Forum - View topicNEWS: Coro Coro Comic Magazine Pulls March Issue After Controversial Genghis Khan Art
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13615 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Ironic that many Mongolians are offended by a depiction of a famous Mongolian who has scores of descendants and that Shueisha was acting foolishly with the PC mentality.
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Huh, that's interesting, but it makes sense considering Japan's geographical proximity to Mongolia. That being said, it's even closer to China, where Genghis Khan is largely seen as history's worst villain, worse than Adolf (considering he was always attacking parts of China, this makes sense).
For anyone who isn't aware of this, Genghis Khan is seen as an almost godlike figure, the greatest thing to have ever graced the land. He is universally considered within Mongolia as someone to respect and admire, and they are frequently building new statues of him and naming things after him. The capital city of Ulaanbataar, which is home to almost half of Mongolia's population, means "Red Hero" in Mongolian--it's a compromise between Mongolian history (the "hero" refers to Genghis himself) and the Soviets who had taken over the country at that time (the "red" refers to the communist regime), as the city had simply been called "Bataar" in the past (that is, just "Hero"). Considering the two countries have opposite views of this man, there is always a lot of dispute whenever his name or likeness comes up near the China-Mongolia border. It is easy to say that the Mongolians and/or Shueisha should chill out, but, well, as the saying goes, it's easier said than done: It can be quite hard to do that when you've been raised to see such a depiction as shown in the manga as blasphemy. It is no different a reaction than if devout Christians were to see the same thing, only with Genghis Khan substituted with Jesus. That is, what I'm saying is that though I do find it as an overreaction, I'm an outsider to it all and can't really understand how a native Mongolian might feel, just an explanation on it. However, I do think that joke in the manga was in rather poor taste, and any number of better gags could have been done in its place. |
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OjaruFan
Posts: 60 |
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Kadmos1 and leafy sea dragon, Shogakukan publishes Coro Coro Comic, not Shueisha.
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jr240483
Posts: 4447 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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well if this was released in the west, no one would bat an eye. for while Genghis Khan is considered to be an iconic war hero and strategist in the pacific countries, here in the west he's pretty much a big time war criminal and his atrocities have more or less put even worse barbarians like Stalin and Hitler combined to shame. and that is no exaggeration! |
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ChibiGoku
Posts: 686 |
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Err... Technically, yes, it's published by Shueisha. They're owned by the same parent company. They also have a join Licensing and Production Studio called Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. So the statement isn't technically wrong. |
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Ushio
Posts: 635 |
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So what next we are going to stop mocking Stalin or Mao because Russia and China complain?
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Based on my experiences as an American (and thus far away from any part of the Mongol Empire), there's a more neutral opinion of Genghis Khan. It's universally agreed that he was a very talented conqueror, a smart and interesting man, and someone to be remembered, but negative and positive depictions of him seem to show up equally frequently in popular culture. Same goes for the Mongols in general--they run the gamut from the villainous army (such as in Mulan or The Shadow) to restaurant chain mascots (stop by a mall aorund here and odds are you'll find a Great Khan's Mongolian BBQ restaurant). For the record, Extra History is doing a video series on Genghis Khan right now.
Hey now, it's not yet time to bring out the strawmen. |
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