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Korean Comics Used to Be Burned; Now It Teaches Children

Growing up in South Korea, Park Seulki Rhea remembers the comic book burnings. Every year on May 5, celebrated as Children's Day, government authorities would make a bonfire of manhwa under the premise of keeping children safe.

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

In the Otakon panel “World of Korean Education Manhwa and its History,” language and cultural educator Park and her co-panelist, the educational manhwa creator Moon Inho, explained how Korean manhwa artists emphasized the educational benefits of children's comics to fly under the radar of government censors and keep their craft alive.

As the child of a famous manhwa artist, Park was especially aware of how government censorship affected her family's livelihood. Her father, Lee Sang Moo, the creator of the famous Korean character Dokkotak, walked a fine line in an era when a comic that depicted a woman holding her glasses in her mouth while she washed her hands was considered too provocative for print. A comic he drew about a poor family living in close quarters attracted government ire because it featured male and female siblings sleeping in the same room. Park shared a long list of government guidelines for comics. One of the rules: cartoon characters can' be depicted wearing hats indoors (because in Korea, this is a sign of disrespect).

“In America, the Joker is Batman's adversary who sets off bombs,” Park said through a translator. “In Korea, Joker became a villain who turns water from the faucet into jelly.”

Naturally, Japanese manga was not exempt from government censorship. Beginning in 1945, when Korea was freed from Japanese rule, the Law For Punishing Anti-National Deeds was put into effect. Until the late '90s, Koreans had no legal access to Japanese manga, TV, or games.

Everything changed in 1998, when South Korea experienced its first-ever peaceful transition of power, concluding its decades-long dictatorship. Manhwa artists who had long been operating under severe censorship laws were finally able to stretch their wings. Moon Inho described this point as a major shift in manhwa. 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. Parents make purchasing decisions for their children, and they prefer for kids to be learning something new while they read. But even as Naver Webtoon has popularized all sorts of Korean manhwa all over the world, Park and Moon emphasized that it's thanks to educational manhwa that Korean comics can thrive today.

“Speech was restricted, and manhwa was subject to censorship,” Park said through a translator, “but educational manhwa helped it survive.”