Fan Yinan would be an alien name to the ordinary comic fan. But the publisher of Dongli and its boss Fan Wannan would be another story. Fan Wannan was Fan Yinan penname as a cartoonist; he passed through the most difficult time of the Taiwanese comic industry. He established this company when the industry was at it lowest ebb. To him it was not a matter of merely having a try but was a matter of enthusiasm, confidence, and determination.

      He joined the Wunchang publisher when the newly formed company’s comic book Siaosia Longjyuanfong made a great hit. The ambitious Wunchang according to its policy, one day an issue, meirih yishu, revolutionized the publishing of comic books and dominated the comic market within a very short time. Many established magazines including Manhua Jhoukan had to close down. Furthermore Wunchang brought out upgraded books which were thicker and had better quality. Other publishers followed suit, so to issue valuable editions became a new wave in the comic market industry. The first book that brought about this new wave was Fan Wannan Siemo Jie.

      Born in Tainan, Fan developed his drawing skills by mimicking Japanese cartoonist works. The first company he turned to was Yisheng Shujyu in Tainan. Then he went to Taipei and made himself famous by publishing the book Siemo Jie. Censorship ended Wunchang, and even after Fan completed his military service and returned to this business, the whole comic circle had been severely damaged for a long time. Even in 1975 the Taiwanese comic industry was still miserable, but Japanese comics were very popular. In 1977 Fan started the Dongli publisher with only nine workers. In May of the next year, Dongli translated a Japanese comic series into Chinese called Hao Siaozih, which became very successful. Even the title of this book was popularly adopted and used as slang in Taiwan. Afterwards Dongli became a famous comic publisher, and it regarded itself as the avant-garde of the comic arts.

      At the end of the 80s, there were some encouraging signs for Taiwanese cartoonists. The ones who were famous in the 60s all brought out new works and sent them to publishers, but nothing was ever mentioned about it, which was very dispiriting. People attributed this to the overflow of Japanese comics, and Fan was also accused by some cartoonists in their works. Fan pointed out that political censorship should be considered first and that his efforts to bring back the Taiwanese comics to their splendid past time also deserved some credit.

      From mimicking Japanese comics to gaining the creative spirit, Fan was once a successful avant-garde cartoonist. Then he changed his status to become a successful comic industry leader. Currently Dongli is the headquarters of local cartoonists and is the hope of Taiwanese comics.