Manhua
Manhua are Chinese comics, from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, now often published online in colour and collected in print.
Where the word comes from
Mandarin 漫画 (mànhuà), the same characters as Japanese manga and Korean manhwa.
In depth
Manhua is the Chinese term for comics. The tradition includes the lianhuanhua picture books of early twentieth-century Shanghai, the martial-arts comics of Hong Kong, and Taiwanese comics influenced by Japanese manga. Since the 2010s much new manhua is published on Chinese digital platforms in colour, often in vertical-scroll form like Korean webtoons.
Genres
Wuxia (martial heroes) and xianxia (cultivation fantasy, in which characters train to gain supernatural power) are characteristic genres, alongside romance and modern drama. Many manhua adapt Chinese web novels.
In English
English editions are fewer than for manga and manhwa but growing; publishers release them in numbered volumes, read left to right.
From web novel to manhua
A large share of recent manhua adapts Chinese web novels, especially in the fantasy genres, where long serial stories about cultivation and sect politics are popular. The same story may exist as a web novel, a manhua, an animated series and a live-action drama.
Reading manhua in English
Printed English manhua appears in numbered volumes like manga and manhwa. Names follow Chinese order and Pinyin spelling, and translators often keep terms for martial and spiritual concepts with a short explanation, so a glossary at the back is common.
What it means today
If a fantasy series speaks of cultivation, sects and qi, it most likely comes from Chinese web fiction, in manhua or novel form.
