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Chinese comics struggling to find own style
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-19 09:34
For 33-year-old Yao Ting, a Chinese comics artist famous enough for fans to
stop him and ask for his autograph, these are both the best of times and the
worst of times.
Comic artists Yao Ting (L) and Bao Wei show
off their work during an exhibition in Beijing.
[AFP] | Interest in comics has never been greater
in China, but local artists are still struggling to escape from the shadow of
Western and Japanese influences and find a unique national style.
"Many Chinese comics have no real soul, and just imitate comics from other
countries, but people like me, we really think that our own Chinese heritage is
the most precious," he said.
"My ambition, my dream is to grasp the essence of ancient Chinese history,
culture and thought and bring it to the world," said Yao, who finds inspiration
in classic dynastic histories and popular novels of the pre-modern era.
China was a latecomer to the comics scene and its community of creative
story-tellers feel compelled to go for the tried and proven if they want to earn
a living.
"Chinese comics are in the early phase of development," said Zhang Zhou, an
employee at a Beijing-based advertising company and an avid reader of local
comics. "Our artists are still looking for their own style."
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.
But the current frenzy was kindled in the 1990s with the advent of Japanese
comics, or manga. And it shows.
From the style -- the trademark huge eyes of the characters -- to the subject
matters -- martial arts, teenage love and science fiction -- the main influence
on today's Chinese comics is overwhelmingly Japanese.
The heavy Japanese flavor in Chinese comics is extra ironic because the
Japanese were originally inspired by China, according to Tao Zhong, an intense
25-year-old amateur artist with a goatee.
"A lot of Chinese culture is now being used in Japanese comics. It's like a
mirror being held up to us," he said. "But actually, Chinese culture should be
expressed by the Chinese themselves."
An entire subculture has grown up around comics in China, with youngsters
dressing up as their favorite heroes with wigs and costumes that make them look
like something in between Tolkienesque elves and Tokyo punks.
Their enthusiasm and growing purchasing power is what instills confidence in
the pioneers of the Chinese comics industry.
"Comic magazines in China have a combined circulation of three million," said
Xu Tao, secretary general of the Institute of Chinese Comics, an industry
association.
"But if you count everything, including comics on the Internet and imported
magazines, the total market is at least 10 million readers," he said.
Despite the large and growing number of fans, no one has yet got rich
producing comics for the Chinese.
After years of hard and scantily rewarded work, Yao Ting now makes about
3,000 yuan (360 dollars) a month, and he considers himself among the lucky few
who have actually turned their passion into a livelihood.
"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."
Chinese comic artists look with envy to places such as Taiwan where an agent
system makes it easier for budding talents to find an outlet and reach a sizable
audience.
"There's definitely a market for comics in China, and there are lots of
artists, but the problem is that so far there are no agents," said Tao, the
amateur.
"Maybe it's because this kind of new profession is associated with a certain
degree of risk," he said.
Tao, himself a member of a minority of Chinese comic artists who seek to
tackle large, complex issues rather than just entertain, acknowledged there
probably would never be a huge market for his works.
His comics are compact and entirely without text, dealing with timeless
subjects such as the future of mankind or the battle of the sexes, often in just
a single page.
Few seem interested in changing society with their comics, and even the most
ambitious content themselves with expressing intensely private sentiments or
semi-religious ideas.
"You can't make cartoons about the leadership," said Bao Wei, a 27-year-old
artist from northeastern Harbin city.
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