Wen / Wang Zhan Guan Junran
Editor / Paint Field
"The fantasy adventure of one man and one cat, with two-dimensional hand-painting back to basics, tells a beautiful and soothing story of national style." Shibata, a 27-year-old Tokyoite, is still obsessed with the Chinese anime film Luo Xiaohei.
Last January, at a cinema in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, she watched the film, voiced by Japanese voice actors Kana Hanazawa and Takahiro Sakurai. The Chinese film was released in Japan for 86 days, with more than 360,000 viewers, and a cumulative box office of 560 million yen, setting a box office record for the overseas distribution of Chinese animation films.
Four months later, the classic film "Love Letters" by well-known Japanese director Shunji Iwai was re-released in China. Shunji Iwai posted a handwritten Chinese message: "How are you, please be sure to read the 'love letter' and tell me how you feel." "The white expanse of snow, the loan card that has been sealed for many years, and the plot of the half-life crush have made "Love Letters" gain more than 60 million yuan at the box office in China after 26 years.
◆ In May 2021, the classic film "Love Letters" by well-known Japanese director Shunji Iwai was re-released in China.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, China-Japan people-to-people exchanges are facing an unprecedented test. It is a rare experience to walk into the cinema and watch a movie from each other's countries. At a time when physical distances are blocked, people-to-people exchanges with new media as carriers are accelerating. Among them, the exchanges of the younger generation have opened a new window for people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
◆ From September 24th to 25th, at the U-Tang Shopping Center in Beijing, the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations was held. At the scene, there are not only photos with Pokémon, but also tea ceremony performances, handmade DIY mask painting, and special Ultraman events.
Both the "Heisei post" (born after 1989) in Japan and the "post-90s" (born after 1990) in China have been labeled as "self", "otaku" and "waste wood", and even called "the Beat generation". However, in the game world of otaku, in the social circle of fans, and under the spit and imagination of waste wood, a space for Sino-Japanese communication that is different from the traditional has begun to take shape. Especially when the political relations between the two countries encounter bottlenecks, such exchanges are even more valuable.
Japanese young people fall into the "pit" of Chinese mobile games
Since the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, "The Hunt", as the first Japanese film released in China, not only made Japanese actor Ken Takakura a household name in China, but also pushed open the door for Chinese to know Japan through film and television works. Since then, whether it is Junko Junko, a smart and tenacious fawn in the Japanese TV series "Volleyball Girl" in the late 1970s, or Ashin, a popular female entrepreneur in the 1980s, the image of Japanese people who "worked hard" was engraved in the hearts of a generation of Chinese and became the "memory of the times" in the context of Sino-Japanese exchanges.
The 1980s and 1990s were the golden age of Japanese anime and gaming. At that time, the young Chinese who were in the midst of reform and opening up became an important group in accepting Japanese culture. China's "post-80s" and "post-90s", dressed in the armor of "Saint Seiya", pushed open any door of "Doraemon", and set off from the intersection where Sakuragi Hanamichi and Haruko greeted in "Slam Dunk Master" to form their own "Japanese impression".
◆ In May 2015, the Japanese anime movie "Doraemon: Walk with Me" was released in China. Based on the original manga, the film tells the story of the separation between the robot cat and Nobita.
In the 21st century, with the rapid growth of China's economy, Chinese popular culture has also begun to spread to Japan. Japanese audiences marveled at the wonderful "duel" of several stars in "Memoirs of a Geisha", and accepted the advertising posters of Chinese stars in the subway station cars; Driven by Feng Xiaogang's "Do Not Disturb Sincerity", Hokkaido, which even many Japanese have never visited, has become a "visiting place" for Chinese tourists to visit Japan.
From movies to anime to hot mobile games (hereinafter referred to as mobile games), the continuous upgrading of media technology has made the Sino-Japanese exchanges embedded in them have a brand of the times. The two-dimensional (ACGN) culture, represented by animation, comics, games, and novels, has become the most frequent topic of exchange between young people in China and Japan.
