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Introduction: “Peaceful Rise”vs.“Beautiful Japan” The idea for this book came to me in a rather random way. In December 2006, a news story, “Dragon May No Longer Fit to Serve as China’s Sym­ bol,” caught my attention. Professor Wu Youfu, also the party general sec­ retary of the Shanghai Foreign Studies University, was urging the Chinese government to consider a new national symbol to replace the dragon—a mythical creature widely used by Chinese and foreigners alike to symbol­ ize China. Wu contended that “dragons are perceived as domineering and aggressive giants in the Western world.” To associate China with such an image might hurt the credibility of China’s “peaceful rise” thesis. Wu also urged his Chinese compatriots to reconsider calling themselves long de chuan ren (dragon’s descendants), a term made popular by a 1980s hit song.1 The article, once posted on the Internet, attracted countless visits. In fact, its controversy convinced QQ, China’s most popular instant mes­ saging provider and a major infotainment Web portal, to set up a forum, “So—We Are No Longer Dragon’s Descendants?” The majority of those who weighed in sounded critical of Wu’s idea. Han Han, a young anti­ establishment writer of a widely read blog, argued sarcastically that if “abil­ ity to please” was to be the prime quality of China’s national mascot, a golden retriever would be an excellent choice.2 Whatever their point of view regarding the dragon, Chinese leaders find animal­related metaphors attractive. At his 2005 annual press con­ ference, for example, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao likened China to a “friendly elephant” (though that animal is a traditional symbol of India).3 The creature’s gigantic yet placatory posture makes it an ideal candidate for China’s charm incarnation. 2 japan and china as charm rivals For whatever reasons, the dragon was not chosen as the mascot for the Beijing Olympics. In late 2008, with the Hollywood animated movie Kung Fu Panda chopping up box offices everywhere and two pandas delivered to Taiwan, the debate picked up new momentum. In an article published by numerous media outlets, Yuan Yue, a popular Shanghai Television talk show host and the CEO of a major polling organization, proposed the panda as China’s new national symbol.Yuan praised pandas for being “cuddly,”“cute,” and “basically having no negative connotations,” whereas dragons looked “imperial and aggressive.”4 The online responses, however, showed the pub­ lic far less enthusiastic about calling themselves “panda’s descendants.”5 Beijing probably will not officially enshrine an animal as China’s state mascot any time soon. In fact, media outlets choose to go after such stories at least in part because of their sensational component.6 However, there is no doubt that the Chinese government has been attempting to project a nonthreatening image to the rest of the world. On various international occasions, Chinese leaders have made frequent references to the country’s “peaceful rise [heping jueqi],” a concept first coined by the former vice pres­ ident of the Chinese Communist Party School, Zheng Bijian. Realizing that the word rise still bears a sense of forcefulness and thus is not reassur­ ing enough, the Information Office of the Chinese State Council formally changed the term to “peaceful development [heping fazhan]” in a December 2005 government white paper.7 As I began to trace signs of China’s campaign to refurbish its official and anecdotal image, stories about another country’s similar efforts entered my vision. At about the same time that Chinese netizens were debating which creature was most qualified to symbolize their country, an annual review of the year’s best­selling books in Japan showed that a political book, Utsukushi kuni he (Toward a Beautiful Nation), was in fourth place.8 The author, Abe Shinzo, became prime minister in September 2006. At the age of fifty­ two, he was the youngest politician to assume this post in postwar Japanese history. With his popularity rate at over 70 percent and his book sitting atop the charts, the nation apparently had high expectations for this young and aspiring politician. Even Pupu, a brand of ice cream that Abe claimed to crave, saw its sales grow.9 Abe’s tenure, however, turned out to be a chain of disasters. One minis­ ter took his own life, a few others resigned amid scandal, and most signifi­ cantly, in what political scientist Gerald Curtis has termed Abe’s Hurricane Katrina, social...

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