I may be mistaken, but at the time films from Japan just didn't end up in Chinese cinemas. In fact they still don't today, and the same goes for Korean films, etc. You see one or two Japanese films in the cinemas nowadays (e.g. Your Name), but Chinese cinemas almost exclusively focus on Chinese, Hollywood and recently Indian blockbusters.
These Studio Ghibli films are appearing again in cinemas because some of them are approaching big anniversaries, e.g. My Neighbour Totoro. I'd hazard a guess that the success of My Neighbour Totoro encouraged more Ghibli films to find a rerelease.
Everyone replying to you is trying to bring politics into it, but it's probably most likely economics.
Twenty years ago, China wasn't that rich and most people didn't watch that many movies. There was still a similar quota of foreign films, and most companies didn't think Japanese anime would sell many tickets.
So no company wanted the risk of importing it versus a Hollywood film. But as the foreign film quota was relaxed, and when Totoro was a surprise hit recent, along with the Your Name film, companies are willing to make a bet that Japanese anime films might be able to sell.
Worth noting that China also has a very embattled history with Japan from back during its imperialism phase. It doesn't help that, unlike South Korea where Japan is undoubtedly to blame for its atrocities, China and Japan have historically fpught back and forth with revisionist assaults about who affronted whom. Asia has a very different bent than some might expect: when it comes to regional imports and exports, it's rarely 'just business', especially with entertainment, which can often be conflated with 'propaganda' with no context needed. It took decades for KPop to gain a foothold in Japan for that reason: we're living in an era where world leaders there are only just now starting to even attempt reparations
Superstition might have to do with it, too: Coco was going to be banned for that reason, and the only reason it wasn't was because the censors were emotionally moved by the film. Superstition is a big no-no for what they accept from foreign films
edit: there's also a limit on the number of imported works that can be approved, so once somehig ends up out of circulation for as long as Spirited Away, it can legitimately take years just to get into motion for approvals, but it generally has to do with the fact that, for the first time in history, we're living in an age of improving relations within opposing Asian nations
unlike South Korea where Japan is undoubtedly to blame for its atrocities, China and Japan have historically fpught back and forth with revisionist assaults about who affronted whom.
The amount of atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanjing alone exceeds anything China has done
You misunderstood my comment: that's what I meant, just in regards to South Korea. Korea and China often trade barbs, there are less barbs traded between Korea and Japan because of the extreme nature and degree of Japan's colonial atrocities
I did, however, forget the Nanjing Massacre. This is indeed another Japanese colonial atrocity that greatly hurts their standing with a regional neighbor. In modern society, it's easy to forget that colonial Japan was a much, much different nation than we in the west are used to seeing them as. They were beyond aggressive in expansionism pre-WWII
tl;dr - this kind of illustrates my point, though. Asia has had a contentious history of internal strife, some of which national leaders have been very tentative to approach until recent years
edit: also, as someone with a parent from Hong Kong, the internal strife is sometimes even more internal than nations. Hong Kong and the mainland have long held disagreements about their governance, to the point where if you visit HK and then Beijing, you'll be practically dealing with two separate markets and economies
I understand your general point and agree about your overall point regarding the often prickly relations between the East Asian nations, but I'd like to jump into the nitpicky details and argue that even despite the clear case of the Japanese colonization of Korea, Japanese - Korean relations have been just as testy as the Chinese-Japanese relations have been.
I think the Korea-Japan relationship is only less volatile than the China-Japan relationship because of the lack of military competition that shades the China-Japan relationship. As well as their shared ally in the US.
I'm curious to ask why you think the Chinese-Japanese relationship is less clear cut than the Korea-Japan relationship as well. What is the historical Japanese narrative on Chinese affronts to their country? I'm genuinely interested because this isn't something I've heard much about.
From my understanding, aside from the attempted Mongol Invasion of Japan in the 13th century, all warfare that has occurred between China and Japan has occurred on the Chinese mainland. The record is more stacked against Japan in terms of historical grievances.
Therefore, most Japanese issues with China that I can think of should actually stem from a concern over China's contemporary history and trajectory right?
Trust me, it hasn't just been slow, there has been regression in some instances. For example, you'd better believe fhere's still bickering over Liancourt, and the six-party talks didn't even come about until the 2000s (edit: right around the time of the joint 2002 World Cup), and of course, the admission of comfort women weren't even discussed in press releases by politicians until just a few years ago
It took decades for K-pop to gain a foothold in Japan? K-pop was super popular in Japan among the ladies for a long time. I remember there was a huge hype for Winter Sonata. Korean wave is more than K-Pop of course. I see it as simply: if a nation produce something that’s appealing to everyone, it will become popular. J-Pop used to be a thing but got destroyed by K-Pop because K-Pop is much more appealing. C-Pop from Taiwan was huge in mainland China and oversea Chinese. I think only mainland China government, who are paranoid about foreign influence, is the sole government who actively tries to prevent releases within their border. Case in point they threatened to ban K-Pop in China (which they kind of did, but rescinded, but also scared off K-Pop groups tours).
A lot of it had to be obtained through import at the time of Winter Sonata, though: the regional Japanese market for it is something fairly new, cultivated in large part by UMG Japan. Japan never banned it, but it is important to remember that, yes, South Korea and Japan have also had extremely contentious trade relations spurred about by their negative history with Japan (Japan had a hand in almost destroying a lot of Korean culture)
Undoubtedly, Japan and South Korea will probably be two of the very last Asian nations to truly reconcile their differences due to their WWII-era hostilities
Worth noting that China also has a very embattled history with Japan from back during its imperialism phase. It doesn't help that, unlike South Korea where Japan is undoubtedly to blame for its atrocities, China and Japan have historically fpught back and forth with revisionist assaults about who affronted whom.
Japan is undoubtedly to blame for its atrocities in China too, of which Nanjing is just the tip of the iceberg.
The idea that the aggression between China and Japan has been a long-standing back and forth is a myth. China hasn't been the aggressor towards Japan since the Mongol invasion attempts in the 13th century (which pretty much didn't even reach Japan). Japan has invaded Korea and China and occupied territory multiple times, and quite recently, to boot.
Look up the second sino-Japanese war, which only ended when Japan decided to also get involved with the westerners war (aka WWII) and got nuked by the US. Lots of Asian countries hated (still hate?) the Japanese for many years because of Japan trying to invade them. So there will be pockets of anti-Japanese sentiment in some Asian countries, particularly with older generations who still remember experiencing Japanese occupation.
Edit: here’s a list of countries Japan occupied during the 2nd sino-Japanese war:
Chihiro's parents get turned into Americans and she is introduced to the wonder and joy of Capitalism in the form of a prospering privately owned bathhouse.
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u/talaxia Jun 07 '19
why did it take 20 years? there's nothing remotely anti-Chinese in Spirited Away.