Most of Chinese/Korean novels have strong racist/nationalistic tendencies, Japanese novels too, but a bit lighter. They formed an interesting triangular relationship with every country trying to throw some shit on top of other two. I'm kinda curious if any reader actually managed to open his blinded eyes and realize all the greatness of JP/CN/KR that's surpassing heavens and outshining stars? The crux of the matter is that all the racist/nationalistic things, more often than not, expressed in childish/silly ways. Authors don't make any persuasive statements/arguments that praise their own country, they don't even try to accentuate their own advantages and simply rage like 'HOW DARE YOU FUKERS CLAIM THIS AND THAT?'. Authors from country X will try to paint countries Y and Z as negative as possible, and authors from Y/Z will do the same. As a result, I, as an innocent bystander from country 'L', can say that I don't understand anything in their conflict anymore. At first I've tried to understand something a bit seriously, but after reading too much novels from all the three countries I simply don't care and ignore all the occasional self-praise/hate in novels and don't know what's the truth. Also, like trying to add a bit more spice to already chaotic situation, a lot of authors actually slap their own nationalistic faces pretty hard. I'm talking about usual course of events and how cliche arcs are written in web novels. Probably everyone has seen it. You know how the international events/competitions arcs are placed in the later parts of novels? And how it progress? A level 80 finger-biting grandmaster protagonist will be too op by this time in the story. So he will ignore the event or be absent for the first part of the arc for some reason. It's safe to say that mc will never appear first! The first to go will be his pig-like teammates. And they will always suffer a crushing defeat/humiliation. Like a true hero that arrives late, MC will rush to save face the day. That's fucking right! Until overpowered MC with cheat/system arrives, there will be no way to dominate the world competition! Was anyone impressed? After reading web novels did your opinion about these countries improved? My own impression of them only became a bit worse in the end. They were trying their best in order to show each others' dirty underwear after all.
I just wouldn't read those kinds of novels in the first place I'd get bored of the plot real quick tbh. I don't think reading those would worsen my opinion of the countries themselves though, since I don't think some online webnovels represent the country as a whole.
Well, isn't that how most nations work? They indoctrinate their citizens— some more than the others, some more subtly than the rest— and the people, including authors, only echo these sentiments and help in propagating this propaganda wave. I try to stay away from those kinds of works, but even when I happen to chance upon any with mild racism, I don't usually take umbrage because I know it's written with their own countries' readers in mind.
I kind of turn my brain off when reading and to be honest, seeing these nationalistic things always makes me laugh out loud. For example at the first few chapters where the MC will beat the shit out of his own fellow countrymen and declare "every man for himself", then comes a gaijin/ foreigner and suddenly their national anthem plays and "FOR THE MOTHER/ FATHERLAND!!!!" Yup. The only time when the white and black stops beating each other is when the green joins in and the two shake hands to beat up the foreigner, nothing brings peace to conflict by extending that conflict outside of the national border.
I dont think my opinion of their politics changed much, it was pretty low from the get go. But I guess I am more fond of chinese mythology (I mainly read CN novels) But its worth pointing out that the self propaganda seams silly because you are reading all 3 sides. Normally you only get one side and that is how you can get fed info that changes your opinion. Like the US does the same thing but it doesn't feel silly because most americans only see the US media. Assuming youve seen some American action or adventure movies, there is plenty of propaganda. Take the russians, there are not many good guys who are Russian in American cinema (the closest you'll get is the friendly ex-spy or mob member) bc that doesnt follow the propaganda America spreads.
NU readers aren't racist, those who read those novels written by biggots don't care about it, I believe even if CN novel was racist towards Koreans and Japanese, Chinese readers themselves wouldn't be racist, just have very low standards for reading... I've read a lot of I'm really a Superstar, and God and Devil World. Minor racism by itself didn't make me drop them, it was realizing those novels are crap.
I don't think I ever read a novel where I started seeing racism directed at anything except fictional races (like, Human Supremacists VS Beastmen and stuff like that)... I think I'd probably drop things pretty quickly if there were racist characters in it.
I'm not sure if it counts as racism if they aren't different races though? Mainly, they've had wars with each other for thousands of years and its been deeply ingrained in their culture by now. If you dig into what the Japanese did in China during the 1930's and 40's for example, you would find plenty of reasons of irrational hatred. I do admit it can be a little strange to read but I just go with it if the rest of the story is good. Of course, for CN novels you also have their ministry of whatever dictating how much nationalist stuff must be put into a story in order for it to be published, so there is also that (also why they can't refer to countries by name sometimes, mention certain words, etc).
it's like there is a two sides of the same it's very similar but to me in the end it's a novel and in a literature types you can glorify a thing or make a thing look bad
Necro? Every country is the same...don't think America is a saint in any way...its just the predecessor of china... Even small countries have their own way to degrade their rivaling countries...it's to create a herd mentality of morally justified hate.
No politics!... oh wait, that wasn't politics that was art imitating real life. You might be reading it unintentionally! lol. For example, Captain America.... that guy is just a walking brand endorsement, but people are so used to him that the fact that he was WWII propaganda goes under the radar.
The only reason why people are willing to turn a blind eye of his propaganda state is because he (and Superman) represents the values of what America upholds and had been seen denouncing the govt during the Watergate incident. So yeah, he is the idealistic version of USA, just that we have to deal with the realistic issues.
I mean it sorta makes sense. Those countries are right next to each other and have a lot of bad history together (espcially japan...). Plus I've heard in china (and I wouldn't be surprised if this extended to other asian countries), light/stereotypicalracism is very common. They may not hate another race but they belive they're all just the stereotypes.
the concept of "race" is quite honestly outdated and obsolete. I would still call it "racism", simply by the virtue that they have different ethnicities. Not to mention the historical, cultural, and linguistic differences.
Yeah I get that but, imagine what a Chinese would think if he watched it? Americans know he does not represent all of America but someone half a planet away might not be so generous in his assessment. And vice versa when Americans watch Chinese propagandistic movies. Which ironically is mostly about bashing Japan. lol. Some things get lost in the translation when shipped across half a planet.
Reading a lot fo chinese novels really hammered home the idea of "Propaganda can be everywhere". My view on chinese novels have dropped to literally like low garbage existence level. Korean novels show this really fucking weirdchamp idea that south korea is just a small usa with like weird shit. But jesus the worst of em all is japanese novels. I've seen a shit ton of mc's go to a different world/time and cook a japanese dish and everyone freaks out...kinda weird the first time. Then the mc somehow somewhere finds a katana or something related to japan that can defeat all of the european-esque different world citizens. Also, seen some shit where they just show old europe as absolute dog shit. I love europe slander but jp novels really take the cake with the whole "their food tastes like dry feathers covered in bird shit after it was boiled in period blood."
Ok but you can't beat this one Chinese mtl that said " Then he went to Los Angeles, the capital of China"
this cat watch enuf hollywood propaganda so.... kinda get used to it~ murica is da savior! russian is evil! too many such stuff nyahahaha!
I dropped God and Devil world before it really got into any racism. The problem was the author seemed to paint every male Chinese as either a rapist, wannabe rapist(just lacking power/opportunity), or future minion for the MC. All Chinese women were either angels for the MC to get, sluts, or gold diggers, just plain stupid, or unlucky rape victims. After reading a bunch of post apocalyptic novels, so many Chinese authors seem hate Chinese people far more than foreigners.