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You Longhui
When Chen Hai-hung was at his high time, known as the best illustrator of knight-errant
comics, there were many dedicated young men who wanted to be his students, and Yu Lung-hui
was his first disciple. Yu apprenticeship was only one year; an ordinary trainee would
take three years and four months. When Yu was 16 years old he published his first comic
series, Choduan Dabeishan, and was very successful. So in the comic circle he was
known as Nan Syu Bei You, the leading cartoonist in northern Taiwan.
After he became famous, contracts never stopped. His knight-errant comics published one
after the other, such as Leijia Jhuang, Hongyi Jinjhang, Guishou Jhuihun,
Disiedao, were all a huge success. He wrote most of the stories, yet some of them
were adaptations of knight-errant novels. It was said that he used his left hand to write
stories and right hand to draw. So he was not only a successful illustrator but also a
manager. He had various titles for different publishers, such as vice-chair person,
general editor, consultant, and instructor. He had to get his fellow classmate Lan
Chuanyuan to be his co-illustrator to complete some works for which he wrote the stories,
such as Dao Ge, Saiwai Feiyen because he was too busy.
When the comic censorship started in the 70s, Yu works underwent the time-consuming
process of drawing amd censoring. His initiatives were inevitably blocked, so he turned to
other things. He drew blueprints for construction companies, designed commercials, and
co-devised animated cartoons. Although these were odd jobs to a professional comic
illustrator, he did them well and even won an international award. In the 80s, his work Dao
Ge was adapted to make TV films and movies, and was very successful.
He invested in an animated cartoon company in Shujhou in 1990, but it did not run
profitably. In 1996 he returned to Taiwan and came across his fan Jhou Linggang, the
well-known movie producer, who invited him to discuss the proposal of a new movie Huisyuan
Dao. This invitation inspired him to continue his comic career, but he was depressed
again when publishers rejected his comic series. At the moment he pays attention on making
paper collages; still comics are the subject he loves the best. |