"Norwegian Wood" author and novelist Haruki Murakami
HAPPY END drummer, "Gathering Group Style" lyricist Matsumoto Takashi──Recommended──
“A chance encounter with a fateful person actually made my dreams come true;
The distant song I heard accidentally brought me to the world──"
Haruki Murakami was designated to draw the cover and inside page illustrations of "Abandoned Cat", and rock master Haruomi Hosono was invited to participate in the filming of the documentary, which attracted much attention in Taiwan and Japan. Emerging Taiwanese cartoonist──Gao Yan──first full-length work, Taiwan. Simultaneous release in Japan
HAPPY END drummer, "Gathering Group Style" lyricist Matsumoto Takashi──Recommended──
“A chance encounter with a fateful person actually made my dreams come true;
The distant song I heard accidentally brought me to the world──"
Haruki Murakami was designated to draw the cover and inside page illustrations of "Abandoned Cat", and rock master Haruomi Hosono was invited to participate in the filming of the documentary, which attracted much attention in Taiwan and Japan. Emerging Taiwanese cartoonist──Gao Yan──first full-length work, Taiwan. Simultaneous release in Japan
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/ When I saw Gao Yan’s paintings for the first time, there was something that strongly attracted me, making me want to use and look at her paintings no matter what. So, I asked her to draw several illustrations for my book "Abandoned Cats". Thanks to this, Abandoned Cat is a very good book. In Gao Yan's paintings, there are passages that exude natural air in order to expand the story - making those who see it feel comfortable in their hearts and evoking some nostalgic resonance.
──Haruki Murakami
/ Now, "Hosono", if our song embraces the delicate "loneliness" through the "earphones" of the foreign girl. How "wonderful" would that be?
──Matsumoto Takashi
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Green, a girl who grew up in a small town on the north coast of Taiwan, came to Taipei to live alone after being admitted to college. Although he came into contact with many things that were beyond his reach in the past, he also encountered frustration and loneliness in his life until he met Jian Nanjun, a boy who plays in the band at the Live House "Kafka on the Shore". Through music, Nanjun led Lu to find the focus of her life, expanded her world with music, and led her to meet many beautiful things; and a subtle and pure emotion gradually emerged between the two. However, Nan Jun's problems on the road to music created an insurmountable gap in their world...
"This story must be drawn as a comic. Only comics can express what I want to say."
Gao Yan, who has been self-publishing illustration collections at a steady pace of about two volumes a year since college, has long been well-known in the independent publishing circles in Taiwan and Japan. Her works often go out of print as soon as they are released, and are difficult to find on the second-hand market. But she was deeply influenced by comics during her upbringing, and her goal has always been to become a cartoonist who can tell good stories. Finally, in 2018, Gao Yan transformed her experience of falling in love with Japanese rock master Hosono Haruomi into a 32-page short comic "Green Song" and published it at her own expense. Unexpectedly, this work accidentally spread to Japan, and was discovered by Takashi Matsumoto, the drummer and lyricist of the band HAPPY END that Hosono Haruomi once formed, and then conveyed it to Hosono Haruomi himself. The sincere emotions in the book really reached him. in hand. In 2019, Hosono Haruomi came to Taiwan and actively invited Gao Yan to participate in the filming of his career documentary "NO SMOKING".
In the same year, Gao Yan gradually became famous in Japan. Not only did she hold a joint exhibition with Hong Kong cartoonist Men Xiaolei and Korean cartoonist Byun Young Geun in Tokyo, she also won the favor of Haruki Murakami and was invited to draw the cover and inner pages of his new work "Abandoned Cat" Illustrations, causing a sensation. Gao Yan, who was only 23 years old at the time, has already become a name that cannot be ignored in the international comic circle.
After several years of preparation and deliberation, in May 2021, Gao Yan was invited by "Comic Beam", an important comic monthly magazine under Japan's KADOKAWA Group, to start the serialization of the long comic version of "Green Song". Authors who have been serialized in the same magazine include Mori Kaoru ("Emma"), Yamazaki Mari ("Roman Baths"), Maruo Suehiro ("Yam Bug", "Panolama Island Kitan"), Kaoru Kazuyama ("Roman Baths") "Let's Sing Karaoke!", "Crazy for You"), Toka Kusuke ("King's Ranking"), etc., which illustrate the influence of this comic magazine in current Japan.
After nearly a year of serialization, this work was finally assembled into a single book, which was published simultaneously in Taiwan and Japan on May 25, 2022; this date was also the first solo album "HOSONO" released by Hosono Haruomi in 1973 at the age of 25. The release anniversary of "HOUSE" is therefore of special significance - Gao Yan, who published "Green Song" in 2022, is also 25 years old.
The binding design of the Taiwanese and Japanese single editions was all done by Gao Yan herself. The Taiwanese Traditional Chinese version was greatly added and revised by her. It also comes with translation pages of important Japanese lyrics in the book. She also translated, designed, and annotated it herself. In order to fully convey the emotion and atmosphere of "Green Song" from the inside out.
""Green Song" is not simply a love letter to Hosono Haruomi, but to - to bravely do things you have never done or imagined for love - to be passionate and tender about something. , and our love letters are delicate and thoughtful. I can record these young emotions that will one day be forgotten through "Green Song", and I feel very satisfied and happy."
Everything that you and I may encounter in growing up is like "collecting the winds of a crowd", and the extremely profound and once-in-a-lifetime encounters and emotions are lightly drawn into a book with elegant and delicate brushstrokes. This work has the power to transcend languages and national boundaries. The story of "Green Song" is also the story of you and me.
