Chinese government limits Nippon anime broadcasts

Wed Sep 26 01:34:35 EDT 2007

Hi all -

I just stumbled across an interesting video on YouTube regarding the Chinese 
government's decision to restrict the amount of Japanese-made anime airing 
on TV in China. This is very old news--a little over a year now--and I'm not 
sure how things turned out afterwards but NHK's news report on the issue is 
fascinating.

Part 1:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN_2GbUEA7M
Part 2:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQulZ2vGI8

Sasuga NHK. Look at some of the harsh comments the videos stirred up.

Here's NHK's description of the broadcast (in Japanese) from the BS Kyo no 
Sekai web site:

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This reminds me a bit of what Toei said about U.S. cartoons clogging up 
Japanese theaters when they were trying to build up their own industry 50+ 
years ago. Now it seems the tables are turned. It's interesting how the 
report tries to show how much young Chinese viewers prefer "Nippon no 
anime," but doesn't mention Japan's outsourcing of animation labor to China 
until the very end. The clips imply that Chinese producers are replacing 
Japanese cartoons with Chinese imitations of popular anime titles (like the 
"Chugokuban Kureyon Shinchan"), but NHK's idea of a Chinese copy of Chibi 
Maruko-chan looks a lot more like South Park to me. And reporter Tanaka's 
description of the Chinese animation industry as "hatten tojo" leaves a very 
funny taste . . .

Does anyone know what's happened since then? Is NHK still reporting on the 
issue?

Michael Arnold