Gao Yan Draws Young Adulthood in Okinawa Pref. and Taiwan; Taiwan Manga Artist Depicts ‘Gap’ Between People, Politics

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:45 JST, May 16, 2025

Taiwan manga artist Gao Yan’s latest work “Sukima,” published by Kadokawa Corp., is based on the author’s own experiences. The story is told from the viewpoint of a Taiwan student living in Okinawa Prefecture and touches on the histories and other aspects of those two locations.

“I draw manga about Taiwan as a Taiwanese,” Gao, 28, said. “I hope to let readers know about Okinawa and Taiwan.”

Yang Yang, the protagonist of the story, is a university student who lives in Taipei. She has a crush on a man, but her feelings go unrequited. On top of that, she loses her grandmother, who was very dear to her. As if to shake off the harsh reality that she faces, she decides to take part in an exchange student program in Okinawa Prefecture. Once she arrives, she finds beautiful beaches and makes new friends from Okinawa and China. She begins to take the first steps of her new life.

The story is based on Gao’s experience of studying in Okinawa Prefecture for about a year in 2018. At the time, she thought long and hard about how to introduce Taiwan in a language still unfamiliar to her.

“I felt there was a certain distance between us,” she said. “I was frustrated that I couldn’t fluently say what I wanted to. I thought, ‘I want to draw this story [‘Sukima’] when I have the ability to do so.’”

The exquisitely drawn pictures in “Sukima” capture Yang Yang’s memories of her grandmother and childhood days. The manga also depicts the feelings she experiences when she and the man she loves, who is far away, start to grow apart. The classic Japanese pop song “Kawa no Nagare no Yoni” (Like the flow of a river) appears like a soundtrack and tenderly brings in a lyrical atmosphere.

Gao has also included descriptions of the modern histories and politics of Okinawa Prefecture and Taiwan.

“What I want to draw is not a history or politics textbook but, rather, one woman’s memories of young adulthood seen through her eyes,” Gao said. “I’m sure each and every person goes through different events in their youths.”

She said she likes the Japanese word “sukima,” which she used as the title of the manga. The word has a meaning similar to “the space between.”

“I find the space between two things beautiful, like between two different points in time or two objects,” she said. “That includes the space between two people or two political [situations].”

Manga is limitless

Since she was a child, Gao has been fond of Japanese manga and anime. Having always loved to draw, she got into digital drawing in elementary school. She always liked books, too, and started self-publishing her own manga when she was still a student, all the while dreaming of getting a job in illustration or as a cover artist. She said that she ultimately decided to become a professional manga artist because “a single image is not enough to tell the story I want to tell.”

Eventually, she discovered the Japanese manga magazine “Garo.”

“It was crammed with so many extraordinary works that I felt as if I’d discovered a goldmine,” she said. She was fascinated by the fact that the works in the magazine were all experimental and that whatever the artists drew was published as manga. She read works that had not been translated or published in Taiwan at the time by looking up the words and phrases she did not know.

“I felt that manga is limitless,” she said. “I also want to draw works that are limitless.”

In 2022, she published the manga “Midori no Uta: Shushu Gunpu” (“The Song About Green: Gather the Wind”) simultaneously in Japan and Taiwan. The work, which revolves around a Taiwan girl in love with a Japanese song, marked her professional debut as a manga artist.

Her recent works include illustrations for Haruki Murakami’s picture book “Shigatsu no Aru Hareta Asa ni 100% no Onnanoko ni Deau Koto ni Tsuite” (On seeing the 100% perfect girl on one beautiful April morning), published in February this year.

The frame-by-frame development of the story in “Sukima” has a good contrast of dynamic and static elements, creating a pleasant kind of camerawork, like that of a film.

“I create my work like I’m making a film,” Gao said. “I hope people will read it like they are watching a film.”

The third volume of “Sukima” came out in April.