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In comments under this answer to Who is “Nine Lives Man”? (Push Comic) bronze sculpture I'd originally thought that manhua was an automatic spelling corrector's interpretation of a word meant to be manga (also discussed in the post) but another user took the time to comment and explain the difference between those two and manhwa as well.

While they suggest that:

The characteristics, commonalities and differences of each of the three could probably fill several thesis papers

they did a great job in a long comment. However, comments must be considered temporary and it's hard to find them just searching the site, so I thought I'd provide an opportunity to permanentize a useful discussion of the three terms as they relate to this site, and how to choose between them.

I'll note that there is a tag (180+) but I don't know if it applies to manhua and manhwa as well. Hopefully answers were will provide some guidance to there as well.

Potentially related: Is unrealistic anime or manga automatically considered sci-fi/fantasy?

Related in Anime SE, but brace yourself before reading: What's the difference between manga, manhwa, and manhua? (thanks to @AndrewT. for pointing to the link)

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    Note that I think it's unrealistic for random passersby, who have seen 1 show on TV six years ago, to be able to meaningfully distinguish the 3.
    – DavidW
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 0:14
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    Currently common practice is to just tag all of them with [manga] and the distinction is made in the question as to which of the 3 it is.
    – TheLethalCarrot Mod
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 7:57
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    @DavidW but if someone does want to make the distinction, they probably know which one to pick. I wouldn't want to dismiss people wanting to distinguish between them
    – AncientSwordRage Mod
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 10:22
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    "I'd originally thought that manhua was an automatic spelling corrector's interpretation of a word meant to be manga" — me too! My cultural ignorance knows no boundaries.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Oct 9, 2020 at 13:39
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    This is a great discussion, thanks for bringing it up! And just as a heads up in case we do end up adding terms, the transliteration of the Korean term is "manhwa" (with the H first) rather than "manwha". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhwa
    – Lamprey
    Commented Oct 10, 2020 at 0:27
  • @Lamprey thanks! I've edited and think I've got it changed to manhwa everywhere (no more instances of "wh"
    – uhoh
    Commented Oct 10, 2020 at 1:10
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    Related on Anime.SE: What's the difference between manga, manhwa, and manhua?
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Oct 10, 2020 at 16:10
  • @AndrewT. wow I didn't know the site existed, thanks! I've added the link to the question.
    – uhoh
    Commented Oct 10, 2020 at 23:59

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In response to your second question about which to use and how to tag, I think we should keep the current state of affairs.

The tag is mostly (173/183) applied to questions. Adding and tags wouldn't make it easier to either answer or find those questions, so I think it would be counter-productive.

  • The user posting the question by definition doesn't recall the work, so their memory of which category it belongs to is potentially just as fallible as any other detail in their question;
  • The user may not even be aware of the terms "manhwa" or "manhua" to use them properly;
  • A future user trying to find the same answer would need to exactly match the OP's guess as to the type, which makes searching much harder;
  • The subsequent user must also be aware of the other terms.

As @TheLethalCarrot noted, current practice is to add that kind of detail - assuming the user recalls it - to the question. It could be considered analogous to having a single tag and not having specific , , , etc. tags. (Not that it's exactly the same, just that's a level of detail that can easily be added to the question if it's known.)

It might be useful to expand the usage guidance for , which currently says "specific style originating in (but not exclusive to) Japan" to add something like "including the derived styles known as 'manhwa' and 'manhua'". (But written by someone who's better at explaining things than I am.)

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