Popular culture can be employed to help forge friendly ties

CAI HONG

It came as no surprise that Your Name, the latest film by Japanese anime directorMakoto Shinkai, which started its theatrical run in China on Friday, has been such a hit with Chinese audiences.

The time-traveling love story was a smash hit in Japan, grossing some 19.7 billion yen ($174 million) at the box office since it opened in August.

The film has made Shinkai a phenomenon following the 2013 retirement of Academy Award-winning directorHayao Miyazaki, the genius behind many anime films includingMy Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’sMoving Castle, and Ponyo. Miyazaki has hinted about a return to feature filming and people have said teasingly that the success of Your Name might motivate him to return to filmmaking.

Your Name is a tale of two high school students, living different lives in different places, who periodically inhabit each other’s bodies and lives. The film mixes tradition and modernity in away that feels quintessentially Japanese.

Tense yet funny, unorthodox yet heartfelt, Your Name is a film of dreams and romance. And the colors, the details, the lighting and the animation are all top tier.

Japanese animated movies have won a generation of admirers in China, with many Chinese fans learning the Japanese language through anime.

But their affection for Japanese animations is not mirrored in the feelings for their neighbor of most Chinese .

A joint opinion poll in China and Japan released in September showed that, although down from 78.3 percent last year, 76.7 percent of Chinese still have an unfavorable impression of Japan.

On the other hand, Japan’s tourism ministry expects 6 million Chinese tourists to visit the country this year. And Your Name may prompt more Chinese to visit Japan to see the iconic locations that inspired the settings in the film.

Yet although people in the two countries may feel ill-will toward one another, as the shared enthusiasm for Your Name shows, they are also culturally bound to one another in manyways.

OnWednesday the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization added China’s 24 “solar terms” to its list of the world’s intangible cultural heritage. These solar terms are considered to be knowledge of time and practices developed in China through observation of the sun’s annual motion.

The “solar terms”, which start from the Beginning of Spring and end with the Greater Cold, have been passed down from generation to generation and used traditionally as a timeframe to guide daily routines, and are particularly important for farmers.

The exact 24 solar terms from China are also observed in Japan, printed on most Japanese calendars. Some of them are Japan’s national holidays such as the Spring Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox.

One thing that always strikes me in Japan is how conscious the Japanese are of the seasons and the change of seasons.

Joseph S. Nye Jr. coined the term “soft power” in the late 1980s to explain the ability a country has to shape other countries’ long-term attitudes and preference.

Nye argued, “There is an element of triviality and fad in popular behavior, but it is also true that a country that stands astride popular channels of communication has more opportunities to get its messages across and to affect the preferences of others.”

China and Japan have their own soft power channels and they should use these to build healthier relations.

Yet although people in the two countries may feel ill-will toward one another, as the shared enthusiasm for

shows, they are also culturally bound to one another in many ways. ... China and Japan have their own soft power channels and they should use these to build healthier relations.