It needs codifying and making official policy. The period of time I can think of where “cool China” was actually a thing was back when Jackie Chan and Jet Li were popular. China should lean in on the kung fu and massively invest in all of its cultural produce.
No offence though they need to make some shit that isn’t just Three Kingdoms rehashed.
Shaolin monks should be doubled down upon as a Chinese equivalent to ninjas in coolness factor.
Videogames, music and animation. Particularly anything targeted at younger audiences. People that build an attachment to something in their youth carry that into their adult years, we’ve seen this with Pokemon.
Incidentally, if Xbox is going to shit the bed and kill itself in the gaming market then a Chinese SOE should enter the console market and that company should produce first-party content, this would massively boost the industry and quality of content in the industry. A Chinese competitor to Nintendo and Sony, both of which are being pushed and supported by the Cool Japan policy btw.
No offence though they need to make some shit that isn’t just Three Kingdoms rehashed.
That, or Journey to the West.
There’s a perception that the Chinese cultural exports we do get are so “regionalized” that they won’t be accessible to people who didn’t spend years immersed in the culture and history. The local cinema actually ran Ne Zha 2 for a couple weeks but I talked myself out of it figuring I’d lack the references.
Whatever stupid interest you have-- American football, bread, Victotian maids-- Japan has made a shonen battle anime about it that you can
enjoy without knowing who the last five emperors were. Is this because we’re importing lighter content from Japan, or is it an engineered plan on their part to produce more marketable media?
There’s a perception that the Chinese cultural exports we do get are so “regionalized” that they won’t be accessible to people who didn’t spend years immersed in the culture and history.
That’s fine! That’s good.
Like, half of anime is exactly that. The audience likes being exposed to the culture and things that don’t easily translate. They like learning specific words and concepts that can’t be translated easily “nakama” being important in One Piece for example. ProZD makes a total joke of this but it’s a good example of what I mean: https://youtu.be/YvNxgHTWIlo
The audience will learn, they will borrow the words that can’t be translated, they will build culture and community around it all, they will gatekeep and get annoyed at people who aren’t hardcore enough, etc etc. It will ALL be positive for China’s overall perception in the longterm. The difference between a normal person and a weeaboo is literally that knowledge and the “haha I know more than you” attitude people get about it. That’s fine. It’s just how it is. All of that shit would wrap itself up in Sinaboo or whatever too, if a commitment to the cultural produce and export was really made.
Is this because we’re importing lighter content from Japan, or is it an engineered plan on their part to produce more marketable media?
Probably a bit of both but probably mostly the former. There is a lot of good anime based on Japanese history and traditional arts etc, and anime is well still primarily made for the domestic market, right?
Really, this is probably a decently-sized part of why I’ve tended to favor “going off the beaten path” when it comes to anime, because if I am going to be watching cartoons from a distant country, then I want to feel like I’m Not Supposed To Be Here (cue Half Life 2 airboat music) rather than feel like the cartoons have been curated for me to prop up the PR of the Fascist War Criminal Shrines Country.
…Well, I say this, but my first anime was literally funded by the Japanese government, and was on Netflix.
Yes but I’m not sure if I’d date it to the handover. It must have been many years later things started to decline in this area? The handover was 1997 and China was definitely still “cool” when Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was released in 2000.
EDIT: At a vague guess I think things were still fine in 2002-2003? Something happened then to sharply affect opinion here in the UK which was generally not negative at all, in 2002 UK opinion was 16% negative and 65% favourable. China was legitimately regarded as cool in people’s minds.
Propaganda machine go brrrr, Ive never seen any big news network talk about china in good light or even neutral in the last 20 years.
The BBC filter with forests all greyed out comes to mind.
I guess thats when the US saw that economic liberalization in China would not go the way they wanted and the economic balcanization would not happen.
Idk the only way I have learned about China in some objective way has been with raw economic stats that contradict every “The Economist China will fall” news article while in a 5-20% yearly GDP growth for 20 years. And then I joined this place which has helped me getting rid of liberal brainworms I still had in my mind, the day I actually read the USSR and Chinese constitutions I just read every line thinking “Based” in my mind.
Back to topic, last month I just saw some Chinese anime about Chinese god power scaling but it was about some Victorian era detectives, and the production quality was good, so I guess they are building something up although they dont seem to catch as much atention, I just saw it on my stremio in the most seeded section.
EDIT: At a vague guess I think things were still fine in 2002-2003? Something happened then to sharply affect opinion here in the UK which was generally not negative at all, in 2002 UK opinion was 16% negative and 65% favourable. China was legitimately regarded as cool in people’s minds.
It’s the 2008 Summer Olympics. That was around the time when people were finally exposed to what China was actually like instead of thinking Chinese people were still riding bicycles like Chun Li’s stage from SF2. You started getting press about how China’s air pollution was akin to breathing in car exhaust. Add in the Great Recession where the West is no longer secure about its place in the world and Obama’s pivot to Asia, and it’s not difficult to see how people perception of China would deteriorate.
