@dokkotak
Bad translations are just part of the problem. Yes, the translations seem garbled/bad more often in manhua than in manga. More heavy use of MTL, too (same for many Korean novels and manwha). Especially in novels I've also noticed that the vocabulary and writing style are very often really basic in comparison to what the English language has to offer. For example, the last Chinese novel I'd read was Release That Witch - mistranslations, spelling and grammar mistakes aside, the novel just read very simple. Comparing the use of language with the novel I currently read (A Practical Guide to Evil - a really nice read btw.) it's like comparing a story written by a grade schooler to one written by a practiced author that majored in literature and English. And I am not even an English native speaker myself, yet the difference is just so glaring.
I couldn't tell whether the source material is just so bad, if it got lost in translation because of the differences between the languages or if the TLers were just bad - I barely know enough Chinese to trade some pleasentries with the employees of our Chinese branch plant.
And it doesn't end with language, really. The stories are unbearably shallow! Simplicistic, foreseeable, onedimensional, just outright boring. Which, to me, is the biggest sin any novel or manga can commit. I can gloss over bad art and faulty translations (as long as either of them aren't too terrible - I too have my limits on what I can ignore), but a bad story is unsalvagable even if the other two categories I just named were the best I've ever seen. Loads of deus-ex-machina or just downright overpowered MCs, too. Not just in a physical sense, also mentally. If I had a cent for every time a Chinese MC has "naturally" already seen through even the most (over-)complicated plan of an opponent ages ago then I'd not have to go to work for a few months. All the while nothing about their everyday behaviour (if the novel/manhua even goes into that detail) makes them seem outstandingly intelligent or a great schemer. All the while a buttload of Chinese characters are just downright psycho- or at least sociopaths with a major lack of empathy, extreme egocentricity, little to no regards of their surroundings be it nature or humans as long as they can gain a profit. I'm not averse to evil characters per se - like I said above I am currently reading and greatly enjoying "A Practical Guide to Evil" in which a great deal of the characters are not exactly nice guys, as the name implies. But Chinese characters are not evil, they are just egotist assholes, and even worse, that seems to viewed as perfectly normal in many of those works!
The characterizations and depth of the characters, thought processes laid out, causal chains, motivations, and so many other parts of proper storytelling - in Chinese novels and manhua, they all constantly fall short to my likings. I will not pretend that there aren't a lot of mangas committing the same mistakes, especially if they fall into a category intended for younger readers - and especially in the isekai category where the term "shovelware" is already applicable to many publications! But unlike manhua, I at least find something I like there every once in a while. That's something I failed to manage with manhua so far despite trying.
Finally, and that one is just a minor itch but it's still there - names. I can't help myself, but I really dislike lots of Chinese naming conventions. Either it sounds like a bag of silverware tumbling down the stairs, or they do a strange mix of western words (Richard, John, Regina, etc. are at least names, but they also just seem to use random vocabulary - a colleague of mine is named "Dolphin" for example) and Chinese names.
