“Therapeutic and Inspiring”—Japanese Pop Culture in PRC and the Issue of Asian Modernity

Drawing on empirical focus group discussions and historical document analysis, this chapter intends to inquire about how young Chinese audiences’ reception of Japanese pop culture enhances their cultural imagination in a rapidly globalized world. The chapter argues that the reception process functions as an effective way of self-expression and escapism from the hardship of real life. Through engaging in Japanese media culture, Chinese fans not only actuate a deep reflection on their own society, but also form an imaginary cultural identity that negotiates through the political and social constraints of the Chinese society. Accordingly, the reception process is a site of contestation, negotiation, and even resistance, in which transnationalism triumphs and a cross-border Asian modernity is in the making.