Chinese state media outlets issued scathing condemnations of Sanrio, the Japanese company behind characters such as Hello Kitty and Kuromi, on Thursday after the company announced a collaboration with a Japanese television drama the Communist Party deemed offensive.
The collaboration did not appear to be targeting Chinese consumers, as the Communist Party has used its media arms to categorically condemn the fictional series for its depiction of Chinese spies as violent. Nonetheless, the state-run newspaper Global Times claimed that Sanrio was allowing Hello Kitty and its other characters to be used to spread messaging tied to “Japan’s right-wing forces” and spreading an “anti-China narrative.”
The Hello Kitty controversy follows an active week for Chinese transnational censorship of pop culture figures after French soccer star Kylian Mbappé faced Beijing regime condemnation and the loss of sponsorships over accurately referring to communist mass murderer Mao Zedong as a “dictator.” Mbappé was referring to Mao in the context of humorous online memes in which he, personally, was portrayed as a “dictator” on his team, often illustrated in the traditional clothing associated with various historical villains. Mbappé subsequently issued an apology to the Chinese people.
Similarly, Sanrio announced on Thursday it would no longer pursue its collaboration with the Japanese television series Vivant, a show that follows the life of a salaryman – a white-collar worker – in Japan who falls into a web of international espionage. The program takes place largely in a fictional Asian nation, but the Chinese Communist Party has nonetheless protested that a Chinese spy was shown in an episode to be engaging in torture, which it claimed was an inaccurate representation of Chinese spies and an attempt to portray the Chinese engaging in acts more typical of mid-20th century Japanese spies. The program is a top-rated series on the Japanese network TBS.
The collaboration was reportedly meant to feature some of Sanrio’s most recognizable characters, such as Hello Kitty and MyMelody, wearing the costumes of some of the most popular characters on the program. The collaboration reportedly debuted in July. The offending episode of Vivant in which a Chinese agent appears to engage in torture on camera aired in October, explaining the delay in outrage from Beijing.
The Global Times claimed that Sanrio was facing “shock and fierce backlash on social media” over its decision to partner with the program Vivant, referring to China’s regime-controlled websites often used to pressure private foreign enterprises to behave as the Communist Party desires. It referred to the program as “a Japanese drama notorious for smearing China” and accused it of airing content that “deliberately distorts the truth and reverses black and white, portraying the atrocities committed by the invading Japanese army against the Chinese people as actions of the Chinese side.”
The Times also strained to associate the television series with the government of conservative Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, though no direct correlation exists. As the program is a popular drama in Japan, Takaichi has reportedly stated in public that she is interested in watching it, but no evidence suggested any direct relationship between the program and the Japanese government.
“The content and ideology of this series reflect the historical outlook and anti-China narrative of the current conservative Japanese right-wing administration,” The Times insisted, “catering to the trend of right-wing extremism in Japanese society; its motives and objectives are both deeply sinister.”
As is typical with Global Times “reporting” on such controversies, the article concluded with a threat to Sanrio that its market in China was “indispensable” to its profits and required it to take immediate action to distance itself from the television drama.
“Sanrio needs to understand that if the brand ‘partners with anti-China content,’ it stands to lose far more than short-term sales,” it concluded.
Sanrio announced on Thursday, via the Chinese regime-controlled social media website Weibo, that it had canceled the collaboration.
“Since its inception, Sanrio has consistently used its characters to convey values such as care and connection, and remains committed to its corporate philosophy of fostering harmony among all people,” the company said in a statement. “We take the feedback we have received regarding this incident very seriously. Moving forward, we will strengthen our review processes for all future collaborative projects.”
The company said that the program, upon further inspection, “contained elements inconsistent with Sanrio’s core values.”
The Japan Times reported on Thursday that the president of TBS addressed the program, and the backlash, in a press conference on Wednesday, declaring that the company has “absolutely no intention of conveying a message that disparages any particular country or hurts national sentiments.” The Japan Times described President Masamne Ryuho as defending the series, however, emphasizing that the program is fictional.
The cancellation apparently sent the price of products released between July and October skyrocketing. Websites such as eBay contain listings of promotional packages of the Sanrio/Vivant collaboration for hundreds of dollars.
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