At age 48, self-taught Buddhist cartoonist and bestselling author Tsai Chih Chung became a Canadian citizen in August of 1994, living in a spectacular home in West Vancouver three months per year, having sold approximately 18 millions books. As such, he qualifies as one of the bestselling B.C. authors--by a wide margin.

The Taipei-based artist distills philosophical works into cartoons for Chinese readers. A few of his titles have been translated into English by Seattle's Brian Bruya, such as Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness. He is also an accomplished bridge player and an award-winning animated filmmaker. He reputedly owned eight houses in 1994 and was able to work for 20-hour periods, as reported by Bruce Grierson in British Columbia Report.

According to a website about cartoonists, he drew his first comics pages at age seventeen. "In 1971 he became the art director of the Kuan Chi Programme Service and five years later he founded the Far East Animation Production Company and the Dragon Production Company. In 1983 Chung created the characters of Drunken Swordsman, Fat Dragon, One-eyed Marshal and Bold Supersleuth, which he used in several series for various magazines. His comics were widely distributed, not only in Taiwan, but also in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the US and some European countries. The publication of his album 'The Sayings of Zhuang Zi' in 1986 was a turning point in his career. By 1991, more than a million copies of this highly successful album were sold. He continued his activities with 'The Sayings of Lao Zi', 'The Sayings of Confucius' and two books about zen. He then intensified his production and dozens of titles followed, such as 'Strange Tales of Liaozhai', 'A New Account of World Tales' and 'Fantasies of The Six Dynasties'."

BOOKS: (translated by Brian Bruya)

Zhuangzi Speaks (Princeton University Press, 1992)ISBN: 0691008825
Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness (Anchor, 1994) ISBN: 0385472579
Sunzi Speaks: The Art of War (Anchor, 1994) ISBN: 0385472587
The Tao Speaks: Lao-Tzu's Whispers of Wisdom (Anchor, 1995) ISBN: 0385472595

OTHERS:

Art of War (Asiapac Comic Series, 1986) ISBN: 9971985608
Sayings of Mencius (Asiapac Comic Series, 1986) ISBN: 9971985543
Da Xue: The Great Learning (Asiapac Comic Series, 1986) ISBN: 997198573X
The Sayings of Mencius (Asiapac Books, 1990) ISBN: 9971985594
The Dao of Zhuangzi: The Harmony of Nature (Doubleday, 1997) ISBN: 0385487428
Taiwan Experience (with Sayling Wen, Moy Sam Corporation, 1998) ISBN: 9578468385

[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2003] "Art" "Chinese"