Online Lecture by István Olajos on the Development of Chinese Manhua

2024. January 26.

On January 26, 2024, the ELTE Confucius Institute held an online lecture titled "What Tree Does Manhua Grow On? The Development of Chinese Comics in the World of Manga and Manhwa." The speaker was István Olajos, a Chinese language teacher at the ELTE Confucius Institute and a doctoral student at the ELTE Doctoral School of Linguistics. Many students from the ELTE Chinese Department joined the event.

"The Japanese manga and South Korean manhwa are currently highly popular among international audiences, whereas Chinese manhua is relatively less known," stated the specialist, who spoke from various perspectives about the development history of Chinese manhua. During the lecture, differences between Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean comics were discussed, as well as modern and contemporary Chinese manhua and its development.

The lecture consisted of four parts, covering the pioneering creators of Chinese manhua, the contemporary development of Chinese manhua, as well as the stylistic features and differences of Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean comics. In the first part, the speaker summarized the development history of Chinese manhua from the late Qing dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic of China. Image 1: One of the earliest Chinese satirical comics Image 2: Series: "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" The second part introduced the contemporary development of Chinese manhua, with particular focus on internet comics shared online since the 21st century. The third part compared the characteristics of Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean comics, followed by a discussion on the main themes of contemporary Chinese manhua. Image 3: The different characteristics of Chinese manhua, Japanese manga, and South Korean manhwa. Image 4: Presentation of contemporary Chinese internet manhua. In the fourth part, the speaker provided the answer to the main question, that is, "What is manhua?" The specialist not only summarized the most important moments in the development history of Chinese manhua but also presented the characteristics of contemporary Chinese manhua.

At the end of the lecture, participants had the opportunity to contribute to the topic, and István Olajos readily responded to the questions raised.