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Korean Comics Used to Be Burned; Now It Teaches Children




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Vee-Tee



Joined: 12 Aug 2015
Posts: 133
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2024 11:37 am Reply with quote
Wow. When you look back at the history of Japanese manga, for the most part, it’s archived.

Think of just how many Korean comics of possible historic importance were just burned.
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quoss



Joined: 08 May 2010
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2024 12:52 pm Reply with quote
I had no idea about this. Fascinating and awful. Thanks for the write-up, Ima look more into it.
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SenpaiDuckie
ANN Community Manager


Joined: 16 Sep 2021
Posts: 500
Location: PH
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2024 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Since then, educational manhwa has transitioned from a cut-and-dry illustrated lesson to a comic that also provides an entertaining story. For example, one of Moon Inho's own comics, Hanja Sohwansa Jaryung (Hanja Summoner Jaryong), teaches kids hanja (the Korean word for Chinese characters) in the midst of a fantasy tale.

Today's manhwa artists no longer fear government censorship. “Now, online comments are the scariest thing,” Park said wryly through a translator. But manhwa with educational content is still the most lucrative portion of the Korean comics market.


The great thing about manga/manhwa is that it can be used as an affective historical material, especially when their subject is on history (e.g. Barefoot Gen and even Adventures of Tintin: Blue Lotus). It not only holds the reader's attention but makes the reader be emotionally connected to the protagonist. It also gives the reader a different perspective; however, this is where critical reading comes into play. For one, it is a historical fiction. There will be a blur between factual and non-factual. Another is that the perspective will always be mostly by the author - his/her own truth but not the Truth.

Nonetheless, I think having manga/manhwa/comics as part of the educational can be helpful when it comes to learning history. The approach on the subject may be post-structuralist; however, manga/manhwa has that biggest asset that textbooks don't have: visual material. It helps any reader to imagine further what happened during this period of time or discuss topics that are heavy or hard to explain.
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2459
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Aug 07, 2024 3:54 pm Reply with quote
This was a fascinating read. I know Korean censorship of Japanese media was a thing based on what I've read about various dubs for anime back then, but I had no idea the government went so far as to outright burn manhwa under the pretense of keeping children safe, and make it into an annual event. That is just...insane. Like, how in the world is a woman holding her glasses with her mouth provocative? I'm glad things changed where they can finally do what they want with their stories.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6358
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 09, 2024 12:14 am Reply with quote
Wow, this is quite a interesting article you done here ANN. Never knew this part of this history. I do want to touch something:

Quote:
“In 1967, manhwa was declared one of the six major evils of Korea,” Park said through a translator. The annual burnings continued until 1997.


That sounds just like what happened to US comic book in the late 40's and early 50's and that led to the Senate committee hearing on US comic book, and I think everybody on this forum knows about the Comic Code Authority and it's demise in 2010/2011.

Vee-Tee wrote:
Wow. When you look back at the history of Japanese manga, for the most part, it’s archived.


Unfortunately, there are still significant amount of lost media in anime/manga (I've talked about it on a ANN thread I created back in 2022). So it's not fully archived and can become lost forever (that does include manga). Also there are manga and anime that can't get released due to right issues like for example Candy Candy, the legal dispute has been a thing in early 2000's and because of that, the series can't get a release on home video nor streaming even to this day. That's why you will not see Crunchyroll nor Discotek picking up the license to this anime nor any US publisher will pick up the right to license and translate the manga.

Also please refer to this Answerman articles from 2015 and 2018 on why old/older anime sometime or mostly never get re-release even in Japan. So sadly, there are lost anime/manga that are lost forever or can't get released due to rights issue/complications like I mentioned above.
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