked curiously, "One is to do your, and the other is to do my." He replied that it was to judge by whether it was relevant to him.
He also smiled and said that he used to be an angry young man, and when he looked back, he would feel that he was overly enthusiastic, but he would not feel that that behavior was bad, and they were all important elements that made up his current self.
This society is a spectrum, everyone's position is necessary, through different abilities and experiences, we will stay in different positions and work hard for the same thing.
Image: "Kamimei Convenience Store"
The creation process of "Kamimei Convenience Store".
He said that many people would ask if they had gone to throw a basket before creating "Kamimei Convenience Store". But he actually painted first before throwing the basket. There is a certain part of his heart that he avoids, in case he doesn't get the holy reed, he can't continue to paint.
At that time, he happened to go back to his hometown in Pingtung, and there was a Citian Palace dedicated to Mazu in their community, and every year there would be an activity of throwing baskets and pumping locomotives, as long as 12 holy baskets in a row could take away the locomotive. He thought that he was in front of the gods, so it was better to say hello.
Mazu gave him 3 sacred baskets, indicating that Mazu should allow him to create this comic, but the locomotive has to earn it on his own. Wei Xuan continued to share that he is a Christian, and he really wants the help of all the gods in the early days of his business, hoping that all good forces can help him succeed. She said that there is one question she has never asked, that is, whether it will be successful.
Donglin nodded sympathetically, and also said that he would not look at the horoscope now, if he really wanted to watch it, he would only pay attention to the good parts that were beneficial to himself, and he would quickly discard the bad ones.
Wei Xuan also further shared her views on faith, two years ago, she had a good friend who believed in various gods very much, and a fortune teller told her that her friend would start a successful business at the age of 45, make a lot of money, and have a very outstanding performance, but she had breast cancer.
She didn't survive, maybe it was some kind of life choice, she was in the United States because of COVID at the time, and she didn't go back to Taiwan for treatment. Since then, Wei Xuan has never counted her fortune again, but she believes in the existence of God, and at the same time, she also believes that if what she does is good, then success is not so important.
What really matters is the actions along the way, and there is a way to get your voice across.
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Picture: "Talking to Xuan Xuan"
The essence of the creation of "Kamimei Convenience Store".
"Can you tell me, if there really is a God, why is there so much suffering and injustice in the world?" Wei Xuan shared a line that he liked very much in "Kamimei Convenience Store", and also realized the importance of relying on himself.
Xie Donglin said that the line is to depict the relationship between Emperor Wenchang and the God of Wealth, on the one hand, it is to tease the God of Wealth, because the God of Wealth is set in the comics to manage money for others, but he doesn't know anything about investment, and on the other hand, he is laughing at himself.
The point of self-deprecation is that the character of the comic Chinese Changjun is black-bellied, cold and sees through the world, and this part also projects himself into the work. If, from the perspective of the gods today, He shows humanity the way, but humanity keeps repeating the same mistakes, wars, injuries, MeToo incidents, and so on, wouldn't God be tired?
There are two major reasons that affect Donglin's creation
He said that there are two reasons that influenced his creation, one is the drama department, and the other is the experience of advertising agencies. The experience of the drama department has given him a taste of "people". Playing a person, there will be motivations and goals behind it, just like before speaking the lines, there will already be shallow lines of the character in his heart, and people's behavior and performance come from inner thoughts, and he will apply this to the creation of comics.
As for the experience of advertising agency, he has learned about business, and he will think about the positioning of the work, including who the target audience is, where the market is, whether the product can be adjusted to match the market, or the ability to monetize.
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Photo: Xie Donglin @ FB