la_vie_noire | (no subject)

My internet died yesterday and I was about to do my daily posts again, this time with Justin Chon. He will come today.

But right now I want to link you to this great post by

troisroyaumes: On manhwa: availability and representation.

Basically, I was kind of a purist when U.S. publishers began releasing manhwa. I read manga and only manga. [...] Manhwa was, in my eyes, a cheap imitation.

Judging by this quote, I wouldn't be surprised if the poster believed that manhwa came about in Korea because Koreans read Japanese manga and decided to come up with their own version. The Wikipedia article on manhwa reinforces this ignorant assumption by defining manhwa in the ways it differs from manga, as if one was a subgenre of the other, though otherwise it links to very good resources and even includes an image to a woodcut manhwa from 1908. Let me just note that this first one-panel manhwa was published in a newspaper of a patriotic organization formed in resistance to the Japanese occupation (Korean Wikipedia article on 대한민보). The newspaper was dissolved a year later, after Japan officially annexed Korea. Yes, the manhwa tradition in Korea actually began in opposition to Japanese colonization; I hope the irony does not escape you.