Webcomics in China

Online comics and cartoons are a growing artform in China, where traditionally published manhua is in decline. Webcomics are posted on social media and webcomic portals, which serve as a lower bar of entry than the strictly controlled print publication outlets in the country. Though little money is currently made through online cartoons in China, the medium has become popular for activism and satire. Chinese internet companies censor content uploaded to their servers that would not be approved by the country's Communist Party, and the government has a combination of human and automated censors in place to suppress potentially damaging content.

History

Despite China being a major consumer of comics for decades, the medium has never been taken as "serious works of art". R. Martin of The Comics Journal describes the Chinese outlook on comics as "pulpy imitations of films". Furthermore, China strictly controls the publishing of comics, and as a result, cartoonists faced difficulty reaching a large audience. Many cartoonists in the late 2000s began self-publishing their work on social media instead of attempting to issue paper editions. Websites such as Douban (2005) and Sina Weibo (2009) are popular venues for webcomics.^[1]

The Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival celebrated a coming "webcomics era" in 2015. With increased smartphone usage with a younger generation, webcomics featuring a scrollable infinite canvas are expected to become more popular. With an increasing prevalence of Chinese-language webcomic portals, young artists have more opportunities to publish their work and gain a reputation.^[2]

Activism and censorship

As microblogging and webcomics were gaining popularity in China, the form was increasingly used for political activism and satire. Cartoonists such as Kuang Biao and Rebel Pepper make use of the Internet to criticize the Communist Party and its leaders. Communist propaganda and figures such as Lei Feng are openly mocked on microblogs and in online cartoons, despite efforts of censorship by the Chinese government. David Bandurski, a researcher with the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, stated that social media has "dramatically changed the environment for cartoonists [as] they now have a really good platform to find an audience." Chinese animator Pi San criticized internet companies and web portals for being "pretty cowardly" and "too sensitive", as they take on the role of first line of defense through self-censorship. Rebel Pepper's account on Sina Weibo, where he posts his satiral cartoons, had been deleted over 180 times by 2012.^[3]

Blogging websites such as Sina Weibo are also highly censored by the Chinese government. Reuters reported in September 2013 that about 150 graduates, all male, were employed to censor Sina Weibo day and night, and automatic censors processed around three million posts per day. A research team from Rice University, Texas, stated that they saw "a fairly sophisticated system, where human power is amplified by computer automation, capable of removing sensitive posts within minutes."^[4] Images censored from Sina Weibo include a portrait of Mao Zedong wearing a pollution mask, a photo compilation identifying the expensive watches on the wrists of supposedly low-waged local officials, and criticism on police action, censorship in education, and the one child policy.^[5]

Economics

Chinese Animation and Comic Publisher Association secretary-general Roger Kao stated in 2015 that comic book sales were strongly in decline. The Taiwanese comics industry expects webcomics to prosper financially, though no accurate figures exist as of yet. Prize-winning cartoonists such as Chung Yun-de and Yeh Yu-tung were forced to turn to webcomics as their monthly income was too low to live from.^[2]

Beijing cartoonist Bu Er Miao sells her webcomic Electric Cat and Lightning Dog on Douban's eBook service for 1.99 CNY (roughly 0.30 USD). When asked about whether she makes a profit off of her webcomic, Miao described the 1.79 CNY she makes per comic sold as "an amount of money that if you saw it on the street, no one would bother to pick it up."^[1] Political cartoonist Liu "Big Corpse Brother" Jun had over 130,000 followers on Sina Weibo in December 2013, and Kuang Biao has his work appear both online and in various print journals.^[4]

Adaptations

In 2016, two anime series based on Chinese webcomics were broadcast: Hitori no Shita: The Outcast,^[6] based on Yi Ren Zhi Xia by Dong Man Tang and Bloodivores, based on a webcomic by Bai Xiao.^[7] Another series, The Silver Guardian, is scheduled to premiere in 2017.^[6]

References