Most people as they grow older tend to give up on and even forget their childhood dreams. A few, however, do pursue their aspirations, and some even live to see them fulfilled.
Two such fortunate souls are brought together in a documentary recently released in Taipei, with one of them being the subject of the film, and the other its director. In different ways, both are inspirational.
The documentary focuses on writer-and-cartoonist Hu Chia-wei, better known to her millions of fans by her Internet pen name Wan-wan.
“I applied for a blog account just to read Internet novels,” she said, explaining how she started. After a while, she began posting fun MSN icons of her design in 2004 when she was only 24. Before she knew it, she was a celebrity.
“I never expected to get so much feedback after I started some of the MSN icons on my blog,” she says in the film. “People just started forwarding my pictures like crazy.”
“I feel like Alice in Wonderland following a rabbit on some fantastic journey. One day I was earning a regular salary and the next I became a popular writer. Even now, the fame and wealth feel unreal to me,” she said.
Eventually, Wan-wan gained the attention of Ray Huang, president of Revolution-Star Publishing and Creation Co. Ltd., which has been the exclusive publisher of Wan-wan’s work since 2005.
By the time Wan-wan reached her 30th birthday, she had published eight books. These works have had enormous appeal to a very wide audience throughout Asia and have been translated into Thai and Korean. A simplified Chinese version, for readers in mainland China, has also been published.
More than 1 million copies of her books have been sold throughout Chinese-speaking communities. Her publisher is also commissioning a Japanese version of her works, in anticipation of her entry into the Japanese market.
After Wan-wan received over 100.6 million clicks on her blog in 2008, Huang decided he wanted to find out who her millions of readers were. Out of this idea, the documentary, entitled “Dreams: A Journey of Wan-wan,” was born.
The documentary, featuring Wan-wan’s interaction with her fans in the book-signing events islandwide, vividly illustrates how she has become a prominent blogger on the island by pursuing her dreams in art.
Internet is the medium via which she achieved her otherwise inconceivable success.
Like Wan-wan, Jim Wang, the film’s director, owed his initial success to the Internet. Though he never had formal training in film, Wang posted movie reviews on his blog to gain a better understanding of how to make movies.
“The knowledge I acquired through my own efforts became internalized after a few years, and served as my muse when I started working,” he recalled.
His first major project, a movie called “My Space Grandma,” was so well received by critics that it won three awards at the 44th Golden Bell Award ceremony in 2009, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Emmys. Only the popular gang-themed TV series “Black and White” won more Golden Bells that year.
In 2010, “My Space Grandma” was judged the best Taiwan film in the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival hosted by the Taiwan Public Television Service.
“The recognition from both awards not only encouraged me, but also gave me confidence that I was on the right track,” Wang says. “I am now convinced that the way I tell stories works.”
But whereas Wan-wan is now a celebrity throughout Taiwan who has attained both financial success and fame, Wang is still relatively unknown and his award-winning shows seem to be appreciated only by critics.
“Unlike the popular hit, ‘Black & White,’ ‘My Space Grandma’ does not feature young heartthrobs like Vic Chou and Mark Chao,” Wang notes. “Moreover, since the cast and I were neither famous nor controversial, the film didn’t get much media attention after the ceremony,” Wang says.
“To me, winning the award seems only to have entitled me to attend the celebration banquet held by Taiwan PTS,” Wang said. “When I woke up the next day, I still had to work against deadlines. My life did not change at all.”
In spite of the differences between Wan-wan and Wang, however, both are content to follow the beat of their own drums.
As Wan-wan recalls, she has wanted to be an artist since childhood. “I have loved drawing ever since I was a little girl, and I attended art schools to sharpen my skills,” she said. “In other words, I never planned on doing anything else.”
Some have criticized her comic characters as being too simplistic and too easy to draw to be considered sophisticated artwork, but Wan-wan remains unfazed by the criticism.
“Of course I know how to add details in a painting, after all I majored in art at school,” Wan-wan said. “But I think it is more difficult to illustrate the characters with simple strokes.”
“Moreover, the fact that everyone can easily imitate my style implies that everyone could be successful in their life just like me,” she said.
Wan-wan has not allowed success to go to her head. “To many of her fans, Wan-wan is as real as the girl next door,” Huang said.
Indeed, her comic strips—which feature her mother, older brother and her pet dogs—are a celebration of the simple joys and sorrows of everyday life that almost anyone can relate to.
Wang, similarly, remains calm in the absence of any commercial success. After all, he is motivated by love—not the love of money—to make his films.
“Maybe it was the best way things could’ve turned out—winning the award but keeping a low profile, because that way I can keep on creating movies without too much distraction,” Wang said.
As to the documentary, which is currently being shown in theaters, both Wan-wan and Wang hope it will do well. But knowing that the film will have to compete with such popular Hollywood fare as “Shrek Forever After,” they realize it is unlikely the documentary will become one of the top-grossing films of 2010.
“The odds are not the best, but we won’t give up our dreams. Perhaps there will be a miracle, who knows?” Huang said. (HZW)
Write to Michelle Lu at kaiping@mail.gio.gov.tw