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 ...

: 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 Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

History

State Capital Economic and Trade Building 20131207

Tong Li was founded in

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

, 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 A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

, and "drawing

bra A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, or ; ), is a form-fitting undergarment that is primarily used to support and cover breasts. It can serve a range of other practical and aesthetic purposes, including enhancing or reducing the appea ...

s 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 is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV ...

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'' (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 * Star Girls * 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