The donghua industry has only really gotten going in the last couple of years wrt 2D animation and given the quality of works that are out already, it seems inevitable that they will surpass the Japanese industry within the next decade. Hopefully as donghua becomes more mainstream like anime is right now, it’ll help to bridge the cultural divide between China and the West.
I have a bit of a problem with your way of talking about it. We’ve seen other countries try to make anime before, and it has often bad results. Anime is very much the result of Japanese culture and history, so another country can’t just make it. I’ve read a fair amount of Manhwa and a lot of Manga, and,although they share some traits, it’s obvious which is which. Neither is going to beat the other. It’s a bit like saying anime overtook cartoons. Cartoons have suffered a lot due to poor management and the overt commercialization of them, but they didn’t die out or get replaced with anime. It also feels very colonialist to me to say that one cultural export needs to dominate another. I’m excited to se where donghua goes from here, but I don’t want it to replace anime or cartoons. Sorry if I’m getting too emotional here, but animation from many cultures have been a big deal to me, and I don;t like them getting turned into some sort of race to domination.
