Ryan - Angel Hair (orig. Chi.)

[oyceter]

AKA: My First Manhua

I've been trying to look for actual Chinese manhua instead of translations of manga, though it's been difficult. I suspect there's even more manhwa here than manhua, though possibly I'm looking in the wrong places. But given that a lot of the idol dramas in Taiwan are based on manga and manhwa, and given the prevalence of Japanese stores EVERYWHERE, I don't think I'm overestimating the prevalence of manga and the paucity of manhua, at least in Taiwan as opposed to other Chinese-speaking locales.

I did manage to find the recently licensed manhua Divine Melody, though I didn't get it because I didn't like the art that much. On the other hand, that was before I realized it had gender-bending, fox spirits, and reincarnation!

Angel Hair is a collection of three short stories. The frame story has two hikers coming across some ruins and a statue of the angel Nathaniel, who has a scar on his (zir? her? I am fairly sure he's coded male by the language, the story, and the art, but as we all know, it can be hard to tell) cheek and long hair on one side and short hair on the other. The three stories are all explanations of how he got the scar and the chopped off hair.

I find it rather disconcerting but not startling that the stories are all Euro-centric; I'm fairly sure the frame story is set in Europe, and all the characters have Western names.

The first story is about Princess Chantilly, her guardian angel Nathaniel, and the neighboring Prince Gouman (spellings are approximations). Chantilly wants Gouman to marry her because his country is richer and her country needs the money, but she has gorgeous long black hair and he hates black hair and loves blonde hair. The entire thing is about her begging her guardian angel to turn blonde. I found this story extremely frustrating and problematic for the obvious reasons.

The second story posits that Gouman and Nathaniel are actually close friends, and the third is Nathaniel's story. All of them star Chantilly, Nathaniel and Gouman, albeit in different capacities, and in all of them, black hair is abnormal or a sign of evil, while golden blondness is a sign of angelicness (literal and figurative). The final story does the most to argue with the simple black-blonde dichotomy, though still not enough for my taste. I'm not going to go into theories of self-hatred or wanting to be Western, because I think while that is a part of it, it is also too easy to blame it all on the person exhibiting the self-hatred and/or desire to be Western and to ignore fun things like cultural hegemony and cultural colonization.

In conclusion, really boring and problematic, with not-so-great art to boot. I think next, I will pick up the fox spirit one or one that was set in Song Dynasty China.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Was the Song Dynasty one "Vision of the Other Side"? I forget what dynasty it's set in, but the volume I read was quite fun, though normal wuxia in a lot of ways. I have vol 2, but haven't read it yet as vols 3-4 seem to be out of print, and it looks like it was dropped. (OTOH, if it was "Real Fake Princess," I recommend staying far, far away. I only read a couple chapters, but the "hero" was an alpha cretin in the worst possible way. I stopped reading when we reached what I would consider to be physical abuse.)

Comics One has actually published a ton of kung fu manhua (some of which I may or may not have recently ordered from rightstuf) and Tokyopop recently published a 2 volume dark romance by Jo Chen. I only vaguely know what it's about and have no idea if it's good, I just know that Jo Chen's comic covers are amazingly gorgeous, and the little bit of Dark Minds that she contributed to the plot was the best part of that series.

[issen4.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to look for actual Chinese manhua

A bit difficult? They had a go in the 1990s, but the recession hit and the Taiwanese manhua market never really took off in a big way: economics, bad timing, etc. Most of the comics are translated Japanese and Korean stuff, plus a bunch of children's cutsy stuff. But pulp romances are out in a big way, as are internet novels, so I guess that's where the readership went.

That's the impression I got, anyway. Most of the idol dramas are adaptations of Japanese manga series, so that doesn't help either--no local market.

I do remember reading 游素蘭 (You2 Su4 Lan2)'s series, which was fantasy-based and resembled Japanese shojo a lot. She's still pretty popular, according to wiki.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

One thing that strikes me, given the European setting, is that the light hair/dark hair dichotomy is an ongoing thread in Shakespeare's plays. Of course, there's no way to tell if any degree of influence is there.

[jiawen]

If by any chance you find an extra copy of 九命人 Nine Life Man by 阿推 Push I will gladly pay you for it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds depressing.

I have some manhua on my to-read shelf that are adapted from the novels that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was based on.

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

...Hmm. Do you have any thoughts on stuff like Saiunkoku Monogatari, which is Japanese but seems to be set in China? It's not quite the same kind of dynamic as the near-fetishist Anglophilia of something like Emma, I don't think, but since I'm just starting that series (Saiunkoku, that is), I'm still thinking about it.

[cafecomics.livejournal.com]

Some works by Selena Lin are translated into french : Flower Ring (http://www.soleilmanga.com/~solmanga/lire_manga.php?id_manga=96) and Burning Moon (http://www.soleilmanga.com/~solmanga/lire_manga.php?id_manga=218). Her style is very shoujo-esque. Even her "How-to" book (http://livre.fnac.com/a1993366/Lin-Comic-school-Selena-te-montre-comment-realiser-un-manga?Mn=-1&Mu=-13&Ra=-1&To=0&Nu=1&Fr=3) was translated.