Tang Bohu, the romantic talent of Suzhou and his beloved Qiuxiang

The Bohu & Qiuxiang Book Series: A Comic Book Guide to Suzhou issued two of its books—Towns of Water and Ancient Towns—in the Suzhou Industrial Park yesterday. Tang Bohu, the romantic talent of Suzhou, along with his beloved Qiuxiang, appears in the books in the form of a cute cartoon character that makes the best travel guide for tourists in Suzhou.

The Bohu and Qiuxiang Book Series is produced by Suzhou Industrial Park Yiya Film and TV Media Co Ltd, a company that has registered the trademark of the Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang in 20-odd categories and over 200 sub-categories. Yiya intends to publish two other books for the book series as a guide to the Industrial Park and High-Tech Zone, and will probably produce films and TV plays about Tang Bohu if opportunities present themselves.

There couldn’t be a more well-known cultural character in Suzhou than Tang Bohu. Statistics have shown that in Hong Kong, 99 percent of people know about Tang. On the 1st International Culture and Design Industry Fair 2012 Suzhou - China, the Bohu and Qiuxiang Book Series: A Comic Book Guide to Suzhou received overwhelming attention with its two cartoon characters. Though not yet launched onto the market, more than 2,000 sets of the book series have already been sold to staff of the company. Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang are so popular that the Industry Fair has made them the virtual tour guides for Suzhou.

Yang Li, the general manager of Yiya Film and TV Media Co Ltd explained the reasons behind the designing of such cartoon characters: “Tang Bohu is so unrestrained that he makes traditional culture appear liberal and generously tolerant, rather than demanding or stagnant. That’s why we decided upon a cool, cute cartoon character for Tang.” Yang Li believed that a good travel guidebook should be interesting, entertaining and refreshing.

A Comic Book Guide to Suzhou does not resort to long passages, instead, it leads travelers to their longed-for Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River) in an amusing comic form. From the perspective of the travelers, the book focuses largely on what makes Suzhou such a delight and contains a wide variety of information ranging from the planning of a travel route to the thought-evoking culture. The book proposes the idea of “Slow Travel”, which very much echoes what people in this era expect travel to be like.

A Comic Book Guide to Suzhou is the first set of travel guidebooks in comic form that offers a panoramic introduction to Suzhou.