TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A new exhibition exploring the shared history of Taiwanese and Japanese manga opened Saturday in Taichung, showcasing 324 works that trace the medium’s evolution across both cultures.

Titled “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth,” the exhibition spotlights Taiwan’s Tsai Kun-lin (蔡焜霖) and Japan’s Tezuka Osamu, often hailed as the father of modern manga, according to the Ministry of Culture.

The show contrasts Tsai’s and Tezuka’s personal journeys while examining how censorship shaped manga development in both countries. In Taiwan, Japanese styles strongly influenced early works, with localized versions of series such as “Doraemon” and “Black Jack” circulating widely in rental bookstores.

Curator Lee I-yun (李衣雲) noted that one section recreates a rental bookstore, a format that flourished in Japan in the 1950s and spread to Taiwan in the 1960s. To comply with censorship, publishers in Taiwan often removed or altered references to Japan, while readers could access both original Taiwanese comics and adaptations of Japanese works.

Tsai, a White Terror political victim, published comics despite the authoritarian environment from 1949 to 1987. In 1966, he launched “Prince Semi-Weekly,” which primarily published children’s comics.

The magazine skirted the strict guidelines imposed in 1962 and became one of the era’s most popular children’s comic magazines, offering a vital platform for Taiwanese artists.

Hosted at the National Taiwan Museum of Comics through Oct. 12, the exhibition is the museum’s first large-scale international exchange since opening to the public.