According to Bilibili, over 60 events concerning anime culture, including comic and game conventions, concerts and other minor gatherings, were delayed and canceled all around China. On BiliBili’s ticketing platform, hundreds of search results of anime conventions planned for Summer 2022 show a “canceled” status.
Many events planned for this summer are now cancelled
Bilibili’s 18th Comic Dawn was planned to be hosted in Nanjing on July 17. The event was named “Summer Festival”, sharing the name with traditional Japanese summer celebrations, and has stirred a huge wave of protest. Since the Chinese name for the convention borrows from the Japanese Kanji and its meaning, many people are outraged and argue that this anime festival held only 12 kilometers away from The Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, on the 85th anniversary of the Massacre, is culturally insensitive. Bilibili quickly canceled all planned events in response to the protests.
However, the rage against the comic cons did not stop at Nanjing; almost all anime-related events on Bilibili’s ticketing platform have been targeted by protestors, despite many of them having no correlation with Bilibili. Affected event organizers are delaying or canceling their plans, as one of the workers in Shandong Buyihou Hotel, where a comic agent attempted to organize a summer festival, claimed, “we have contacted the comic agent to cancel the event after knowing the meaning of ‘summer festival’. The price they paid isn't worth the risk of ruining our own reputation.”
Source: Weibo