The literary era since 1979

On the second day, the Japanese delegation attended a welcome party specially organized by the Hong Kong literary and art circles, which was also an exchange meeting.

As an acquaintance of both sides, Fangyan was naturally on the invitation list, and they introduced each other to each other.

After working for a while, Pan Yaoming, who was representing the Hong Kong Joint Publishing Company, pulled Fangyan aside and started chatting with him in private.

"Ya Zi, you really made a name for yourself in Hong Kong this time."

"Hey, I've been in the limelight so much that I can't even count them myself. Which aspect are you talking about?"

Fangyan joked in a joking tone.

"You, you are pretending to be ignorant even though you know the truth, right?"

Pan Yaoming said: "Of course it's A Better Tomorrow."

After asking Fangyan, I learned that when "A Better Tomorrow" was released, all the media in Hong Kong, big and small, were pessimistic about the film. At least seven or eight out of ten said that the film would suffer a Waterloo. After all, there were so many ups and downs in one movie, and almost all of them were disaster stars and plague gods.

"Others were trying to avoid them, but you and Xu Ke gathered them together."

Pan Yaoming shook his head and laughed, "A lot of people were waiting to see you make a fool of yourself at that time?"

Fang Yan said: "It's a pity that they can't see my joke."

"you do not say!"

Pan Yaoming said: "The box office results of A Better Tomorrow have really surprised everyone, especially the media."

Fangyan curled his lips: "How are they?"

"Don't you understand the nature of the Hong Kong media? They are best at praising the powerful and bullying the weak!"

Pan Yaoming said: "If you succeed, you will be praised to the sky, and if you fail, you will be trampled on the ground. Now I am praising you so high that I am almost deifying you."

"In the end, any altar is an altar of sacrifice."

Fang Yan was thinking that while he was still in Hong Kong, he would find some time to visit Xu Ke and his wife in their studio.

The two chatted in whispers, and then talked about the current situation of the Joint Publishing Company in Hong Kong.

"Thanks to you, things are finally getting better."

Pan Yaoming said that with the best-selling of a series of novels in Hong Kong, such as "Love Letter", "The Ring" and "Crime Squad: Police Stories", the Hong Kong Joint Publishing Company has shown a trend of turning losses into profits, although the profits are still a drop in the bucket compared to the debts owed.

Fangyan suggested: "I was wondering if you could consider expanding the bookstore business?"

Pan Yaoming asked: "How can we expand it? Tell me about it."

"In addition to academic works, popular novels, and pure literature, can we expand the bookstore business to comics?"

"comics!?"

"Yes, I gained a lot from my trip to Japan."

Fang Yanyan mentioned concisely that he had invested in the deputy general manager of Kadokawa Bookstore. The two-dimensional library founded by Kadokawa Leyiko covers light novels, comics, games and other fields. If it can gain a foothold and develop in Japan, it may not be impossible to cooperate with Hong Kong Joint Publishing in the future.

"Second dimension? Light novel?"

Pan Yaoming looked confused about this new thing.

Fang Yan explained briefly, "I believe there will be a big market in Hong Kong as well."

"That's hard to say."

Pan Yaoming hesitated for a moment and said that the Hong Kong comics market is now dominated by Hong Kong comics. Fangyan immediately thought of the style of Hong Kong comics, where almost all men are muscular, and women are basically good-looking but dressed in revealing clothes.

Pan Yaoming said: "To be precise, the Hong Kong comics market has always been monopolized by Huang Yulang's company."

"Huang Yulang..."

Fangyan raised his eyebrows. This guy is considered a leading figure in Hong Kong comics, and his representative work is the well-known "Dragon Tiger Gate".

The general plot is that Wang Xiaohu came to Hong Kong from the mainland to find his relatives, made friends along the way, and fought fiercely with various villains. Wang Xiaohu, Wang Xiaolong, and Shi Heilong finally became good brothers after fighting, and were collectively called the "Three Emperors of Dragon and Tiger" and established the "Dragon and Tiger Gate."

