Beijing
—
Lily Chen couldn’t have been more excited on a windy and chilly Wednesday night when she saw the Japanese singer she’s been a fan of for 20 years waiting outside with a crowd to enter a venue in Beijing.
It was time for the concert, but the door remained closed. Then came the harsh news that the concert had been cancelled.
“It was very disappointing,” the 35-year-old recalls.
Organizers cited “equipment failure” at the venue, but fans suspect it is related to a major diplomatic issue between China and Japan after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently suggested that Japan might respond militarily if China moves to take control of Taiwan by force. This is a “red line that must not be crossed” for the Chinese government, which claims that it is an autonomous democracy.
The concert that Chen was scheduled to attend, featuring J-pop artist Kokia, appears not to be the only Japanese cultural export caught up in friction.
At least 30 Japanese performers, including pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki, have had performances and fan meet-and-greets canceled in major cities in China in recent days, according to a CNN tally based on announcements by organizers.
Hamasaki apologized to fans on Instagram for the last-minute cancellation of his Saturday night show in Shanghai, posting a photo of himself and dancers on stage with empty seats in the background. In a previous Instagram Story, she said key staff members received a cancellation request the day before the concert.
Organizers of two separate concerts told CNN that performances were canceled after police arrived hours before show time, imposed impossible conditions before the show could proceed, or simply canceled the event without explanation.
In another particularly dramatic case, Maki Otsuki, the voice behind the theme song for the popular anime One Piece, had her performance in Shanghai canceled last Friday “unexpectedly” due to “force majeure,” according to a statement on her official website. Footage circulating online shows Otsuki’s visibly shocked reaction as two staff members remove her microphone mid-song and escort her off stage.
Chinese social media has been heavily criticizing the cancellation of the concert, with some calling the incident “extremely disrespectful” and “lacking the spirit of the contract.” CNN has reached out to the event’s organizers and venue for comment.
According to China Film News, film importers and distributors had suspended the release of several Japanese films in China, in part due to “Chinese audience sentiment.”
“Japan’s provocative statements will inevitably affect Chinese audiences’ perception of Japanese films,” state media said.
China does not deny the link between ongoing tensions and entertainment cancellations.
Last Tuesday, when asked about the recent cancellation of Japanese movie releases and concerts, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning did not clarify the details of these restrictions, but reaffirmed that Gaoichi’s “erroneous” statements about Taiwan “deeply hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and worsened the atmosphere of Sino-Japanese exchanges.”
Takaichi said his remarks were “hypothetical” and that he would refrain from making similar statements in the Diet again.
The wave of cancellations is a worrying sign for China’s millions of Japanese culture lovers. In China, there is a particularly strong following of Japanese entertainment among young Chinese.
This year’s Wonder Festival, founded by Japanese toy maker General Products and now one of China’s largest toy and garage kit events, attracted more than 120,000 visitors to Shanghai for the two-day event in October, with tickets for the first day sold out in just four minutes, Chinese state media reported.
But now, with no clear end in sight and with Beijing insisting that Japan retract its Taiwan statement and Gaoichi showing little sign that he is preparing to do so, many are wondering how much of an impact it will have on entertainment consumption as diplomatic tensions spill over into the arts.
“I hope that these official policies restricting Japanese performances will be treated reasonably instead of making ordinary Chinese people the first victims,” a 37-year-old J-pop fan who held tickets to a canceled concert in Shanghai told CNN.
“We should not use public opinion to deliberately stir up blind anti-Japanese sentiments among Chinese people,” said Fan, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.
It seems that not all of Japan’s cultural exports are being targeted.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, the latest Japanese anime based on a manga, was released in China on November 14, three days before the Chinese government halted plans to release other Japanese films, but it has not been removed from movie theaters. In fact, it became the second-highest grossing imported film in mainland China this year, raking in more than 630 million yuan ($89 million), according to Maoyan, China’s leading ticket sales platform.
Despite deep-rooted anti-Japanese sentiment, there is a strong desire for Japanese culture among young Chinese people. This sentiment, often fanned by official media in the recent nationalistic political environment, is rooted in the painful history of imperial Japan’s invasion and war atrocities committed in China in the early 20th century.
The most recent anti-Japanese protests stemmed from 2012, when thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across China and violently targeted Japanese businesses in anger over Tokyo’s move to purchase the disputed Senkaku Islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu Islands.
While such large-scale offline demonstrations may be unlikely in China today given the leadership’s obsession with social stability, nationalist abuse online continues to gain momentum amid a barrage of militant propaganda directed at Tokyo by Chinese state media.
This is now a source of anxiety for young fans of Japanese culture in China.
Yui, an 18-year-old fan of Japanese anime and cosplay, was trolled online after posting on the Instagram-like app Xiaohongshu. I wondered out loud if I would still be able to wear the kimono costume I had planned for an anime convention in southern China.
Yui, who did not want to reveal her real name due to the confidentiality of the topic, said she felt it might be “inappropriate” and ultimately decided to give up on the costume, which cost about 2,000 yuan (about 28,000 yen).
This is not the first time cultural and entertainment exports have been targeted by Beijing’s diplomatic agenda.
For nearly a decade, the Chinese government effectively suspended South Korean performances and Korean dramas in an unofficial ban meant to apply economic pressure after South Korea deployed a U.S. anti-ballistic missile system in 2016.
The current situation, which has grown to such a scale, is a cause for concern for people like event organizer Zhao Guangjin, who make a living promoting Japanese art in China.
Zhao and her team, who had been preparing for a concert in Beijing featuring Japanese singer Yasuko Agawa for nine months, told CNN that they realized their efforts were in vain when local police visited the venue the day before the performance and imposed “very strict conditions” that made it virtually impossible to hold the concert on November 22 as planned.
Mr. Cho added, “I’m worried about what will happen if this situation continues.”
His Nanjing-based team, which focuses on booking Japanese artists, lost about 10,000 yuan ($1,411) in accommodation cancellations and flight changes. “If a situation similar to what happened in South Korea, where we were unable to hold concerts (in China), many of our business operations could be disrupted,” he said.
Christian Petersen-Clausen does not know how long this diplomatic quagmire will last, and feels that business in China is also in doubt.
The Shanghai-based German concert promoter has already had to cancel six hard-won concerts featuring Japanese musicians amid the bilateral conflict, for reasons “no one has openly stated, but everyone knows,” he said.
Petersen-Clausen noted that a sudden cancellation could lead to significant financial losses for his startup.
“I think China and Japan have a problem and China did this to show its importance to Japan’s economy. But the reality is it hurts people like us.”
