Chinese state media outlets issued scathing condemnations of Sanrio, the Japanese company behind characters such as Hello Kitty and Kuromi, on Thursday after the company announced a collaboration with a Japanese television drama the Communist Party deemed offensive.
\n\nThe collaboration did not appear to be targeting Chinese consumers, as the Communist Party has used its media arms to categorically condemn the fictional series for its depiction of Chinese spies as violent. Nonetheless, the state-run newspaper Global Times claimed that Sanrio was allowing Hello Kitty and its other characters to be used to spread messaging tied to “Japan’s right-wing forces” and spreading an “anti-China narrative.”
\n\nThe Hello Kitty controversy follows an active week for Chinese transnational censorship of pop culture figures after French soccer star Kylian Mbappé faced Beijing regime condemnation and the loss of sponsorships over accurately referring to communist mass murderer Mao Zedong as a “dictator.” Mbappé was referring to Mao in the context of humorous online memes in which he, personally, was portrayed as a “dictator” on his team, often illustrated in the traditional clothing associated with various historical villains. Mbappé subsequently issued an apology to the Chinese people.
\n\nSimilarly, Sanrio announced on Thursday it would no longer…
Original source: https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/