Nowadays, under the wave of Chinese games going to sea, Japan has become an important market for the export of Chinese two-dimensional culture. According to the "China Game Industry Report" released in September, from January to June 2022, the actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games overseas reached 8.989 billion US dollars, an increase of 6.16% year-on-year. Under the epidemic, this growth rate has slowed down, but it is still bright compared to other industries.
The impact of Chinese games going overseas is not only on the economic level, but also provides a new path for Japanese young people to "approach China".
At 9:00 p.m. local time on August 2, Nami, a 27-year-old Japanese office worker, logged on to the Chinese online video website Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as Station B) on time. She was online at the same time as more than 40 million netizens and watched the preview live broadcast of the 3.0 version of the Chinese mobile game "Original God". This live broadcast heralded the appearance of Sumire, the fourth region of the "Hara God" game after Monde, Rizuki, and Inamu.
◆Advertisement for "Hara God" in the Akihabara area of Tokyo.
Nami was one of the first young Japanese to come into contact with mobile games. In 2013, Nami, who had just entered college, owned her first iPhone. Since then, she has been exposed to mobile games, but mainly Japanese and American games. Since November 2020, on the recommendation of a friend, Nami has been exposed to "Hara God".
Initially, Nami didn't know it was a mobile game developed by a Chinese game company. Elements such as two-dimensional, role-playing, Japanese art style, adventure, and action are the main reasons why she downloaded this game. Every day after work, she spends an hour or two playing games, spending an average of 20,000 yen (about 980 yuan) a month changing clothes and buying equipment for her characters.
As her love for Hara Shin deepened, Nami became obsessed with the Chinese voice actress who voiced the game. "I really like Chinese voice actors." Nami told Phoenix Weekly, "Japanese voice actors are more of older 'old drivers.'" Chinese voice actors, on the other hand, are relatively young and recreate roles to reflect their ideas. I think it will be the Chinese dubbing culture that will soon go to Japan. ”
In the game, Nami also feels the sincerity and efforts of the Chinese designers. "As long as a player points out problems in the game, they will be fixed in time after the next update."
In the Japanese version of "Original God", the character's "knife insertion method" has caused controversy, when some characters insert the saber with the blade facing down. But in Japanese culture, the correct way to insert the knife is to face the blade upwards. "When we updated the version, the blade was inserted facing upwards instead. This detail has been well received by Japanese players. Naomi said bluntly, "If you don't respect Japanese culture, you won't make such a change." ”
To this day, Nami has never visited China, but she has long established a close relationship with the latter in her life: watching the Chinese animation "Time Agent" on Station B, following Chinese star Chen Linong through Weibo, learning Chinese beauty on the "Little Red Book" platform, and playing Chinese singer Zhou Shen's song "Big Fish" on a loop with her mobile phone.
In an interview in late September, Nami excitedly said, "I just finished chasing the TV series "Langya List", and I felt that I had fallen into the 'new pit' of Chinese film and television dramas. Perhaps Aiwu and Wu, she even began to pay attention to Japanese media reports about China. She said frankly: "Because the founding team of "Original God" is in Shanghai, I have paid special attention to the epidemic situation in Shanghai before. Chengdu is also a place I would like to go, and I will pay attention to the news of Sichuan's power curtailment in the summer. ”
People who pursue "other worlds" in the second dimension
Zhang Chen (pseudonym), a self-proclaimed "Generation Z otaku", although he does not speak a word of Japanese and has never been to Japan, he is very familiar with the two-dimensional world of Japan. He told Phoenix Weekly: "Who else is playing games now?" The derivative content of the second creation is the most popular place. ”
"Generation Z" usually refers to a generation born between 1995 and 2009 and is characterized by a great emphasis on online socialization as an extremely important part of their lives. Zhang Chen's "secondary creation" refers to the derivative creation content independently developed by fans under the original story structure of animation and games. His favorite is the second creation of the Japanese anime film "Fate" (Chinese translated as "Fateful Night") by Chinese netizens.
◆ Released in 2004, the "Fate" series is one of the most well-known IPs in Japan's two-dimensional world.
