Chinese Anime and Japanese Mahjong: The Clandestine Battle Between Digital Content Economies

For many Westerners, the words “China,” “geopolitics” and “internet” conjure up images of “wolf warrior diplomacy” on Twitter, reports on the pernicious influence of TikTok and other social media on American youth, COVID-related conspiracy theories, or outright cyberwarfare and internet security breaches.

But sometimes geopolitical rivalries, are less dramatic — at least at first glance. Geopolitical rivalries often occur over economic issues, and the internet has been a transformative force for many industries, especially the highly lucrative entertainment and media industries. The latest story of the rivalry between China and Japan is over digital media, specifically over what countries get to claim the label of “anime.” At stake is control over an industry that was worth over $US25 billion last year and has hitherto been a major source of Japanese soft power.

Will China Become the Leader of the Anime Industry?

This past week, anime producer Masao Maruyama, co-founder of animation studios Madhouse and MAPPA, known for his involvement in anime series like “Ashita no Joe” and “Trigun” as well as animated movies like “Ninja Scroll,” stated in an interview that he believed China would soon overtake Japan as the leader of the anime industry. At 81 years old, Maruyama started his career as a protégé of Osamu Tezuka, popularly nicknamed the “god of manga.” As a producer, he discovered and mentored a number of directors who have since become famous in their own right, such as Satoshi Kon (“Perfect Blue,” “Millennium Actress”) and Mamoru Hosoda (“The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”). If anyone has the credibility to make such a bold statement, it is Maruyama. (Think Steven Spielberg commenting on action/adventure films.)

On some level, this is not new. Even for many younger people familiar with anime culture, it’s not that surprising. If you have children or grandchildren who play mobile games, they are very likely familiar with the global phenomenon “Genshin Impact” (原神 or Yuánshén), a game by Chinese developer miHoYo that has around 65 million active players per month, around 11% of whom are in the United States. What is actually surprising here is that such a senior figure in the Japanese anime industry is acknowledging this publicly.

After all, the word “anime” is a loanword from Japanese, where the word simply means cartoons of any kind — in Japan, “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and “Looney Tunes” are all considered “anime.” Because of this, the word in English historically referred to Japanese cartoons specifically, even those that do not match the typical anime aesthetic like “Crayon Shin-chan” or “Flowers of Evil.” Dethroning Japan as the main nation associated with anime would not just provide China with another economic edge, it would constitute a massive soft power coup.

Another Example: Chinese vs. Japanese Mahjong          

Something like this could only have happened through the transformative forces unleashed by the internet. My ongoing research explores the dynamics that made this possible and the implications beyond anime. What is going on here is more complex than the oversimplified “China vs. Japan” narrative that is so tempting to apply to stories like this. Perhaps an example from my own experience can illustrate the complexity of the transnational interactions underway in the globalization of anime.

Last Friday evening I downloaded the game “Mahjong Soul,” opened it, and the next thing I knew it was late Sunday evening. It’s just that engrossing. Many readers might be familiar with the Chinese game mahjong from the hit 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians” and the scene featuring the machinations and verbal sparring of Singaporean matriarch Eleanor Sung-Young, played memorably by Michelle Yeoh. We younger folk, in contrast, often first came to know mahjong from its appearance in the very popular “Yakuza” video game series. Mahjong is deeply associated with East Asian culture but traditionally viewed as a game for older people, much like bridge is in the West. Because of its appearance in Asian media, however, mahjong has seen a resurgence in popularity in both Asia as well as Western countries, with younger players coming to it through the “Yakuza” series or mahjong-themed anime like “Saki.” But while “Saki” is a terrible way to learn mahjong — the titular character has supernatural powers over the laws of probability — “Mahjong Soul” is much more approachable for mere mortals.

Mahjong is also similar to many popular games such as poker, chess, and solitaire, with different variants associated with individual countries. The mahjong in most anime is, of course, Japanese mahjong, also known as “riichi” mahjong after its most unique game mechanic. A popular Reddit thread contains a useful summary of the differences between Chinese and Japanese mahjong that is understandable even to those who don’t know the rules, but the main distinction is that Japanese mahjong is more complicated than Chinese mahjong and achieving a winning hand is harder.

