Tsai Kun-lin

In 1945, when Tsai Kun-lin was 15 years old, he was recruited by the Japanese army; at 19, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for political reasons. After his release, he became an important cultural and social voice in Taiwan. The life of the writer Tsai Kun-lin (1930-2023) is closely interwoven with Taiwan's eventful history: Japanese foreign rule, the war, Chiang Kai-shek's military dictatorship, democratization from 1987 and now the threat from mainland China - he experienced and helped shape it all. Author Pei-yun Yu skilfully links Tsai Kun-lin's biography with the history of his homeland. Jian-xin Zhou's drawings add additional layers to the content: the basic colour and style change from volume to volume. The childhood is conveyed in light, clear, pale pink drawings; the years in the prison camp in woodcut-like, black and grey images. In this way, personal and collective fate are vividly combined