Chen Uen

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Chen Uen ( Chinese  鄭問 , Pinyin Zhèng Wèn ; born December 27, 1958 in Bade , Taiwan ; † March 26, 2017 in New Taipei ), actually Zhèng Jìnwén (鄭進文), was a Taiwanese comic artist (Chinese: Manhuajia ) .

He often chose historical fabrics from ancient China. His best-known works include Legends of Assassins (刺客 列傳) from 1986, the two-part sword from Abi (阿鼻 劍, 1989), Der Erste Kaiser (始皇, 2000) and the trilogy Heroes of the Eastern Zhou- Time (東周 英雄 傳, 1991 to 1994). He also worked as a character designer for the Japanese video game industry, for example for the PS2 video game series Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Koei .

life and work

Chen Uen began his manga career in 1984 with a series published in the China Times Weekly .

He was known for his realistic style, which combined the elements of traditional Chinese brush drawing with the use of bright colors. His works were mainly about Kung Fu and can be classified into the genres of martial arts , fantasy and pan-Asian history. Chen Uen was known for using toothbrushes, toothpicks and cotton wool in addition to calligraphy brushes. For example, he built up light and shadow from tiny dots created with a toothbrush. Chen worked with washes inspired by the Chinese painter Cheng Shiva.

In 2012, Chen exhibited in the Taiwanese pavilion at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in Angoulême ( France ). His works have been translated into Thai and German and he was the first Taiwanese manga artist whose work was published in Japan and Hong Kong .

Chen Uen last lived in Zhuhai , a city in the Chinese province of Guangdong . He died of a heart attack on March 26, 2017.

Abi's sword

"Schwert von Abi" ( Abi-Sword ) is a martial arts story that was first published in 1989 and reissued in 2010. Chen himself described the work as a milestone and an important part in his career. “Sword of Abi” is seen as a practice work for his later trilogy “Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Period”, in which he tries out various techniques and materials. The script is from Rex How.

The word Abi is the Chinese version of the Sanskrit word Avīci . Abi's sword is a legendary weapon designed to bring ultimate power and destruction to the kung fu world. The story is that the hero is destined to end the chaos that prevails between different Kung Fu schools.

Heroes of the Eastern Zhou period

In his trilogy "Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Era", Chen Uen brings the most dramatic time in Chinese history to life. For this work he was the first non-Japanese to receive the Best Series Award from the Japanese Cartoonists' Association in 1991 . The trilogy is considered to be Chen's masterpiece.

The time of the eastern Zhou dynasty (770 BC to 256 BC) was characterized by many small states in the area of ​​China, which were involved in constant power struggles among each other, which was associated with major upheavals and the rise and fall of states was. But this time, marked by great uncertainty, political decline, bloody conflict and atrocities, was also the golden age of Chinese philosophy and culture.

The comic trilogy tells episodic stories from the lives of historical figures of this time:
powerful rulers, ministers, military strategists and thinkers, assassins, assassins and warriors, women whose beauty is legendary, selfless martyrs, but also ordinary little people who unexpectedly and fatefully in the gears of the power struggles of the powerful have gotten into it and have also left their mark on Chinese historiography.

Works

  • Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Period - Volume 1: Paths to Glory (bilingual German and Chinese edition). ISBN 978-3-905816-66-2 .
  • Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Period - Volume 2: Reunion in the Underworld (bilingual edition German and Chinese). ISBN 978-3-905816-67-9 .
  • Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Period - Volume 3: Kranichkönig (bilingual edition German and Chinese). ISBN 978-3-905816-68-6 .

Awards

  • 1991 Japanese Cartoonists' Association Best Series Award for Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Period trilogy .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Renowned Manta artist Chen Uen passes away at 58 . On: taiwantoday.tw on March 29, 2017, accessed on May 5, 2017.
  2. ↑ Wu Po-hsuan, Yang Yuan-ting, Jonathan Chin: Comic book great Uen Cheng dies . From: taipeitimes.com March 31, 2017, accessed May 5, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d Mei Jia: A comic dynamo who draws outside the lines . From: chinadaily.com.cn November 29, 2009, accessed May 5, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Chen, Uen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zhèng, Jìnwén (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Taiwanese comic artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Bade , Taiwan
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 2017
Place of death New Taipei