China DOS Union

Our generation’s brains have more or less gone through a bit of a baptism by Japanese culture (manga). I started liking Japanese manga in my first year of middle school. Back then I was reading famous ones like <>, <> and so on. By the second half of the term I found that this kind of spiritual food really wasn’t enough to fill me up, so I moved on to <>, <>, <>, <> and the like. This kind could be said to be beyond what children could understand. Basically, if you were reading this kind of stuff, you had successfully made the transition into adolescence. During that period, the one that influenced me more deeply was <>. It describes the story of Feng and Xiao tribes destroying the feudal lords and unifying the realm. There was also one called <>. It tells the story of Mozi helping various states contend for hegemony during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Its military thinking is quite close to Sunzi’s. But basically this book centers on the idea that with Mohism one grows strong, and in driving Mohism away one declines. Looking at the larger trend of that era through it feels too one-sided. By about the third year of middle school, even this kind of manga had started to bore me, so I began dabbling in adult manga.

Japanese adult manga can actually be divided into two types. One centers on violence, the other on sex. Reading the latter was like raping your own eyes. And at that time, if the "misleading dwarf" discovered you reading that kind of book, it was no less than being sentenced to death. So when I read adult manga, it was mostly the former type. The ones that left the deepest impression on me were <>, <>, <>, <>, <>, <> and so on. <> is about a mafia boss. My impression of it was that it was hilarious. <> can absolutely be called a classic. It tells the story of a Japanese man named Yao who, after being brainwashed by the Chinese gang Longnian, works for Longnian and risks his life for them. <> is about young people dissatisfied with reality, using violence to fight the upper strata of society. <> is the classic among classics, and it was precisely because of this manga that I took notice of its author, Ryoichi Ikegami. After that I basically only read his manga works. This book is about two young Japanese men who escaped Cambodia under the rule of the Khmer Rouge and returned to Japan, where one enters politics and the other turns criminal. Together they confront and reform Japanese society. <>, <> were both by the same person; the one that left a deeper impression, Kongō Warrior, is about cloning Hitler.
In my youth I read a great many manga. I think Japanese manga has always been propagating two ideas.

1. The bushido spirit of killing to achieve benevolence
2. Male chauvinism that regards women as inferior and men as superior

And I have already been steeped in both of these ideas.

Sheesh, the second point is really spot-on.

Also, Dragon’s Ear, that’s a classic.

Japan, yeah... it’s a very peculiar country and people... But the drawing quality of Japanese manga really is quite good, and I like it.

Hehe, I actually prefer the Hong Kong drawing style; you can tell just by looking at the manga

As for those other pretty-girl types, I never read them. Not that I haven’t read them before; on the contrary, I actually read quite a few manga of that sort. The only one that left a deep impression was <>. It depicts ghosts and monsters. After reading it, I wasn’t moved by the male-female romance in it. Instead, I felt the heroine was lowly. Quite a few other manga also promote individual heroism. For example, <> and so on. After reading this kind, your blood often boils and you always want to find someone to fight.
Besides those few types, there is another category of biographical manga that I also quite liked reading. The most famous is <>. My understanding of Japan’s Warring States history basically came from there.

Finally I want to add one more point: evaluations of Japanese manga should really say that it propagates three ideas.

1. The bushido spirit of killing to achieve benevolence
2. Male chauvinism that regards women as inferior and men as superior
3. A historical view of individual heroism

Dragon’s Ear, that’s Yellow Dragon’s Ear, right? Although it is a classic, obviously there are just too many scenes of carnal desire in it. And the content is very hollow. Aside from killing people, it’s just sex. It still can’t compare with the <> listed earlier in the post. There are many adult manga with higher achievement than this one, like <>, <>, <> and so on.

Hong Kong manga has too stiff a drawing style. Like sketch art. Too many words. Reading <>, <> took me nearly a week.

Actually Japanese manga is a good thing. I mean its form. It’s N times better than our Chinese lianhuanhua from the 70s and 80s.
The biggest flaw of Chinese lianhuanhua is that they aren’t lively or vivid enough. Of all forms that use pictures to express ideas, I think Japanese manga is the best.

I don’t think so. Lianhuanhua were very good; they were the spiritual food of the youth of that era.

I only love Saint Seiya.

If you like Saint Seiya, I can tell your age.

Brother, your article is very well written!
It describes in great detail some things from when you were young.
But why let yourself be “objectified” by the Japanese?
I’ve read a few too.
Just reading them, for entertainment.
But I realized one thing from manga... Chinese culture has been lost!