Released in 2004, the Fate series is one of the most well-known IPs in Japan's two-dimensional world. Through the exclusive introduction, Station B has gained the earliest batch of fans. These people are not only immersed in the world of anime and games, but also upload a series of derivative works created by themselves such as novice guides, cute terrier interpretations, and music performances on social media.
Zhang Chen digs deeper into these two creations and is happy to share his experience on social media, which is shared with young Chinese people who like the second dimension as much as he does. He admits that in the past 20 years, he has not met a Japanese person in real life, "but under the framework of the same story, we seem to be in one world, but not in one world."
At Station B, where young people gather, there are also young scholars who specialize in Japanese culture, including Pan Nini, a 42-year-old associate professor of journalism at the School of Communication of East China Normal University. Her account on Station B is called "Teacher Pan 22", and currently has 176,000 followers, mainly interpreting two-dimensional culture and sharing views on Japanese politics and society.
◆ Pan Nini, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism, School of Communication, East China Normal University
"I call myself the 'Old Second Dimension,' and I'm studying Japan, so I want to combine these two things." Penny said that she was very hesitant before making the video, and at first she was worried that it would not be easy to be accepted by the outside world, "If you want to learn and understand Japanese knowledge, is it necessary to pull animation in?" ”
I didn't expect the effect to be good, and now Penny not only gained a lot of fixed audiences, but also learned more about the new trends in animation through their messages. "I've also become a new person!" In the show, Penny casually said "I also have a cute time of youth", which was played by fans as a terrier. As soon as she appeared, the screen full of "youth and cuteness" hit the bullet screen. This made her shout: "Internet culture is unfathomable!" ”
In Pennini's view, there are two sides to Japanese society, with elites such as politicians, university professors, lawyers, and doctors thinking very differently about the world than the general public. "If you really want to understand Japan, in addition to knowing the ideas of the elite, you need to understand the various emotions of the people, which can often be felt in animation."
"Evangelion" shows a low-desire society through the protagonist image of "Heisei Wastewood"; The protagonist's conquest of the ocean in "One Piece" outlines the imagination of cosmopolitan ideas in Japan today; In "Your Name", traditional Japanese Shinto Buddhism allows young people to be saved in the face of disasters... The construction of these anime scenes inadvertently shows the understanding of today's Japanese young people about society, the world, and the future.
When asked about "the image of China in Japanese animation works", Penny told Phoenix Weekly: "When it comes to Chinese elements, Japanese anime works will tell more about ancient China, such as Rumiko Takahashi's masterpiece "Crazy Horse 1/2", rather than talking about reality. ”
In Pennini's view, on the one hand, the ancient and mysterious China embodies the imagination of Japanese anime creators on the "other world"; On the other hand, although China and Japan are economically closely linked, ideologically the Japanese receive a different set of education, which will confuse them and cause them to be less likely to directly outline the actual China in their works. ”
Penny Nini said that the reason why Chinese young people like Japanese anime is also to pursue the feeling of "other worlds". "Similarly, although many works allow us to see Japan, it is not completely real Japan, but it is also an other world."
"The Japan you know through movies, television, or anime is really different from the real Japan." Wang Yu (pseudonym), who has lived in Japan for 8 years, described to Phoenix Weekly, "Before I went to Japan to study in 2014, the Japanese in my mind was the color of Iwai Shunji's films. It was a shimmer of brown and gray, slightly exposed, exuding a sense of youth and romance. In reality, Japanese colors are richer, but less romantic and more stereotypical. ”
Wang Yu said that when chatting with domestic friends, you will find that there are cognitive differences in many things. "Tattoos of ukiyo-e, Ami Katsu (American) style motorcycle suits, Japanese enzymes and health care products... They would keep talking to me about these things. Wang Yu gave an example to Phoenix Weekly, "But in Japan, it is difficult for you to see a fashionable uncle with a ukiyo-e tattoo and a motorcycle suit, and I have not seen any Japanese colleagues eating enzymes. ”
Since the epidemic, Wang Yu has not returned to China for more than two years. In the meantime, he felt a little change: "There are fewer friends who come to me to buy Japanese goods, but Japanese colleagues around me have begun to ask me about Chinese cosmetics." ”
◆ Japanese young girls are learning to wear Chinese makeup.
