Chinese artist wins inaugural manga honour

A Chinese artist has been announced as the inaugural winner of Japan's International Manga Award, the government announced Friday.

Lee Chi Ching, a 43-year-old artist based in Hong Kong, won for his work, translated asSun Zi's Tactics.

The Chinese-language adventure series, which was published from 1995-2006, tells the story of famed ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzuand has also been translated into Japanese and other languages, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Though the fledgling honour carries no cash prize, Lee will be invited to Japan for a 10-day visit where he will be honoured at an awards ceremony on Monday and attend meetings with Japanese manga artists and publishers.

Each year, Japan's multibillion-dollar manga industry produces a wealth of graphic-heavy publications that explore topics for a wide audience: from kids seeking cute, cartoony tales to adults seeking complex, science fiction or fantasy epics.

"We had only a short period of time to promote the award, but we received 146 works from 25 countries," said Kazuhiro Nakai, director of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's cultural affairs department.

The three runners-up who will also visit Japan are Kai, another artist from Hong Kong, Australian Madeleine Rosca and Benny Wong Thong Hou of Malaysia.

Leading Japanese manga artist Machiko Satonaka led the inaugural award's selection committee.

Manga fan and Japanese Foreign Minister Tara Aso first proposed the award last year, likening it to a sort of Nobel Prize for the Japanese-born cartoon and comic book genre.

Aso pointed out the ever-growing popularity of the genre outside of the country and said that warm feelings toward manga could translate into similar warmth towards Japan.

The International Manga Award is designed to honour an artist working in the genre abroad and his or her contribution to the spread of manga around the world.