It may therefore come as a surprise that “Mahjong Soul,” which features the Japanese rules, is a Chinese game (雀魂麻将 or Quèhún májiàng). Both the developer, Cat Food Studio, and publisher, Yostar — famous for other anime-style video games such as “Arknights” (明日方舟 or Míngrì Fāngzhōu) and “Azur Lane” (碧蓝航线 or Bìlán Hángxiàn) — are based in Shanghai. “Mahjong Soul” was originally released in China in 2018 before being released worldwide in 2019. This is not just a game targeted to overseas anime fans, but it’s popular in China too, as the large number of usernames written in simplified Chinese attests.

Those familiar with the historic enmity between China and Japan, and having memories of countless boycotts of Japanese goods in Chinese cities, might be surprised that so many Chinese anime fans prefer the Japanese variant of mahjong when the Chinese version is still alive and kicking. The game’s two starter characters available to all new players are named Ichi-hime (一姫 or Yī jī) and Miki Nikaidou (二阶堂美树 or Èrjiētáng měishù), names that are still recognizably Japanese even when read in Mandarin. In fact, this is rather typical for Chinese anime games. For example, although Yostar’s other popular game “Azur Lane” was also first released in China, the developers originally only included voiced dialogue in Japanese before later adding lines in Mandarin. The reason for this is the same reason many anime fans — as well as fans of foreign cinema — prefer subtitles to dubbed dialogue: a desire for authenticity, even when the “authenticity” is more artificial than the reality.

The Geopolitical Debate over Mahjong and Anime is Oversimplified

As I argued in a previous blog focusing on “Genshin Impact,” an anime-style game by another Chinese company, miHoYo, geopolitical debates over Chinese soft power that involve such digital content as these are often vastly oversimplified. The Chinese Communist Party is taking advantage of these Chinese tech companies’ reach and financial power for their own purposes, and Chinese fans of anime content are certainly not averse to expressing their ultra-nationalist views over the internet. However, this is very unlikely to be part of some grand secret plot by the CCP to take over anime, and “Genshin Impact” and “Mahjong Soul” were certainly not created to be Chinese state tools for political indoctrination. In fact, their appeal, and the strategy of Chinese companies like Yostar or miHoYo or even Tencent — which had a worldwide release for their own mobile game, “Goddess of Victory: Nikke” (胜利女神：妮姬 Shènglì nǚshén: Nījī), last November — is being faithful renditions of the Japanese original. These are not your stereotypical Chinese knockoffs, but true anime games whose only difference is their country of origin.

And so the same reason that China may possibly overtake Japan as the leader of the global anime industry is the same reason that Chinese anime fans prefer playing the Japanese version of mahjong over Chinese versions. While I, a Chinese-American who was born and raised in America, and presumably many other young Chinese people, associate Chinese mahjong with dinner parties where the parents played while the kids did their own thing, Japanese mahjong is associated with anime, the means by which so many new players discover the game nowadays.

Conclusion: The Anime Industry is Becoming Transnational

 MiHoYo’s, Yostar’s, and Tencent’s success and increasing encroachment into the realm of what was once formerly exclusively “Japanese” anime may be compatible with the Chinese Communist Party’s own geopolitical goals of economic supremacy. But even if it wishes to harness it, the Party did not create China’s large anime fanbase, nor is it the reason that “Mahjong Soul” and “Genshin Impact” are so well-designed, beautifully drawn, popular — and fun.

Rather, what we are seeing with China’s increasing encroachment into what is fast becoming the transnational anime industry is just the most prominent and attention-grabbing part of a much bigger phenomenon. China is only the largest and most successful of many countries with large anime fanbases who have begun creating their own domestic anime products. While most are not as sophisticated as Chinese versions, it is possible to identify local creators, from Indonesia to Germany to the United States, making non-Japanese “anime” content that is increasingly accepted by other anime fans around the world, including in Japan.

Specific historical factors within each recipient country impacted anime’s popularity locally, just as the historic context of postwar Japan enabled and influenced the nature of anime itself. These interlocking and interrelated factors are complex and often vary dramatically from country to country, even when they are neighbors. This is a story that involves Japan and China, but also the United States, Korea, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, France, Germany, and more. My upcoming research aims to explain how Japanese anime spread beyond its birthplace — and is becoming more Chinese. And Indonesian. And Mexican. And American.

This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.