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Chinesese comics(manhua) + Taiwan and Hong Kong


Insula Formosa

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黑白无双(heibaiwushuang; Black and White Warriors.)

Mainland

On ongoing series from 2006 by 于彥舒(Yu Yanshu), presently 12 volumes, published from 漫友(Manyou, Comicfans)

The story is based on Chinese Death Gods, originally Heibaiwuchang(黑白无常).

It's a typical Shonen; the story is nothing special, but the action scenes are pretty good. It's quite rare for Chinese comics to reach more than ten volumes, so it seems that the Manhua is pretty popular.

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Creative Comic Collection

Taiwan

An excellent magazine, primarily comics, that portrays the diverse aspects of Taiwan, such as its history, culture, flora and fauna. Most of Taiwan's talented artists are contributing to this magazine, and it seems that it's quite popular; from what I've heard, recent sales were only second to One Piece.

The project is funded by the government, it seems. It started in 2010 and went commercial in 2011. It is a seasonal magazine published four times a year, and the 8th issue(4th commercial issue) was released just two weeks ago. A must buy for not just Manhua fans but all those who are interested in Taiwanese culture.

More information and excerpts here:

http://digitalarchives.tw/Theme/CCC/

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Ark Saga (方舟奇航 fangzhuo qihang)

Taiwan

An amusing single-volume Manhua about a girl and a boy who had to leave Earth, no longer inhabitable due to climate change, and arrived in a faraway alien planet to populate it with humans. The artist Ponjea(彭傑, pengjie) is one of the most famous Taiwanese artists, and he is the only foreign artist to have drawn for the famous Japanese weekly magazine Shonen-Jump.

The volume also includes a short story that was published in CCC, which is about a wheelchair race of Southeast Asian maids. (Sounds weird, but it's great).

The publisher, Friendly Land(友善出版) has upload the first part of the book for promotion.

https://picasaweb.google.com/104943846237641841522/20110707ARKSAGA1#5626345955632504866

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Changdiji(創帝紀, Chronicle of the Making of an Emperor)

Hong Kong

An ongoing series, currently four-volumes, by 孫威軍(Sun Wei-jun in Mandarin), published by Tongli(東立, Dongli) in the same magazine as "The Ravages of Time." The story takes place during the Warring States period around the young future Shi-huangdi, protected by a mysterious blond warrior from the Roman empire.

Of course it's not your typical history documentary, it has a lot of fictional imaginations mixed into it which makes it all the more interesting. And while the cover art is not that great, the artwork is simply excellent. Sun is undoubtedly one of the best authors of the Sinosphere.

The manhua is published simultaneously in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and just like many books from HK, it's in standard Chinese that is identical to Mandarin(in traditional Characters), so you don't have to speak Cantonese to be able to read it.

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Tai-one National University Nude Art Club(台大裸體藝術社 taida luoti yishu she)

Taiwan

A wacky Taiwanese single-volume collection of comic strips by Heyaxi(哈亞西), published just a month ago from Weicomic. It's about a mysterious, perverted club in the famous elite university of National Taiwan(Tai-One in this comic) University. It's not so erotic but rather humerous, and has many Taiwanese inside-jokes and memes, especially those related to Otaku culture. But even if you are not aware of these inside jokes, it's still an entertaining read. More information here. Also available on Ipad.

Curiously enough, it has been on the news lately.

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You've posted cover pictures and links, and that's certainly helpful, but it would be nice to have some direct links to sample pages. I think most people wouldn't purchase a foreign language book without knowing what level of language is used within the book. 黑白无双 is an example where I clicked the link but couldn't find any additional information on the series.

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日日美好(Ririmeihao)

Taiwan

A four-volume story of two Taiwanese death gods, from the author Sally. Although based on roughly the same mythology as 黑白无双, the story is quite different; it is not a Shonen but rather a realistic, touching story that focuses on human drama. Personally I find the artwork beautiful.

The comic was initially run on Comicomi, and most chapters can be still read for free online here, among other works from Sally. One of my favorite episodes is this: http://www.comibook.com/cb282

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but it would be nice to have some direct links to sample pages. I think most people wouldn't purchase a foreign language book without knowing what level of language is used within the book.

