Taiwan to launch International Comics Festival: Culture Minister Li

London, Sept. 10 (CNA) Taiwan's Minister of Culture Li Yuan (李遠) wrapped up his visit to Britain on Wednesday by announcing plans for the launch next year of the Taiwan International Comics Festival, which he said will be curated by a British comics historian.

Li unveiled the comics festival plan during a visit to the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in London, Britain's first purpose-built, permanently dedicated illustration space and the largest of its kind in the world.

He said the Ministry of Culture has supported Taiwan's comics industry since 2018, when it introduced a subsidy program, and later expanded its efforts with grants for longer-form works, translation initiatives, cross-sector collaborations, and the establishment of the National Taiwan Comic Museum.

With 2027 marking a decade of those efforts, the culture ministry will launch the inaugural Taiwan International Comics Festival, with British comics historian and critic Paul Gravett as the curator, Li said.

In response, Gravett said he hopes the event will demonstrate that "Taiwanese comics are part of the world's comics."

The inaugural festival, to be held at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, aims to present comics as a major art form with greater ambition and a broader vision, said Gravett, a frequent visitor to Taiwan.

Later Wednesday, Li met with Booker Prize Foundation Chief Executive Gaby Wood, who praised the novel Taiwan Travelogue, by Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子), which won the 2026 International Booker Prize.

Translated by Lin King (金翎), the novel is beautiful, complex and sweet, Wood said, adding that its portrayal of the relationship between two women and its rich descriptions of food deepen its political and cultural themes.

During the meeting, Wood presented Li with a double-exposure black-and-white photograph of Yang and Lin that she had taken with a 1950s camera during this year's Hay Festival in Wales, saying the image symbolized the close collaboration between the author and translator.

Wood also discussed the inaugural Children's Booker Prize, which she said was created partly in response to concerns about declining reading among children and will be awarded in February 2027.

Young readers will serve on the panel of judges to help choose the winning title, she said.