This summer, female colleagues at the company sighed around a tube of carved lipstick called Hanashiko. Some colleagues asked him to explain the meaning of the Chinese carving on the lipstick, which made Wang Yu, who knew nothing about it, feel helpless. In the popular Japanese drama "ANIMALS" at that time, this beauty brand from Hangzhou, China, appeared in the main plot, which attracted attention.
A Japanese PR company employee told Phoenix Weekly: "Since 2018, many Chinese makeup for young people has become popular in Japan. After Hanashiko came to Japan in 2021, she quickly rushed to the top of the sales list. Whether it is concept or design, the product focuses on Chinese style, which is why it is popular with young Japanese people. ”
Since 2019, "Chinese makeup" featuring flaming red lips and ceramic skin has become popular in Japan, and "Chiborg" has once become a popular word in Japan. For a time, many Japanese beauty bloggers on YouTube are sharing Chinese makeup tutorials, and cosme, a word-of-mouth website with 13 million monthly active users, has also launched a special edition of Chinese makeup. Japanese women's pursuit of Chinese makeup has created a good atmosphere for Chinese beauty brands such as Hanayako to enter the Japanese market.
Japanese fans fall in love with Hanfu because of Chinese idols
With the popularity of Chinese cosmetics, Chinese makeup and even Hanfu have also appeared on the streets of Japan.
On August 24 this year, two Japanese girls in their early 20s wore hairpins, light blue hanfu and held a fan in front of a scroll ink painting featuring INTO1, a member of the international idol boy band debuting in China, in the costume of Liu Yu. On the same day, Liu Yu's fans held the "Japan Liu Yu Guofeng Theme Birthday Exhibition" in Harajuku, a shopping paradise in Tokyo.
As a hot entertainment program in recent years, Tencent Video's talent show "Creation Camp" has attracted a large number of young audiences at home and abroad. By the fourth season, inviting overseas trainees to join became the biggest selling point of "Creation Camp 2021". In this season's program, there are 90 trainees from China, Japan, Russia and Thailand, of which 17 are Japanese trainees, which is the largest number of foreigners.
◆ In recent years, the hottest talent variety show "Creation Camp" has attracted a large number of young audiences at home and abroad.
In the end, three Japanese players, including Rimaru Kinda, Zando Uno and Mika, debuted through this draft and became regular members of the INTO1 group. This is also the first time in recent years that a Japanese trainee has made his debut in China. As the core of the group and the champion debut, Liu Yu has gained a large number of Japanese fans.
Among the male idols gathered by "Han Feng", Liu Yu has always adhered to the tradition of national style. His national style dance brought a bright color to the talent show, and he also became a "Hanfu Promotion Ambassador" to let foreign members experience Hanfu culture. With the idol's birthday party, Japanese fans experienced Hanfu for the first time. They sighed one after another: "The embroidery of Hanfu is too cute." ”
Since the end of April, Tokyo, Kobe, Fukuoka and other places in Japan have successively held offline activities for the first anniversary of INTO1, and more than 6,000 Japanese fans have participated in the offline activities. Liu Ting (pseudonym), a Japanese Chinese involved in the event, told Phoenix Weekly: "Although it is impossible to compare with the tens of thousands of fan activities of some well-known Korean idol groups, in Japan, where niche culture is dominant, the first attempt of Chinese idol groups can be described as a stunning four-seater." ”
At the offline event, fans from China and Japan wore Hanfu, drank Pu'er tea, ate mooncakes, cut window flowers, made sachets, and made palace lamps. Liu Ting sighed: "These Japanese girls have never been to China, before that, they did not have any intersection with China, and they would not even say a Chinese." ”
◆ In Kyoto, Japan, a woman dressed in Hanfu sits in a courtyard and admires the landscape of Ryugen-in's most famous temple.
