On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15 young people lay comfortably on colorful carpets and throw pillows arranged in
Kong Yi sat cross-legged before them, using a special stick to hit lightly metal bowls in front of her, making a sound
After, they were guided into supposing that they
Such spiritual, meditative experiences that can lower stress and worry have become the
2 . Lee hyun-seok grew up in South Korea addicted to Japanese manga (漫画) series such as “Dragon Ball” and “Slam Dunk”. As soon as he could, he migrated to Tokyo to build a successful career as a manga artist and editor. Then in the early 2000s came “webtoons”, a South Korean cartoon innovation optimized for smartphones. Mr. Lee was at first unimpressed. Compared with manga’s inventive graphic styles and profound plots, he found webtoons just the opposite.
Yet Japanese manga is being eclipsed by Korean webtoons. Last year the manga print market shrank by 2.3% to ¥265bn ($1.9bn). The size of the global webtoons market was meanwhile valued at $3.7bn. Manga is going digital slowly, in part because it is still designed for print, so awkward to read on smartphones. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, Mr. Lee abandoned manga for the webtoon industry in 2014.
Though webtoons such as “Itaewon Class” and “Solo Levelling” have become popular among Japanese consumers, most Japanese publishers have stuck stubbornly to manga. “The Japanese industry is very conservative,” sighs Mr. Lee. The manga industry’s business model, in which stories are first published in weekly magazines and then in books, has hardly changed since the 1960s. Webtoons have grown so fast, in part because they can be read more easily. Other recent South Korean exports, such as the Netflix sensation “Squid Game” and BTS, a boy band, have taken the world by storm thanks to the same combination of innovation and smart marketing behind webtoons.
Some are concerned about the future. Japan’s manga fans are, like all its population, ageing. The average reader of the Weekly Shonen Magazine, a manga for children launched in 1989, is now over 30. “Manga could end up as old people’s culture,” warns Mr Lee. “Children these days are viewing through webtoons on their smartphones. Why not make something that suits their taste?”
1. What did Mr Lee think of “webtoons” in the early 2000s?A.He considered it as inventive. | B.He considered it as attractive. |
C.He considered it as original. | D.He considered it as shallow. |
A.Ruined. | B.Outweighed. | C.Replaced. | D.Copied. |
A.Japanese manga can be read more easily. |
B.Since the 1960s, the manga has grown so fast. |
C.The manga industry is unwilling to transform. |
D.“Squid Game” was adopted from Japanese manga. |
A.Worried. | B.Aggressive. | C.Confident. | D.Annoyed. |
Through the work we do, our goals can
Work can also help develop our skills, thus
Not only
Our work, when done well, will not only help us make a living but also help make a life for ourselves and for others. We can take