Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word manhua first appeared in 18th-century Chinese literati painting as a term used by scholars to describe allegorical or satirical drawings. Feng Zikai brought the term back to China in 1925 with his series of political cartoons titled Zikai Manhua.
Tse Tsan-tai created The Situation in the Far East, which was the first piece drawn by a person of Chinese nationality and printed in Japan in 1899. This work followed the introduction of lithographic printing methods from the West that allowed satirical drawings to appear in newspapers starting in the 1870s.
Hong Kong emerged as the main ready market for comics due to rising Chinese immigration and a baby boom generation of children. Local publishers faced competition from pirated Japanese manga sold at bargain prices of just 10 cents while television arrived in the 1970s to change the landscape further.
Modern Chinese-style manhua characteristics are credited to the breakthrough artwork of the 1982 series Chinese Hero which featured more realistic drawings with details resembling real people. Most works also came in full color with some panels rendered entirely as paintings for single issue formats unlike traditional manga styles.
Cartoonists face financial struggles because little money is currently made through online manhua in China due to free reading access models. Prize-winning cartoonists such as Chung Yun-de and Yeh Yu-tung were forced to turn to webcomics because their monthly income was too low to live from despite growing popularity.