Lianhuanhua

Lianhuanhua (Chinese: 连环画 (Simplified) 連環畫 (Traditional); Pinyin: Liánhuánhuà or 連環圖) is a palm-size picture book of sequential drawings found in China in the early 20th century.

There is a Chinese belief that lianhuanhua influenced Japanese manga in the 20th century.

The name in Chinese essentially translates to "linked pictures" or "serial pictures". The books were called "lianhuanhua" or "lianhuan tuhua"; later the "tu" was omitted and the term "lianhuanhua" became standard. The official term lianhuanhua was not used until 1927. Prior to this, lianhuanhua were separated into different name categories depending on the region.

In the 1880s, Chinese magazines such as Dianshizhai Pictorial experimented with the potential of this art technique. In 1884, ten illustrations to accompany a Korean rebellion narrative may be the earliest example of Lianhuanhua. In 1899, Wenyi Book Company in Shanghai published the illustrated lithograph "The Story of the Three Kingdoms" drawn by Zhu Zhixuan. The format then was called "huihui tu" or chapter pictures.

In 1916 Caobao newspapers bound the pictures to attract a larger audience base of middle and lower class readers. The rise of Lianhuanhua's popularity was proportional to the rise of lithographic printing introduced to Shanghai from the West.Shanghai comics journals in the 1920s featured more artwork, typically depicting traditional stories along the lines of Chinese mythology or Chinese folklore. Small publishers in the 1920s and 1930s were mostly located on a street called Beigongyili in the Zhabei district. In 1935 street book stall owners and publishers established the "Shanghai Lianhuan Tuhua Promotion Society" at Taoyuanli. The illustrated stories were originally targeted to children and marginally literate readers.

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