A lot of graphs have the same pattern: a bump in unfavorability around 2008 and a bigger bump in unfavorability around 2020.
It needs codifying and making official policy. The period of time I can think of where “cool China” was actually a thing was back when Jackie Chan and Jet Li were popular. China should lean in on the kung fu and massively invest in all of its cultural produce.
No offence though they need to make some shit that isn’t just Three Kingdoms rehashed.
Shaolin monks should be doubled down upon as a Chinese equivalent to ninjas in coolness factor.
Videogames, music and animation. Particularly anything targeted at younger audiences. People that build an attachment to something in their youth carry that into their adult years, we’ve seen this with Pokemon.
Incidentally, if Xbox is going to shit the bed and kill itself in the gaming market then a Chinese SOE should enter the console market and that company should produce first-party content, this would massively boost the industry and quality of content in the industry. A Chinese competitor to Nintendo and Sony, both of which are being pushed and supported by the Cool Japan policy btw.
There is so much that can be done.
That, or Journey to the West.
There’s a perception that the Chinese cultural exports we do get are so “regionalized” that they won’t be accessible to people who didn’t spend years immersed in the culture and history. The local cinema actually ran Ne Zha 2 for a couple weeks but I talked myself out of it figuring I’d lack the references.
Whatever stupid interest you have-- American football, bread, Victotian maids-- Japan has made a shonen battle anime about it that you can enjoy without knowing who the last five emperors were. Is this because we’re importing lighter content from Japan, or is it an engineered plan on their part to produce more marketable media?
That’s fine! That’s good.
Like, half of anime is exactly that. The audience likes being exposed to the culture and things that don’t easily translate. They like learning specific words and concepts that can’t be translated easily “nakama” being important in One Piece for example. ProZD makes a total joke of this but it’s a good example of what I mean: https://youtu.be/YvNxgHTWIlo
The audience will learn, they will borrow the words that can’t be translated, they will build culture and community around it all, they will gatekeep and get annoyed at people who aren’t hardcore enough, etc etc. It will ALL be positive for China’s overall perception in the longterm. The difference between a normal person and a weeaboo is literally that knowledge and the “haha I know more than you” attitude people get about it. That’s fine. It’s just how it is. All of that shit would wrap itself up in Sinaboo or whatever too, if a commitment to the cultural produce and export was really made.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Probably a bit of both but probably mostly the former. There is a lot of good anime based on Japanese history and traditional arts etc, and anime is well still primarily made for the domestic market, right?
Really, this is probably a decently-sized part of why I’ve tended to favor “going off the beaten path” when it comes to anime, because if I am going to be watching cartoons from a distant country, then I want to feel like I’m Not Supposed To Be Here (cue Half Life 2 airboat music) rather than feel like the cartoons have been curated for me to prop up the PR of the Fascist War Criminal Shrines Country.
…Well, I say this, but my first anime was literally funded by the Japanese government, and was on Netflix.
Wasn’t all that stuff made in Hong Kong before the handover?
Yes but I’m not sure if I’d date it to the handover. It must have been many years later things started to decline in this area? The handover was 1997 and China was definitely still “cool” when Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was released in 2000.
EDIT: At a vague guess I think things were still fine in 2002-2003? Something happened then to sharply affect opinion here in the UK which was generally not negative at all, in 2002 UK opinion was 16% negative and 65% favourable. China was legitimately regarded as cool in people’s minds.
Propaganda machine go brrrr, Ive never seen any big news network talk about china in good light or even neutral in the last 20 years. The BBC filter with forests all greyed out comes to mind. I guess thats when the US saw that economic liberalization in China would not go the way they wanted and the economic balcanization would not happen.
Idk the only way I have learned about China in some objective way has been with raw economic stats that contradict every “The Economist China will fall” news article while in a 5-20% yearly GDP growth for 20 years. And then I joined this place which has helped me getting rid of liberal brainworms I still had in my mind, the day I actually read the USSR and Chinese constitutions I just read every line thinking “Based” in my mind.
Back to topic, last month I just saw some Chinese anime about Chinese god power scaling but it was about some Victorian era detectives, and the production quality was good, so I guess they are building something up although they dont seem to catch as much atention, I just saw it on my stremio in the most seeded section.
It’s the 2008 Summer Olympics. That was around the time when people were finally exposed to what China was actually like instead of thinking Chinese people were still riding bicycles like Chun Li’s stage from SF2. You started getting press about how China’s air pollution was akin to breathing in car exhaust. Add in the Great Recession where the West is no longer secure about its place in the world and Obama’s pivot to Asia, and it’s not difficult to see how people perception of China would deteriorate.
A lot of graphs have the same pattern: a bump in unfavorability around 2008 and a bigger bump in unfavorability around 2020.
I do think you’re on to something.
Xiaolin Showdown would go crazy in 2025 I bet if you showed it to some children, Christy Hui vanished when we needed her the most.
is BRICS before it was cool.
First Brazilian main character in my life.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: