This book explores how Japanese popular culture, exported to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, is received in these societies. Based on extensive ethnographic research observing in detail the reception of a particular Japanese cultural product, the book shows how, even when the product has been modified to anticipate a different reception in each of the three places, even then the reception is different. The book goes onto discuss more generally the nature of Japanese popular culture and its reception in the three places, showing how history and continuing national antagonism influence attitudes in China, how Hong Kong’s special “in between” status affects the reception there, and how in Taiwan the memory of Japanese colonialism is being re-formed in order to reinforce Taiwan’s cultural distinctiveness.

This book explores how Japanese popular culture, exported to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, is received in these societies. Based on extensive ethnographic research observing in detail the reception of a particular Japanese cultural product, the book shows how, even when the product has been modified to anticipate a different reception in each of the three places, even then the reception is different. The book goes onto discuss more generally the nature of Japanese popular culture and its reception in the three places, showing how history and continuing national antagonism influence attitudes in China, how Hong Kong’s special “in between” status affects the reception there, and how in Taiwan the memory of Japanese colonialism is being re-formed in order to reinforce Taiwan’s cultural distinctiveness.