Comics redrawing reading habits

Another type of domestic comic book that has become popular in the Chinese market in recent years addresses young people's need for emotional support.

In a time when people prefer photos and videos to text when they take a break from the heavy pressures of life, light comic books naturally win out in popularity.

They are not complicated, long stories but rather warm, funny, short stories about fragments of daily life, Shen says.

One representative work is Daikede Muli Shi Darende Xinzang (Oysters With Shells Are Grownups' Hearts) by Wang Manni.

First published in September 2022, the comic book, which uses candy colors to depict 17 short stories about love and dreams, healing, destiny, hope and courage, has sold more than 600,000 copies in a year, according to Jimu News.

Ruan Junting, associate professor at the China Academy of Art, said in a previous interview that a comic book, like a cocktail, mixes the bitterness of the adult world with candy-colored innocence to offer strength to readers to continue their lives with smiles.

"Now, too many readers need healing stories, and that's why it is successful," says Liu Ping, deputy editor-in-chief of the publishing company, CN Time Books.

The third trend is tied to traditional Chinese culture.

In recent years, as traditional Chinese culture has become popular among young people, a lot of comic books have successfully attracted more readers to this wave.

On the top 10 list of best-selling comic books of all time, released by Xiron, a Beijing-based publishing company, seven are domestic. Among the top 10 best-selling comic titles for 2022 and 2023, respectively, seven and five are domestic comic books, and their competitors on the lists are well-known books from Japan, including Cells at Work and My Neighbour Totoro.