Afterwards, Wang Xiaohu and his crew rushed out of Hong Kong and headed for Neon, where they began to fight with gangs from all over the world.

But in fact, this Hong Kong comic similar to "Baki" was not originally called "Dragon Tiger Gate", but "Little Rascals".

When the comics were created, the security environment was poor and the underworld was rampant. Some gangs would actively approach and recruit young people to join, that is, child gangs like Louis Koo. Therefore, the current situation of all kinds of people mixed together made the general public have expectations for heroes.

People's expectations for heroes naturally become the most suitable subject for cartoonists.

In the United States, they are "DC Comics" and "Marvel Comics", and in Hong Kong, they are "The Little Rascals" by Wong Yuk-long and "Bruce Lee" by Shangguan Xiaobao. Only this comic, which became popular in the 70s with the rise of Bruce Lee, can compete with "The Little Rascals".

Later, due to the introduction of the "Undesirable Publications Law" in Hong Kong, Wong Yuk-long changed the name of "Little Rascals" to "Dragon Tiger Gate".

Just like the big melee among the three popular comics "Naruto", "Bleach" and "One Piece", these two works confronted each other and became the main theme of the Hong Kong comics industry in the 70s. The two comics competed with each other and were evenly matched, each occupying half of the Hong Kong comics scene.

Under this kind of competition, Huang Yulang and Shangguan Xiaobao also began to recruit disciples and establish their own schools.

The two factions were respectively called the "Imperial Guards" and the "Shangguan Family". It was precisely because of the competition between the two that a large number of talents were cultivated for Hong Kong comics.

The situation in which Hong Kong comics were divided into two parts only underwent a dramatic change after the 80s.

While creating comics, Huang Yulang also established his own company "Yulang International Co., Ltd." in an attempt to monopolize the entire Hong Kong comics market. However, in order to achieve this ambition, the first condition is to recruit his old rival Shangguan Xiaobao.

In 1981, Wong Yuk-long and Shangguan Siu-bao reached an agreement, and "Bruce Lee" was incorporated into "Yuk-long International", and the two countries were officially unified from then on.

To the extent that now, almost all Hong Kong comics are produced by Yu Long Comics, and the entire Hong Kong comics industry has entered the era of Huang Yu Long's monopoly.

“Especially ‘Chinese Hero’, ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’, ‘Drunken Master’ and ‘Tathagata Palm’, which are considered the four great Hong Kong comics.”

Pan Yaoming showed a helpless smile. Japanese comics had long been submerged in the torrent of Hong Kong comics produced by the Yulang Group and no one was interested in them.

"That's right..."

Fangyan touched his chin.

"But your suggestion, Iwako, is indeed a good one. We can consider introducing the comics business."

Pan Yaoming said that Hong Kong's economy has taken off now, and comics, as a low-cost form of entertainment to relieve stress, are more popular than ever. Companies like Yulang International, which specializes in producing Hong Kong comics, took advantage of this favorable situation and were listed on the stock market in the first half of this year, with their market value soaring more than ten times.

"Is it already on the market? It looks like Hong Kong comics are really popular."

Fangyan's mouth corners slightly raised.

"Of course it is. It is not only popular in Hong Kong, just like Hong Kong movies, it has now spread to the whole of Southeast Asia."

Pan Yaoming couldn't help but sigh.

There was a gleam in Fangyan's eyes. The stock market crash that broke out in the United States in 1987 would affect the global stock market.

The Hong Kong stock market will naturally not be spared, and Huang Yulang's company will definitely suffer a huge impact at that time.

Of course, Huang Yulang's company is not worth buying at the bottom. What is really valuable is actually the cartoonists in the company, such as Ma Rongcheng who drew "Chinese Heroes" and "Wind and Cloud". This is a rare opportunity. As long as the hoe is used well, there is no corner that cannot be dug down. (End of this chapter)