Fiction
A graphic novel adaptation by Ruan Guang-Min of selected stories from The Illusionist on the Skywalk and Other Stories by Wu Ming-Yi .
by Ruan Guang-Min, Wu Ming-Yi
A graphic novel adaptation by Ruan Guang-Min of selected stories from The Illusionist on the Skywalk and Other Stories by Wu Ming-Yi is based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Wu Ming-Yi. The graphic novel is a collection of eight short stories that take place in the seventies at the famous Chunghwa shopping centre in Taipei. The shopping centre consisted of eight buildings in a row. The illusionist and the skywalks connecting the buildings are prominent in these stories, with childhood memories of the shopping centre as a central theme. The protagonists, narrators and perspectives are all different in each of the stories, but personae that appear in one story sometimes appear in another as passers-by. Besides this, memories also create a continuity that makes it seem that the narrators have overlapping memories despite their different pasts. Spinning memories into stories becomes magic, and the narrator skillfully demonstrates his tricks in a marvellous illusion of disappearances, reappearances and invisibility. The last story sheds new light on the stories, making the reader want to re-read them again and again.
