Taiwan Today

Book binding and wood block prints give artist Hung Fu-tien’s imagination free rein.
 

Hung Fu-tien (洪福田) is an avid fan of bookplates. These decorative labels, usually pasted into the inside of a book cover by the owner, feature the Latin words “ex libris” within a design and specify that a book has come from a certain person’s library. Bookplates always struck Hung as miniature works of the printmaker’s art. They were introduced to Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945), when the library at what is now National Taiwan University in Taipei City was among the first to systematically use ex libris labels to mark its collections. 
 

Hung’s father ran a bookbinding business in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan, where Hung grew up and developed an interest in drawing as an elementary school student. Lin Ruo-yu (林若瑜), a famous ink wash painter, lived nearby and was a client of Hung senior‭,‬ and so the boy was sent to learn painting from her. In junior high school, Hung drew comics and his work was often sent off to painting competitions. “As a student with a slight hearing impairment, drawing was the only subject I was good at, and I was lucky enough to get recognition and support from my family and teachers,” Hung recalled. At Chang Jung Senior High School in Tainan he was in the arts and crafts department and won many prizes in drawing and comic competitions. When he graduated from junior college, Hung left his hometown and started working as a picture book and English textbook illustrator while still hoping to make a living as a comic artist. After a decade, Hung moved back to Tainan and anchored his visual language in the historic city that boasts such a rich cultural legacy. “Creativity is not just for fun or about technical skills,” he said. “Instead of imitating Western and Japanese styles like I used to, I started to look into collective folk memories to shape an image of Taiwan.”

Folk Motherlode

In Tainan Hung found both people and resources to inspire him, especially through religious imagery. The city has one of the highest temple densities in Taiwan, and he was enthralled by the long-established link between religion and art. A Tainan Municipal Administration of Culture Heritage project in 2016 to conserve local cultural legacy enabled Hung to take a wood sculpture course taught by Chen Chi-cun (陳啟村), who was also a woodblock printer. At around the same time, Hung met artist and teacher Pan Yuan-shih (潘元石), who taught art to hearing-impaired students for 25 years in Tainan. Pan also founded the Taiwan Ex-libris Association to help popularize bookplates, and most importantly for Hung, agreed to become his printmaking mentor. In 2016 Pan was the fifth winner of Tainan City Government’s annual Tainan Cultural Award due to his contribution to art education and heritage conservation projects. As advised by Pan, Hung still adheres to the traditional practice of printmaking by hand though he also uses digital graphics. “Engraving and repeatedly printing on paper require lots of material and are strenuous and time-consuming, but I like the bold, simple patterns that result,” he said. On Pan’s death, Hung undertook the solemn task of designing graphics for Pan’s commemorative retrospective organized by the city government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau in March 2023.

Netherworld Romance

Hung’s fascination with traditional woodcut printmaking stemmed from an obsession with spirit money. The thick yellow bamboo paper sometimes has gold and silver foil rectangles on it and is further printed with simple line illustrations of deities in black or red. It is burned as an offering to divinities and deceased relatives. Hung’s reading and research on the subject led him to bookplates, the miniature prints that are an integral part of the whole bookbinding design.
 

He discovered the work of Nishikawa Mitsuru, a Japanese writer and publisher who lived in Taiwan from 1910 to 1946 and created his own bookplates. Hung created a travel book in 2015 that followed Nishikawa’s 1939 Tainan tour itinerary visiting local temples and famous monuments. The hand-bound volume, with a limited print run of 120 copies, was dedicated to Hung’s father and Nishikawa, and proving unexpectedly popular, it brought Hung to Pan’s attention.
 

Hung was further inspired in his subject matter by two other Japanese artists who, like Nishikawa, were “wansei”—Japanese who were brought up in Taiwan from an early age but exiled to Japan after 1945. Tateishi Tetsuomi (1905-1980) and Miyata Yataro (1906-1968) both researched Taiwan folklore and adapted images found on spirit money—considered a taboo item outside ritual use—in their printmaking, illustrations and bookbinding. “This was a catalyst for me to look at Taiwan’s folk religions and temple culture from a wider perspective and be unafraid to use what others avoided. Printmaking is a combination of my past life and work in comics, picture books and illustrations. It’s also a reflection of my personal interest in religious folk motifs on spirit money.”
 

To celebrate 2023’s Read Taiwan campaign in tandem with the U.N.’s World Book Day, the Ministry of Culture announced a list of recommended books. Nine were in the Holo and Hakka languages, spoken and written by Taiwan’s two largest ethnic groups, and included Hung’s “Songs of the 12 Zodiac Animals” from 2020. The picture book sprang from the artist’s custom of producing year-end woodblock prints of the lunar new year’s zodiac animal as gifts for his relatives and friends. Hung wrote simple Holo texts like children’s rhymes to go with his woodblock print illustrations for each of the signs from rat to pig. At the end of the book, he quoted his mentor, Pan: “Giving tradition a modern look is the only way to extend the art’s life.” Author Tenn Sun-tshong (鄭順聰) praised Hung for his unique visual language, admirably showcased in his self-bound books like the travel tribute to Nishikawa and picture books published by New Taipei City-based Wordfield Co. such as the 2020 zodiac work and “Songs of 12 Divine Dishes,” which depicts traditional dishes served at large outdoor banquets held for both religious and secular celebrations. 

Hung is determined to carry on using folk imagery in his work. In recent years he has spent more time and energy on book publishing and binding projects and now plans to focus on woodcut printmaking. “No matter how eras change, traditional techniques should be preserved—but not just to be used with old norms,” Hung said. “I’m always trying to move forward balancing reality and ideals using both digital and handmade processes.” 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw