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Fan Chen

One of China’s largest comic conventions has banned Japanese-themed content and derivative works just a week ahead of its opening amid spiralling tension between Tokyo and Beijing.
Organisers of the Comicup (CP) 32nd edition “Pre” event – set to take place in Hangzhou on December 27 and 28 – informed exhibitors and visitors on Friday that there would be a “full-scale adjustment” of content shown throughout the venue.
“Due to consideration regarding the current social environment and our cultural obligations, the organising committee has decided to pivot this edition of the convention towards a ‘new Chinese style’ theme,” the message said.
The announcement was not made public but several people planning to attend confirmed its details to the South China Morning Post.
While the statement did not name Japan, several dozen exhibitors who featured Japanese anime and other themed content said on social media that their booths had been cancelled for reasons “well-known to all” and “factors beyond control”.
Meanwhile, sections themed around content from the United States and Europe appear to be unaffected at the grass-roots gala which serves as a massive marketplace for creators of derivative works based on various anime, comics and games fandoms.


One of the affected exhibitors told the Post she spent about five months preparing for the event, from creating original fan art through designing and printing materials to buying decorations for her booth.
The Chongqing-based artist, whose booth was to have featured fan-made artwork of the Japanese Let’s Go Karaoke! manga, asked not to be named.
“I am feeling utterly helpless and sad,” she said.
“I had been looking forward to this event for so long, hoping to meet everyone in person. Even though there were rumours before the official notice that certain [intellectual properties] might be cut, I still held on to a sliver of hope – until the formal notification came.”
The shipping fees for her artwork alone amounted to several hundred yuan, not to mention the cost of flights and hotels, she added.
The event, which features about 7,000 booths, is one of China’s largest comic conventions and follows a major edition in the same CP series that was held in Shanghai in October.
The Shanghai event drew hundreds of thousands of visitors and was projected to generate between 600 million and 1 billion yuan (US$85 million and US$142 million) in cultural and tourism spending for the city this year, according to online news website The Paper.
This weekend’s convention in Hangzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is the latest in a slew of cultural events affected by the sharp deterioration in China-Japan relations since November.
The diplomatic row began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that an attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan justifying military intervention from Tokyo.




Beijing views Taiwan as part of China and has never renounced the use of force to reunite it with the mainland. Japan, in common with most countries, does not recognise the self-ruled island as an independent state but opposes any attempt to take it by force.
An exhibition based on the works of celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of the Oscar-winning Studio Ghibli, was postponed earlier this month. The event had been scheduled to open in the southern city of Guangzhou on Christmas Day.
Last month, popular singer Ayumi Hamasaki had to cancel a concert in Shanghai and one planned for January in Macau. There were also last-minute cancellations by other Japanese artists, including at least two shows in Beijing, three in Shanghai and two in Guangzhou.
Beijing has also ramped up diplomatic and economic pressure on Tokyo, postponing high-level meetings and sanctioning a former Japanese military official. It has also frozen youth exchange programmes and reimposed an import ban on seafood from Japan.
Meanwhile, flight cancellations continue to disrupt travel between the two countries following China’s warning to its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan.
Over 40 per cent of December’s scheduled services from China to Japan have reportedly been cancelled, and the number is expected to rise further next month.


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Organisers of the weekend convention in Hangzhou did not name Japan directly in its pivot to a ‘Chinese style’ theme


Organisers of the weekend convention in Hangzhou did not name Japan directly in its pivot to a ‘Chinese style’ theme.


China CP comic fan event stripped of Japanese content, dozens of booths affected

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Organisers of the weekend convention in Hangzhou did not name Japan directly in its pivot to a ‘Chinese style’ theme

Organisers of the weekend convention in Hangzhou did not name Japan directly in its pivot to a ‘Chinese style’ theme