In order to help her idol open up her popularity, Liu Ting will translate information about INTO1 into Japanese and "transport" it to Japanese social platforms. This has also become an important channel for Japanese fans to obtain idol information. Some Japanese fans sighed: "Whether offline or online, fans with common interests have gathered together across borders and shown amazing strength." ”
Lei Lei, a YouTube vlogger and Chinese who has been working hard to promote Chinese domestic entertainment to the Japanese community, recorded the offline activities held in Tokyo when INTO1 was formed. At that time, Japanese fans recalled various details in the show and complained that "it is too difficult to chase without Japanese subtitles."
In the year after the show aired, some Japanese fans began to try to contact Chinese social platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Weibo. Someone left a message: "In order to get more information about idols, I will make learning Chinese a compulsory course for star chasing." The subtitles of the program are the best Chinese teaching materials, you can learn the way Chinese young people speak. ”
In addition, China's vast entertainment market and the tolerance of Chinese fans allow Japanese trainees who are struggling to debut to find their own "Chinese dream". Liu Ting said bluntly: "The Japanese trainees who debuted in China do not belong to the appearance of the sky, nor can they be regarded as all-round singing and dancing. Compared with his debut in Han Ri, who has harsh conditions for forming a group, going to China, the uncultivated land of idol drafts, has given hope to these young Japanese people with star dreams. ”
Shortly after the broadcast of "Creation Camp 2021", Kanako Yasuda, CEO of ALAND Public Relations Company responsible for promoting it in Japan, told Phoenix Weekly that more than 100 young Japanese girls left messages for the company, expressing their desire to sign up for the 2022 talent show. At the request of the Chinese side, Kanako Yasuda finally arranged for 5 Japanese girls to conduct online interviews. They range in age from 17 to 22 and can use Chinese to introduce themselves and sing Chinese songs, as if they are fully prepared to participate in competitions in China.
"Some Japanese girls originally wanted to debut from Korea, but when they saw the Chinese talent show, they felt very fair, so they changed their minds." Kanako Yasuda said, "At the same time, many Chinese entertainment companies have also begun to pay attention to Japanese trainees. ”
However, since June 2021, with the start of the "Qinglang Movement" aimed at rectifying the chaos in the entertainment industry and the rice circle, the talent show has been stopped, and the interviews and contracts of the above-mentioned trainees have to be shelved.
According to Lei Lei's observation, at present, such programs are gradually decreasing, coupled with the fact that Chinese idols cannot go to Japan to participate in activities after the epidemic, it is difficult for Japanese trainees to appear in Chinese programs. "At the moment, in Japan, only a small group of people who have a strong interest in 'Creation Camp' are still insisting. But this group of fans is bound to continue to lose. Only when new programs emerge in an endless stream, the interaction between Chinese and Japanese rice circles will become frequent. ”
The "small narrative" has opened a new window for Sino-Japanese exchanges
On May 30, 2020, Lei Lei posted her first video under her YouTube account "Leilei's China Fashion Trends": "520 is a wedding day in China? A day to express love? ”
Her original intention in making the video was because in the early days of the epidemic, she felt that the strangeness of the Japanese people around her to China had deepened. She told Phoenix Weekly: "I want to convey to the Japanese what is happening in China today." That's another voice outside of the mainstream media. ”
This account still maintains a more frequent frequency of Mondays, and the theme of the program is various: "The Chinese Children's Day (June 1st Children's Day), a festival that adults enjoy more than children?" "How popular is Yusei Yusuke in China?" "50 million yen in China, what kind of house can you buy?"
In two years, Lei Lei gained 14,400 fans. "I want to tell the Japanese young people of 'Generation Z' what Chinese of the same age are thinking, and what the trend of fashion in China will be in the future." Lei Lei said that she is also running Twitter at the same time, but the latter is more focused on publishing entertainment in China. "At present, Hallyu culture is still highly sought after in Japan, and my selfish intention is to make those who like Hallyu also become interested in China."
According to Lei Lei's observation, the Chinese modern drama "Thirty Only" has also been introduced to Japan, but most Japanese people are not prone to empathize with China's current social values; On the contrary, ancient puppet dramas showing chivalry, ancient dressing, and Chinese makeup can attract them more. In addition, the trend among young Japanese people to listen to Yumei novels (mostly gay male love novels) using the "cat ear FM" radio platform has also quietly risen.
