Chinese webcomics

Online comics and cartoons are a growing artform in China, where traditionally published manhua is in decline. Webcomics are posted on social media and webcomic portals, which serve as a lower bar of entry than the strictly controlled print publication outlets in the country. Though little money is currently made through online cartoons in China, the medium has become popular for activism and satire. Chinese internet companies censor content uploaded to their servers that would not be approved by the country's Communist Party, and the government has a combination of human and automated censors in place to suppress potentially damaging content. In recent years, several Chinese webcomics have been adapted into animated series, with some in co-production with the Japanese animation industry.

Despite China being a major consumer of comics for decades, the medium has never been taken as "serious works of art". R. Martin of The Comics Journal describes the Chinese outlook on comics as "pulpy imitations of films". Furthermore, China strictly controls the publishing of comics, and as a result, cartoonists faced difficulty reaching a large audience. Many cartoonists in the late 2000s began self-publishing their work on social media instead of attempting to issue paper editions. Websites such as Douban (2005) and Sina Weibo (2009) are popular venues for webcomics.

The Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival celebrated a coming "webcomics era" in 2015. With increased smartphone usage with a younger generation, webcomics featuring a scrollable infinite canvas are expected to become more popular. With an increasing prevalence of Chinese-language webcomic portals, young artists have more opportunities to publish their work and gain a reputation.

As microblogging and webcomics were gaining popularity in China, the form was increasingly used for political activism and satire. Cartoonists such as Kuang Biao and Rebel Pepper make use of the Internet to criticize the Communist Party and its leaders. Communist propaganda and figures such as Lei Feng are openly mocked on microblogs and in online cartoons, despite efforts of censorship by the Chinese government. David Bandurski, a researcher with the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, stated that social media has "dramatically changed the environment for cartoonists [as] they now have a really good platform to find an audience." Chinese animator Pi San criticized internet companies and web portals for being "pretty cowardly" and "too sensitive", as they take on the role of first line of defense through self-censorship. Rebel Pepper's account on Sina Weibo, where he posts his satiral cartoons, had been deleted over 180 times by 2012.

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