Youth Publish Magazine to Promote Tainan’s Culture – Tainan’s "ArtZine" Introduces Urban and Rural Arts and Culture

Reported by Reporter Yu TR / Taipei-Tainan Cross-report

They aim to consolidate and share Tainan’s arts and culture energy, making it visible to more people who love their hometown. Many tourists visit Tainan wanting to take part in local cultural activities but struggle to find relevant information. A group of local youths has decided to launch an integrated art publication called ArtZine, combining local arts events with independent reporting perspectives, hoping to share more of the city’s beauty and let more people know about it.


▲ Tainan’s ArtZine ventures into temples. (Photo provided by ArtZine, the same below)

Launched in May (2015) this year, ArtZine is published on the 1st of every month, featuring five main sections: arts and cultural event information, cover stories, independent perspective reports, and arts and culture advertisements. Each issue is planned to print 3,000 copies, currently fully funded by the founding partners themselves. The staff also volunteer without pay, with some subsidies coming from small donations by local Tainan enterprises. It can be found in various arts and cultural spaces, cafes, transportation hubs across Tainan, and even makes irregular visits to markets and temples, hoping to reach a wider audience.

Fion, one of the founding members of ArtZine, is a writer who moved from northern Taiwan to Tainan. Fion said that initially, they wanted to create a publication embodying the spirit of Tainan, aiming to present it in the style of "The Reporter." "Because we noticed that there wasn’t enough of a platform to integrate Tainan’s arts and cultural activities, we hope that through better understanding of these events, more people will incorporate art into their daily lives," Fion pointed out. Tainan has a very vibrant arts scene, but the lack of a resource integration platform often makes it invisible.

% The person quoted is also a local resident and a provider of the material for ArtZine.


"We want to support more forms of art, such as arts groups lacking resources, and support events with multiple dimensions." Event information comes spontaneously from all over Tainan, with a focus on independent viewpoints and in-depth ideas not usually discussed. In addition to covering local developments, ArtZine is actively engaging with society, while also relying on corporate sponsorships, aiming to raise awareness of corporate social responsibility. "We want to convey truly moving stories through language and spread good ideas."

Hoping to draw more attention, ArtZine, currently facing a shortage of funds and with its members’ personal finances stretched thin, has turned to the crowdfunding platform Flying V. They aim to attract more subscribers interested in Tainan’s events and to collectively focus on more hometown matters. Crowdfunding page →https://www.flyingv.cc/project/6873

% Hope to have an issue with a large format, including major thematic content in ArtZine, making it rich and diverse.