Tongli Publishing Co. (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 東立出版社,

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Dōng Lì Chūbǎnshè''), most known as Tong Li Comics, is a

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

company which distributes a variety of domestic and imported comics in Taiwan.

History

State Capital Economic and Trade Building 20131207

Tong Li was founded in Tainan, Taiwan in 1977 with a mere nine employees."Tong Li Publishing Timeline (東立出版年鑑)"
Tong Li, Retrieved 2008-10-13. Tong Li entered the publishing business as a seller of illegally copied comic books. "For fifteen years, Tong Li was the largest producer of pirated comics, redoing more than 1,000 titles in all, and for part of that time, fifty a month."John A. Lent, ''Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign'' (1999) p. 195. Tong Li's original method of operation was to procure new comics from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese distributors, replacing the Japanese text with traditional Chinese, and "drawing bras on bare-breasted women characters and modifying, up to what they could get away with, explicitly sexual or violent panels".''Pulp Demons'', p. 195. The head of Tong Li, Fang Wan-nan(范萬楠), "jokingly referred to himself as the 'king of pirated comics'". Despite the copyright violation trend, Tong Li procured Taiwan's first legal license for Japanese manga with

Minako Narita is a Japanese feminine given name. Minako can be written using different kanji characters: *美奈子, "beauty, apple tree, child" *美那子, "beauty, unknown, child" or "beauty, child" *美菜子, "beauty, (green) vegetable, child" *美名子, ...

's ''

Cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

'' from Hakusensha in 1989, and followed with

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

's '' Akira'' from

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

in 1991. A 1992 Taiwanese law strengthening the copyright enforcement of comics forced Tong Li to abandon the copying and develop original content in addition to acquiring licenses through legal means, at which point it began publishing the magazines ''

Dragon Youth A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted ...

'' (龍少年月刊) and '' Star★Girls'' (星少女月刊) - titles which retained the considerable influence of Japanese manga. It currently releases over 100 licensed manga titles a month includes One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, Sket Dance, Hunter x Hunter, Gintama, Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Ken'ichi, Skip Beat, and more.

Manga Magazines published by Tong Li Publishing

* Dragon Youth Comic * New Youth Express * New Youth Express Monthly *Formosa Youth *

Young Flower Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American roc ...

Star Girls ''Star Girls'' () is a Taiwanese anthology magazine published by Tong Li Comics specializing in serialization of manhua comics aimed at young females. It debuted in July, 1992 and is published six times per year in even-numbered months. Seriali ...

* New Youth Weekly

References

External links

* Mass media companies of Taiwan Comic book publishing companies of China Manhua distributors Publishing companies established in 1977 1977 establishments in Taiwan Manga distributors {{Manhua-stub

History

Manga Magazines published by Tong Li Publishing

See also

References

External links