In 2020, the ancient puppet drama "Chen Qingling", starring young actors Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan, was rotated many times in Japan and was also sold in DVD plus Blu-ray mode. Lei Lei found that Japanese video websites seem to have found a traffic password about China, and imported a large number of Chinese costume dramas, including ancient puppet dramas. "There are always fans who leave messages in the comment area, let me talk about ancient puppet dramas such as "Chen Qing Ling"."
◆ Young Japanese people listen to "Chen Qing Ling" through the radio platform.
In contrast, Japanese films have also swept the Chinese box office in a whirlwind. "This year, the Japanese film Love Like a Bouquet of Flowers" grossed 1.48 billion yen in China. The Japanese dramas "Lonely Foodie" and "Late Night Cafeteria" are also popular. The term 'Xiao Zhenxing', which has been popular among young Chinese people in recent years, was also first transmitted from Japan. ”
The favorability of the younger generation to China has attracted attention from all walks of life in Japan. According to a public opinion survey conducted by Japan's Cabinet Office at the end of 2021, among people in their 60s and 70s, only a little more than 10% answered that they had a good feeling for China, but more than 40% of those aged 18 to 29. According to the Pew Research Center in the United States in June this year, Japan belongs to the country with the largest generation gap in understanding China, but it also makes it clear that the younger generation has a better feeling for China.
Speaking of this phenomenon, Akio Takahara, a well-known Japanese scholar on China and a professor at the University of Tokyo, explained to Phoenix Weekly that this shows that China's soft power has improved and China's popular culture has become more and more attractive. "Young people are more open and receptive to new things. For them, good things have nothing to do with which products are made. In addition, young Japanese people are generally not interested in politics. If there are any obstacles between Japan and China, it is mainly political, and cultural and economic exchanges are very good. In addition, young people have more diverse access to information, and many people do not look at the mainstream media at all, but do not have any stereotypes. ”
Lei Lei also said, "Although the environment in China and Japan fluctuates, the entertainment itself does not have any political color, which can become the source of happiness in the life of Japanese young people." ”
The famous Japanese cultural critic and philosopher Hiroki Higashi explained this situation from a deeper cultural background. In his book "Animalized Postmodernity", he dissects the process of changing the times from the "big narrative" of mass media as a platform to the "small narrative" of the Internet as a platform. He used the term "database animal" to describe the situation of this generation of young people. In his view, as individuation accelerates, young people are placing more attention on themselves. At the same time, the huge variety of cultural products also provides them with enough choice space.
Nowadays, fans who are idols and which mobile games they play have become individual behaviors that show their personality. In Higashi's view, the pursuit of subcultures such as the second dimension can be seen as a "small narrative" between certain youth groups. Unlike mainstream political expression and international exchanges, "small narrative" is a sharing and communication based on common preferences, and has the characteristics of "pluralism" while also having "exclusivity". Therefore, cultural exchanges represented by the second dimension are often labeled as "non-mainstream".
Penny also mentioned that whether it is a comic or a game, most of the Sino-Japanese youth exchanges around the second dimension are based on sharing and communication based on common hobbies. "It's hard to imagine that such a highly personal exchange event can evolve into a topic of public opinion."
Combined with Chinese habits of watching Japanese anime, Penny said that the Internet has exposed more young Chinese people to Japanese anime and manga. "In Japan, anime has a relatively strict grading, time-slotting management and broadcast system. But these do not exist in China's cyberspace. ”
Late-night topics, slightly violent fight scenes, or quietly beautiful feelings, as a "small narrative" different from the real world, attract a group of young people, but whether this exchange can carry the historical mission of Sino-Japanese exchanges is debatable. Nevertheless, for the young people of the "Z generation" of the two countries, a new mode of communication has been opened.
"We can't judge the future direction of relations between the two countries, but there are still a group of Japanese people who are accepting new things from China and watching Chinese TV dramas." I hope that China and Japan can reduce a little stereotype, let everyone have more information about each other, less information bias, and create more common cultural soil. Leilei said.
(Jiahui Wang also contributed to this article)