Don't blame Doraemon for worsening ties
By Zhu Ping (China Daily) Updated: 2014-09-29 07:53Against the backdrop of globalization, it's impossible for one country to be isolated and refuse cultural exchanges. Former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China's reform and opening-up, said China should learn from all the excellent spiritual fruits and cultural products with shared values, and only resist those with bad influence.
Japan's cartoon culture is an important part of Japan's soft power, and there are truly many cartoon characters popular in China and rest of the world. Instead of blindly criticizing the popular cartoons for being Japanese, the Chinese government should learn from the Japanese and adopt a similar soft-power strategy for Chinese cultural products, which can help buildup China's image on the international stage.
Moreover, as Sino-Japanese political ties cool down, it's increasingly important to maintain cultural exchanges so the two peoples do not become totally estranged.
According to this year's China Daily survey on Sino-Japanese ties, a majority of the public to see the significance bilateral ties but the proportion shrunk to a record low on both sides - 65 percent of those polled in China and 70.6 percent in Japan. And 86.8 percent of surveyed Chinese consider Japan "bad" or relatively bad, while a record high of 93 percent surveyed Japanese think negatively about China.
No doubt the Abe administration should take all the blame for the worsening bilateral ties. It's their hard stance on the two countries' territorial dispute, visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, pursuit of revising the Peace Constitution and denial of "comfort women" that have led to the political standoff between the two governments, and Chinese people's bad sentiment toward Japan.
However, most Japanese support Abe not for his political and diplomatic policies but because Abenomics boosted Japan's economy. In September, Abe had to reshuffle his cabinet to reverse his declining support rate with the Abenomics effect waning.
Therefore, it's important for the Chinese media to focus on criticizing the Japanese rightists. The Chinese public needs to distinguish between ordinary Japanese people and those espousing rightist views, especially as the Japanese rightists may win more support by playing up China's "anti-Japan" sentiment.
Hopefully, more Japanese ordinary people can stand out against their hawkish politicians, so Doraemon will no longer be the scapegoat for the worsening ties.
The author is an editor with China Daily.
The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
