Research Background

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1.2 Research Background

1.2.1 Influence of Japanese Kominka Policy in Taiwan

Taiwan has many cultural traditions that are influenced by regime changes. Specifically, during the period of Japanese colonization in Taiwan, Taiwanese folk arts transformed into those of new types. These new forms of folk art have been passed down culturally, along with the strong impact of colonial power. Glove puppetry (budaixi, 布袋戲) is one of those folk arts.

Back in the period of Japanese Colonization, in order to survive, glove puppetry had to conform to Kominka Policy³. The puppets combined Taiwanese and Japanese styles, and the stories were based on Japanese legends. The scripts were written in Taiwanese and Japanese.

Forms of Taiwanese Glove puppetry have changed from regime to regime. In recent decades, Pili Puppetry is one of the renowned glove puppetry troupes in Taiwan. Domestic fans of Pili puppetry make up a group of around one million people. Pili Puppetry’s domestic revenue from e-commerce increased to NTD eighty million dollars in 2012 (“Pili’s Estimated EPS Contribution Next Year,” 2013). In addition, in early Pili serials, the plots and scripts adopted a great many Japanese elements such as ninja and samurai characters. Japanese music was adopted as well. Even in more recent serials, Japanese characters and adapted

3 Kominka (皇民化), which literally means to become Japanese in form, style or character, will have more

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Japanese legends still appear from time to time.

In 2000, the Pili company launched its first glove puppetry movie “The Legend of The Sacred Stone” (聖石傳說). It did well at the box office. In coming years, the movie was dubbed in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese and was released in Japan and China (PILI

Chronology, 2017). Pili then planned to expand to overseas markets due to the success of this puppetry movie. It had previously cooperated with an American company, and then turned to cooperate with companies in neighboring countries of China and Japan.

Huang (2011), a researcher of transnational consumption, states that the co-production of the TV program injecting Japanese components reveals an unconventional form of localization. It incorporates foreign influences to exoticize programs and is thus more attractive to local consumers (p.12).

This localization strategy of cross-cultural productions is “not only exploited by Japanese companies, but also borrowed by transnational enterprises and Taiwanese

businesses alike,” stated Huang (p.12). Pili Puppetry adopts this localization strategy in its transnational co-production Thunderbolt Fantasy with Japan enterprises. In Thunderbolt Fantasy, it is noteworthy that Taiwanese glove puppetry dresses up as a Japanese production with a local Japanese script, narration, setting, dialogue, music and styling. Only the puppets and puppeteering techniques are based in Taiwan. Thunderbolt Fantasy aired in 2016 which earned compliments from audiences all over the world who watched TBF through online

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video streaming platforms such as iQIYI, Crunchyroll and so on and especially earned highly compliments from Japanese audiences.

1.2.2 The hari craze in Taiwan

A great number of Japanese cultural products are accessible to Taiwanese audiences due to geo-cultural and historical factors. As Otmazgin stated,

Japanese comic books are routinely translated into the local languages of South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, and Taiwan, and they dominate East Asia’s comic book market. The Japanese animated characters Hello Kitty, Ampan Man, and Poke’mon are ubiquitous, depicted on licensed and unlicensed toys and stationary items in the markets of any typical Asian city. Japanese animation, usually dubbed, is the most popular in its field. (2008)

In fact, children in Taiwan mostly watch imported Japanese manga and cartoons in their early childhood. This watching habit somehow influences Taiwanese audience’s preference for Japanese products. However, in contrast it is hard to find opportunities to watch Taiwan-related programs and to find Taiwanese products in Japan.

In addition to manga and animations, Japanese “trendy dramas” are influential to the TV industry in Taiwan. As Ko (2004) states, “Originating in Japan, the so-called trendy dramas

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or (idol-dramas) have created a craze for commodities in its neighboring countries” (as cited in Huang (2011)). This phenomenon has been vividly captured by a buzz phrase Japanese-mania (hari 哈日). (p.3) Thus, due to hari, Japanese products are among the most popular for Taiwanese customers.

According to Huang (2011), owing to the popularity of Japanese media products, the Taiwanese television industry started to copy trendy dramas, thus producing domestic dramas. In particular, the contents of idol-dramas oftentimes infuse Japanese elements. The most memorable example of a Taiwanese idol-drama is the 2001 production Meteor Garden.

All elements including storyline and cast resemble Japanese trendy dramas. The story of Meteor Garden is adapted from a Japanese comic book. Furthermore, the Taiwanese version also keeps the original Japanese character names from the manga and most of the scenes are set in Japanese-style houses (p.11-12).

Meteor Garden was a rare example of a Taiwanese product which originated from Japan, but became popular in Taiwan first and was then noticed by Japanese audiences. Thus,

Thunderbolt Fantasy as a Taiwanese production which infuses Japanese elements has its potential to be attractive to Japanese audiences.

1.2.3 ACG market in Japan

Based on the 2016 Anime Industry Report of The Association of Japanese Animations

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(AJA):

The market size was 1.825 trillion yen, increasing by 12.0% year over last year, reflecting the continued rise in the sales of Internet distribution rights to China (up 78.7% over last year) and

remarkable growth of Live Entertainment market (up 68.4% over last year). (Masuda, Hikawa, Sudo, Rikukawa, Mori, & Hasegawa, 2017)

In terms of the domestic Japanese ACG (Animation, Comics and Game) market size, the chart, “Japanese animation market trends in a broad sense”, shows that the total sum of the 2015 Japan ACG market is 1.2427 trillion yen. According to the data, it records the positive growth of the ACG market for six consecutive years from 2010 to 2015 (Masuda, Hikawa, Sudo, Rikukawa, Mori, & Hasegawa, 2017).⁴

The Pili company wants to enter the Japanese ACG market by cooperating with renowned Japanese ACG celebrities and companies. However, it seems that Japanese

4 The Domestic (Japan) ACG Market size of 2015 includes TV (domestic TV revenues), Movie (domestic theatrical animation box office revenues), Video (domestic videogram animation revenues (DVD, etc. media)), Internet Distribution (domestic online animation revenues), Merchandising (domestic animation‐related merchandise revenues), Music (domestic animation‐related music revenues), Pachinko and Pachinko‐slot machine (estimated shipment value of animation character‐themed Pachinko and Pachinko‐ slot machines) &

Live Entertainment (animation‐related live‐performance, event, exhibition, and cafe revenues). The chart is

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audiences and overseas markets are already sufficient to support the whole ACG market. Is there any room for glove puppetry co-production in the Japanese ACG market?