2ch netizens have reacted with disbelief to an article from Chinese newspaper The Chengdu Daily which claimed that much-loved anime character Doraemon has a hidden political agenda.
Although the article didn’t elaborate precisely how the blue robot cat from the future would influence political opinion in China, the claims were enough to prompt floods of online criticism.
From Sponichi.co.jp:
Does Doraemon Have A Political Backdrop? Claims From Chinese Newspaper, Complaints Flood In
The Chengdu Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party Committee in Chengdu, Sechuan Province, China, recently carried an opinion piece calling for vigilance and claiming that a “hidden political agenda” on the part of Japan is behind the popular character Doraemon, who has even been used as an “ambassador for anime culture” by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
It seems that the background for this is a sense of crisis over being behind Japan and America in the “soft power” stakes that include anime and movies; however, there have been floods of criticism over this claim, which finds fault with Doraemon, a character loved by many nations including China.
The opinion piece introduced the fact that Doraemon was working as a cultural ambassador for Japan, and that he had been designated as a special ambassador for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bid.
On that basis, the article claimed that “The Abe administration is hiding Japan’s history of invasion, and inviting a tense situation internationally”, going on to say that “If Doraemon is supposed to symbolize Japan in the eyes of good people, then the Abe administration is the true face of Japan”. The piece called for people to stop feeling an undue affection for Doraemon.
Still, the article lacked logic given that it did not state specifically what the “political motive” was supposed to mean, nor did it make clear any link between Doraemon and the “political motive”.
The piece, dated September 25 2014, has also been carried on political news websites. Following its publication, there was an influx of critical comments online saying things such as “The writer of this article must be sick in the head”. A Beijing journalist suggested that “Taking a hostile view on everything that is foreign is just the flipside of an inferiority complex regarding the culture and systems of one’s own country”.
Comments from 2ch.net:
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Are they sick?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Damn, we got found out already, huh?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
This journalist must be a genius to have worked that out…
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Yeah, see, if you expand Doraemon’s nose it becomes the Japanese flag.
The Chinese Communist Party is pretty sharp w
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
That’s because China is the Gian [bully character in Doraemon] in all this.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Hold up, hold up, Fujiko Fujino was a big Mao Zedong fan!
Do they just hate everything that’s come from Japan?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Doraemon wasn’t made for a Chinese audience.
There is no political agenda.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
The thing is, the writer of this article is thinking “Let’s spread our political philosophy throughout the world via Chinese anime”
And who the hell would watch that w
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
If anything Doraemon is pretty socialist. Particularly the cinema versions.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
( ´,_ゝ｀)ﾌﾟｯ Pff, this is so mental that even North Korea is going to laugh at them.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Is China seriously frightened of Doraemon?
Huh?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
They think that because they’re doing it, everyone is doing it.
I mean the CCP has a propaganda budget for the entertainment industry, that’s the kind of thing they do.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Hey, let’s timeslip back to the actual scene of the Nanjing Massacre.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Guess Doraemon is the enemy because his coloring is the same as the US flag.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
If you look at it from the perspective of the Communist Party, then everything else on earth is a dangerous idea.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
This is on the same level as North Koreans who shit themselves at the sight of that full-scale Gundam in Odaiba.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
They are so delusional it’s practically a disease.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
They’ll be on to Sazae-san next.
