Chinese Scanlations of Japanese Manga

[lilongyue]

When I was back in the States I discovered a book store that had thousands of manga in Chinese. I bought several of the D. Gray-man series in traditional Chinese, but have almost finished reading them. The store also had simplified Chinese versions, but very few. I've had a hard time tracking down manga in Mainland China, but know that it's popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In fact, the D. Gray-man I bought were published in Taiwan. Anyone know of a website that regularly posts Chinese scanlations of Japanese manga? I'm not sure how to phrase the Chinese to google it and find relevant information. By searching "Chinese scanlation" and searching through English forums I found this http://www.jojohot.com/. He has the pages of some manga scanned and posted on his website, and also has ed2k links, but I'm looking torrents, so I can download a bunch in one go. Any suggestions? Or ideas of where I can just buy the manga outright in Mainland? Last time I visited one of those little stores that sells manga related stuff, I looked at the Naruto manga they had in stock. Looked like someone photocopied the originals, and used white out and a pen to do the translation. Terrible. Unreadable. Anyone else had better luck?

[TezUK]

Do you mean somewhere from which you can buy online?

If not I know its widely available in Beijing and im sure most big cities, I got a few dragon ball mangas from 西单 in one of the big markets, they had a great selection.

[82riceballs]

Hmmm... that's strange.

I've been to book stores of department stores in Taiwan several times, and they usually had lots of translated manga much cheaper than the manga in the US.

I don't know any chinese scantalations but i do know 1 manga scantalation website in english:. http://thespectrum.net/

hope this helps

[skylee]

Do you want something like this? -> http://www.17kk.net/

I've been reading this -> http://www.17kk.net/intro/12253.htm

[lilongyue]

@ skylee

Oh, that's brilliant, thanks so much. Just what I've been looking for. I would really like to own the manga someday, but buying it here in Hangzhou isn't easy, and I'm a student on a budget.

@ 82riceballs

I know manga is easy to find in Taiwan, but I'm talking about Mainland China. The Chinese manga I bought was printed in Taiwan, but sold in the U.S. I wish I lived in Taiwan, or Hong Kong (and not only for the availability of manga).

Thanks everyone! I highly recommend 驱魔少年, or D. Gray-man for those into manga. There's tons of fan subs and scanlations in English, and now it looks like in Chinese, too.

[skylee]

D. Gray-man -> http://www.17kk.net/intro/7557.htm

[huisheng]

I'm a longtime semi-fan of Bleach, and I've been downloading the manga from bleachexile.com where some English scanlations are sourced from jojohot.com in evidence with the watermark. jojohot has members in Japan who can get the manga firsthand and releases the latest chapter faster than bleachexile. But their scanlations are in poor quality and their website is confusing and hard to navigate. So I don't visit them often.

[lilongyue]

www.verycd.com is a Chinese website that has ed2k links for just about everything under the sun. ed2k links are for the eMule software. Here's the link to the first (of several) pages containing the ed2k links of Japanese comic books (already translated into Chinese): http://www.verycd.com/sto/cartoon/book/page1.

[anthony_barker]

I have a decent collection - but they are all in paper format - either from Taiwan or HK. Tintin and other european comics are also available.

Lots of bookstores in Toronto carry them. You can also order online from Taiwanese companies.

Two issues I have with translations of Japanese manga: Sometimes the translations suck - they use collequal words for spoken language.

Taiwan has some local manga that I quite enjoy. Much easier going.and standard vocabulary.

I normally get my wife to read aload into an mp3 player and then listen to them and then read them myself looking up vocab I don't know.

Some Taiwanese comics have bopomofo on the side which helps with looking words up - but normally they aren't interesting - more for grade school kids.

There are tons of learning japanese through manga books - I have a few as well as magazines. Coolest I've seen is a adobe pdf version - in which you can click on the words for translations.

[82riceballs]

that's interesting--I've never seen Taiwanese manga with bopomofo.

It reminds me of some Japanese mangas where for all the kanji, there are furigana- it's so wonderfully helpful

[lilongyue]

I've been to 2 little stores here in Hangzhou - windows and door plastered in posters of Gundams, inside shelves filled with Gundam models, Naruto models as well as figurines from various other manga series - ask in Chinese "Do you have any manga?" The reply, "Manga?!? No." Had a conversation with the family running one store about it. The guy behind the counter claimed ignorance to every question I asked: "Where can I buy manga in Hangzhou?" "Dunno. Maybe a big bookstore." "Why doesn't anyone sell manga in Hangzhou/" "Dunno." "Manga is really popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong, so it probably would be in China, too." Finally the old man playing solitaire on the computer in back said something about Hong Kong and Maindland culture having been out of touch for a long time, so something being popular in Hong Kong doesn't mean anything in China. He asked the young man behind the counter "Isn't that right?" "Dunno." The Aiyi called up someone and said they have manga, but didn't know if I would like it. I asked her which series they had, so she called again, but no answer. I asked her a few times where this place with manga was, but she ignored me. She asked me if I wanted to buy manga wholesale, to sell myself, or for my own reading. I said for myself, to read. She scoffed. Typical. I said forget it and left.

By the way, I remembered hearing something about "Death Note" being banned in China. Ran a search and found several articles talking about the glorious Chinese Communist government declaring "horror" manga to have negative psychological effects on children. This is probably the real reason I have such a hard time finding manga in Hangzhou. Typical BS from those corrupt bastards in Beijing. Apparently it's OK to have whorehouses set up shop outside of schools (which I've seen), but not comics books with some scary stories and violence. Thank god for the interent.

[lilongyue]

Interesting related link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-05/15/content_6103672.htm

[82riceballs]

how would the gov benefit from banning deathnote?

[renzhe]

I don't know how well this fits the topic, but here is a manga that's very easy to read and which is available online for those of us looking for some easy reading.

http://www.leftworld.net/shequ/luanma.cgi?d=1

It's a bit old, but perfect for beginners.

[82riceballs]

I remember reading ranma at a local barnes and nobles!

it's pretty darn funny

[renzhe]

Yeah, it's very entertaining.

[anthony_barker]

Just returned from Taiwan to Canada and loaded up on manga.

Now have all the Zhu Deyong books as well.

Seems like there are less manga stores these days - only found 2 in Taichung - best selection was in Sogo. Fair number of people seem to read the Japanese versions of the Manga.

Also I've noticed the translations becoming more "taiwanese". A fair number of japanese words have been adopted and don't have equivalents in HK or Mainland. Still prefer the Taiwan versions over the HK translations though.

Also looked at the "pen" scan translators - but the guy told me they are slow and don't work so well.

[82riceballs]

Also I've noticed the translations becoming more "taiwanese". A fair number of japanese words have been adopted and don't have equivalents in HK or Mainland.

Agreed! Last time I read crayon shinchan (one of the funniest mangas), the taiwanese translator translated japanese kana that shinchan had scribbled into bopomofo

I thought that was pretty smart of him!

[lilongyue]

Still prefer the Taiwan versions over the HK translations though.

How do the translations differ?

[82riceballs]

I'm not sure myself. I've personally never seen a HK translation, but shouldn't they be in Cnatonese?