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| ILLUSTRATED BY CHANG JUNG-KUEI |
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A-Kuei
The animated boy who keeps us young at heart
A-kuei is a typical 10-year-old Taiwanese kid. he'd rather climb trees than crack the books. He wants to become a director someday, maybe for the sorts of shows aired on the Discovery Channel. There's just one slight difference—A-kuei lives on the Internet. He's an animated Flash character—an e-cartoon—and since he first debuted on Sept. 21, 1999, the day of Taiwan's biggest earthquake, his happily off-beat adventures have become required viewing for more than 1.5 million Web surfers in Taiwan, China and Japan. The series is inspired by the childhood of 45-year-old creator Chang Jung-kuei, a onetime TV director who's made A-kuei a Taiwanese Charlie Brown for the digital age. In a society where academic pressure forces kids to grow up too quickly, A-kuei's appeal is that he is forever a child, perpetually carefree. A-kuei might be the first Asian Web creation to jump mediums: he's co-anchored Taiwanese TV evening news, featured in best-selling books, VCDs and music albums, and even starred in a film, which scored about $200,000 at the box office and on the Internet. Future plans include an A-kuei digital entertainment park and a Japanese animé series. "When I'm 80," Chang reflects, "I'd like to tell my grandsons that I made the cartoon they are watching." If Chang has his way, A-kuei could become the latest Asian to rival in popularity a certain American rodent.
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