 | ||
Q-version is the English translation for the Chinese term Q版 (pinyin: Kiū bǎn), referring to the cartoonification or infantilization in the artistic renderings of real life or serious human, animal figures or other characters or objects, especially in the styles of Anime. "Q" is a Chinese approximation of the English word "cute".
Q-version characters, in the forms of cartoons, video animation, and plastic or stuffed toys have established a trend in many Asian countries outside of China such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The term Q-version was most likely coined in Chinese by the Hong Kongers due to the success of such anime as SD Gundam, Dr. Slump and later on Dragonball during the mid-1980s.
Mainland China was hit by the Q-version craze of late, but with much controversy, such as the Q-version Kuso edition of the government's official grade school Chinese language textbook, in which the term "Q-version", instead of meaning "populated by Anime characters", rather means kuso, or postmodern substitution of serious official ideas with humorous, and sometimes degenerate phenomena that plague contemporary Chinese society.