Tracing the Origins of Hong Kong Manhua: A Case of Culture of Disappearance

Abstract

Manhua (漫畫) or comics, the equivalent English word, is a common phrase used locally in contemporary Hong Kong. A mixed media of popular reading and arts elements, manhua is one of the important cultural products of a modern society like Hong Kong. The term manhua became the official trade name of this “modernized” industry in 1986; prior to this date, this visual storytelling art form had many different labels under which artists aligned themselves. Each pre-manhua moniker has a distinguishable visual style, characteristics as well as print venues and formats. Throughout the history of manhua in Hong Kong, there are two golden eras: the publishing of local original works from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s and a second era emerging in the mid-1970s that was already in decline by the early 1990s. This chapter argues the urgency of clarifying manhua’s origins in lianhuantu (連環圖), an area that has not yet been adequately explored by scholars.