There was something the public did not really understand: in the Empire, dozens of new technologies were submitted for patents almost every day, and newspapers ran articles on newly invented machines daily.
Yet very few patents actually stuck in the public's mind. The reason was simple. For one thing, there were too many competing products of the same kind, and only those that survived the competition became winners. Steam Cars, for instance, had originally come in hundreds of versions: some had several legs like centipedes, while others had one wheel, two wheels, three wheels, or six wheels. There were jet-powered models, mechanically driven models... But in the end, only four-wheeled Steam Cars had the last laugh. The other inventions were either eliminated or redirected into other fields.
Patents in photography were no different.
Color photography had actually already been invented by this point, but it was not yet widespread in the Empire.
There were several reasons. First, newspapers still used black and white. To them, color photographs were more expensive, and since newspapers could not be printed in color anyway, the extra expense would outweigh the returns. It simply was not worthwhile.
Second, to everyone's surprise, photographers not only refused to embrace color photographs but actively rejected them. The prevailing aesthetic view held that black and white was more artistic, while color disrupted an image's mood and made it look vulgar and cheap. Quite a few studios refused to use color photography, too.
Li Wei could actually understand that. He preferred reading black-and-white comics himself, because he found them simpler, more direct, and clearer. Once comics were colored, too many clashing colors could dazzle the reader and obscure the focal point, making them a chore to read. That was why he did not particularly enjoy American or Hong Kong comics.