Hi,

I will post sample pages if the publisher revealed them on the web; if not, you can see plenty of sample pages by googling the title or baidu-ing it.

For the level of language, none of them are so hard to read, except for maybe history-related works such as Changdiji; it's certainly easier to read than newspapers or novels because the art gives you much more context.

Hope this helps.

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Baby

Taiwan

4-volumes and ongoing, by Changsheng(常勝) from Tongli publishing. A post-apocalyptic action thriller, its main character being a former police officer infected with a mysterious parasite called "Baby" which gives her supernatural powers. Not that much novelty can be found, but the artwork is pretty good and realistic.

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幻鏡少女ALICE(Huanjing Shaonü Alice)

Taiwan

A single volume comic from Han Baobao(漢寶包) who happens to be one of my favorite Taiwanese artists. It's about grown-up Alice who goes back to Wonderland to save it from mysterious robot army of the Oz empire, with magic mushrooms that turn her into a giant and armed with electric chainsaws. Good sense of humour with a nice plot. I wanted to purchase Han Baobao's other works but unfortunately they were sold out; you can see more of his works in CCC issues mentioned above.

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Thanks for this, Insula Formosa. I haven't given Chinese comics much of a look, mostly because I don't know much about them and have been content with the Western and Japanese translations. So this is helpful. Ravages of Time is the only ongoing Chinese comic I have really tried. While it's excellent, it's simply too hard/complex for my comic reading taste. How's the story and difficulty in 創帝紀 (if I consider Ravages of Time more difficult than the newspapers)?

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How's the story and difficulty in 創帝紀 (if I consider Ravages of Time more difficult than the newspapers)?

It's somewhat difficult because there are historic stuff related, but I find it less difficult to read than ROT, mainly because there are more comic/fantastic factors going on.

You could also check out Sun Weijun's other works such as 繪戰師(which was much easier) or 小宇宙啟動(which I didn't read yet).

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  • 2 weeks later...

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一九四五 夏末(1945 End of Summer)

Taiwan

A single-volume comic by BARZ. The story takes place in the last year of Japanese colonial era of Taiwan, between two sisters which the elder was adopted by a richer family and went to Japan to study medicine.

All of the manhua except for the last episode was posted on Comicomi and can be read here.

The book has some slight modifications of texts. It is also quite big(B5 format).

A touching piece which not only offers insight to the Taiwanese society under Japanese rule but also invites to think about home and family.

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Surprised you don't have anything by 蔡志忠 . He is prob the most famous of chinese comic artist.

This place has a lot of comics as well.

http://mycomic.qq.com/

Anyway, my only problem with the manhua you have is just that most of the art style is way to Japanese for my taste. I have nothing wrong with that art style, but as soon as I see a Chinese comic drawn like that, I tend to keep away.

The 一九四五 夏末 looks good though, i think I will check that one out.

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邻居家是画漫画的阿幺 (linjujia shi huamanhua de ayao: The comic-drawing Ayao lives next door)

Mainland

An amusing comic strip collection by LING from Manyou. It's about a teenage comic artist Ayao who draws girly comics but actually like BL comics(Boys Love: male homosexual romance) which she draws and publishes in secret, which is revealed to her handsome classmate who is a fan of her girly comics but abhors BL. It's an entertaining little read with cute character plots. You will like it if you liked manga such as Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, etc. The book is quite small but is in full color. Some sample pages here.

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Surprised you don't have anything by 蔡志忠 . He is prob the most famous of chinese comic artist.

Good suggestion, I like 蔡志忠 too. He is the first Chinese(Taiwanese) artist that I have read. He is so classic and one of the very few manhuajias to be known around the world that I didn't mention him, but I will introduce some of his many works that I have liked.

This place has a lot of comics as well.

http://mycomic.qq.com/

Great information, I have added it to the original post.

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Do you know of any Chinese/Taiwanese BL/Yaoyi?

I don't know any BL comics(there would be plenty, surely) but recently I've seen a PV of a Chinese BL animation.

The title is 弦月梦影.

It's rare to see Chinese Anime of good quality, so it's fairly interesting to have a look.

I think it would be too Japanese for your taste though.

One other question, is there a way to say yaoyi/bl in chinese that is commonly used?

I think they just say "BL." There must be alternative words but I'm not aware of them.

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