Chinese Comics Online
“Good Grief!”
Comics in America have a long history. Whether it is comic books or comic strips, ask any American young or old and they will tell you that much of their culture has been shaped by the comics. From Charlie Brown to Superman and from Spiderman to Garfield, American comics and comic books have encouraged us when we were down, gave us hope, made us dream and made us laugh at ourselves.
What about the Chinese culture? What about Chinese comics? Well, I’m glad you asked. Scouring the web the other day I came across a number of fascinating little bits of information about the world of Chinese comics. Let’s look at a few.
First of all, “comics” in Chinese is mànhuà 漫画. Cartoonist is mànhuàjiā 漫画家. There is quite a comic culture in China also, but not as permeating as the comics culture in America but it still is there and people should know about it.
While living in Shanghai I frequent some of the many convenience stores which also have a magazine rack. There’s a magazine there called WIT and HUMOR 幽默大师 yōumò dàshī (loosely translated as Humorous Master) which I have purchased many times. This is basically a collection of cartoonists around China who are all collected into the monthly periodical. Some of them are very cultural which I don’t understand, MX has to explain it to me, but some of them are easy to understand with a rudimentary knowledge of written Chinese. Remember, if you really want to know what makes a country and culture tick…read their comics!
Wikipedia has an entry about Chinese comics. It mainly focuses on the old stuff which are about as cartoony as the Mona Lisa. But we all have to start from somewhere.
The website China-On-Site has a really great collection of Chinese comics that appeared in small paperback books for a long time. MX remembers reading some of these when she was young. The art is awesome alone, but the site only gives you the English explanation about what is happening. There are many choices of books and titles such as “The Red Chamber”, “Three Kingdoms” and “Water Margin” but again there is no Chinese and the way the website is set up is somewhat cumbersome. You click on the title of the book and then on each page and then go back… it’s annoying. But if you are interested in Chinese stories with great art in English, go there!
Back in 2004, China daily has an interesting article focusing on one cartoonist but uses the article to talk about the history of comics in China.
Broadly defined, Chinese comics have a long history, from woodblock prints in imperial times, over anti-Japanese cartoons of the World War II era, to didactic drawings used to teach communist values to the illiterate masses.
Yeah, broadly defined. But that is the way the Chinese look at comics, political and useful for teaching. The interesting thing about that article is that another Chinese artist claims that Japanese comics have actually been inspired by the Chinese. So it’s ironic that now Japanese comics are so prevalent and influential and often imitated by Chinese cartoonists. The article also mentions that back then, the cartoonist featured in the article made about 3,000 RMB or 350 dollars a month by drawing cartoons. He considers himself lucky that he could make this much but then adds:
“The problem with Chinese comics is you can’t make a whole lot of money on them, so many talented artists eventually choose other careers, for instance in advertising,” he said. “Some artists try to solve the problem by focusing on quantity and simply spit out vast amounts of low-quality comics in an attempt to earn a quick buck. But, there’s definitely a market for comics in China…”
That same year, 2004, the Shanghai Star had an interesting article about cartoons and comics in China. They focus mainly on the fact that the present day comics situation in China is puzzling and superficial. In the past the comics were dynamic and daring but nowadays comics in Taiwan and Hong Kong are innovative but not on the mainland. Ultimately their article is somewhat depressing in terms of mainland comics mentioning that often times comics are not allowed in school. Perhaps a student who doodles in school, like I did, would never get encouraged in China. Not that I was encouraged while doodling in school but I was encouraged by others about my art. I don’t know what would happen in China.
On the website vLifesyle there is a huge collection of what looks like pages of Chinese comics. They are somewhat cumbersome to click on and wait but it provides full size pages and looks pretty cool. They mainly look like ancient stories of Kungfu and or swordplay so if that is something that interests you, check it out!
A somewhat random place to find an article like this but, on the Chinese consulate of Chicago website there was an article about the Guangzhou government pouring money into comics and animation. There was a quote from a famous Taiwan cartoonist named Cai Zhizhong,
“Cartoons speak in a language that not only expresses satire and humor, but also reflects love and spirit. I am particularly fond of ancient Chinese philosophies, so I create cartoons out of them,” Cai Zhizhong said.
Wow, he is expecting a lot out of comics. Speaking of Cai Zhizhong, he has created a number of books containing his drawings that have to do with the Chinese classics that make them easier to understand for all the masses. His cartoons are very unique and have become kind of an identifiable style in China. He hopes:
“…foreign visitors will purchase parts of his comic series on traditional Chinese culture as souvenirs while in China. Some worry that foreigners may not appreciate the Chinese sense of humor in his book, but Cai thinks that cartoons are an international language like music and dance, bearing no borders.”
A post about comics in China wouldn’t be complete without mentioning San Mao 三毛. This wordless comic was made popular back in the 1930s and is about a little boy named Sanmao (in English it means Three Hairs) who is poor and has no mother or father. There are countless articles across the web about Sanmao. Technically it is wordless but from time to time there are signs in Chinese that if you don’t understand the words on the signs than you won’t understand the point. The cartoonist behind Sanmao is Zhang Leping 张乐平 who died back in the 1990s. His son apparently signed the franchise away for making a movie by a Belgian director which made some Chinese annoyed. I haven’t heard much about that lately though. Other websites from China often will call Sanmao, “China’s favorite son.” This is interesting because Sanmao was a starving, poor, poorly clothed, hungry and not cared for orphan living in China. Personally I think Sanmao was very political back then and nothing like Sanmao could exist today.
Another fascinating article I was able to dig up is about women cartoonists in China. The main point of the article is: There are very few women cartoonists in China. They go on to say:
“In China, a cartoonist is between a newspaper worker and a painter. The thinking is that if you can’t be a painter, be a cartoonist. So (under those circumstances), no woman wants to be a cartoonist.”
But in a funny way they also claim that due to household chores after getting married, many women give up being a cartoonist. I wonder what the women out there think of that?!
Lastly, Zhang Ziyi is back in the news this month in her new movie about yes, a young female Chinese cartoonist! Cool. The preview doesn’t really show a lot of her comics, there is one part where her drawings apparently are coming out of her sketch book but that’s about it. Looks like a romantic comedy of some sort with a cartoonist twist. But as long as it gets interest back into cartoons I think it’s great!
Lastly, our site www.MandMX.com contains 200+ free comic strips in English and Chinese. As far as we know, our site is the first and one-and-only bilingual (English/Chinese) comic strip on the web. It’s no Sanmao but we do delve into Confucius from time to time. Topics of the comics range from expat life in China, teaching English in China, learning Chinese, learning English, the internet, Chinese food, Western food, life in the West and the list goes on and on. Our only hope is that you enjoy reading!
-M and Mx
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