Taiwanese illustrators featured in Bologna Children's Book Fair

Bologna, March 31 (CNA) Seven popular Taiwanese illustrators and three intellectual property (IP) licensors are being featured at this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, the world's largest international rights fair for children's literature that opened Monday.

The creators are being showcased at the show's Taiwan Pavilion, which is aimed at expanding Taiwan's reach in the global children's publishing industry, according to Theodore Huang (黃俊華), head of the international marketing division of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, which put the pavilion together.

The seven Taiwanese illustrators are 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nominees Chang Yeou-yu (張友漁) and Liu Hsu-kung (劉旭恭), as well as Ballboss (周宜賢), Chang Hsiao-chi (張筱琦), Lin Wei-ting (林蔚婷), Dong Dong (咚東, 劉韋廷), and A-Meow (阿喵, 蔡佩蓉), Huang said.

Liu told CNA that he is participating in the children's book fair in Italy for the third time this year and that he was happy to take the occasion to engage in exchanges with content creators and publishing companies from other countries.

Three Taiwanese IP licensors were also present at the Taiwan Pavilion to raise the international visibility of Taiwan's content creators.

Among them were Lee Yu-chieh (李郁婕), who currently oversees cartoon character Takokuma's international licensing operations, and her husband, Tsai Wei-hsin (蔡瑋信), the designer and copyright owner of Takokuma, according to Huang.

Takokuma is a unique mix of an octopus and a bear and cannot be kept in a zoo because it has not been included in the encyclopedia of animals. Therefore, it started an adventure, said Lee, who serves as the producer of the animated series "Takokuma's Adventure Story," while describing the story book.

Through the story, the writer hopes to convey the importance of self-identity and friendship and the idea that being different from others is still worth embracing, Lee said.

She added that after the release of the picture book, there have been multiple international collaborations related to the character, including the recent launch of capsule toys featuring the image in Japan.

There are also Takokuma stickers in the colors of the Italian flag that were made especially for the illustrators exhibition at the book fair, Lee said.

The Bologna Children's Book Fair will last until Thursday.