Taipei: Taiwan's Minister of Culture Li Yuan concluded his visit to Britain by announcing plans to launch the Taiwan International Comics Festival next year. The festival will be curated by British comics historian Paul Gravett.
According to Focus Taiwan, Li revealed the festival plan at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in London. The Ministry of Culture has been supporting Taiwan's comics industry since 2018 through subsidy programs and grants, leading up to the establishment of the National Taiwan Comic Museum. The upcoming festival will mark a decade of these efforts, featuring Gravett as the curator.
Gravett expressed his hope that the event will highlight the global significance of Taiwanese comics. The inaugural festival will take place at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung and aims to showcase comics as a significant art form.
Later in the day, Li met with Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation. Wood commended Yang Shuang-zi's novel "Taiwan Travelogue," which won the 2026 International Booker Prize, for its complex portrayal of relationships and cultural themes. She also discussed the upcoming Children's Booker Prize, which will involve young readers as judges, aiming to address concerns about declining reading habits among children.