A Study of the Pirated Distribution of Japanese Variety Shows in China and the Chinese Audience --Take the Chinese Special Episodes of Monday Late Show as an Example

Abstract

In today’s cultural global village, Japanese variety shows have always had a large audience on Chinese networks, among which Monday Late Show has a group of loyal Chinese fans. This study investigates the process of the distribution of Monday Late Show’s Chinese special in China by analyzing the three dimensions of the viewers (university students), the producers of the content (Chinese producers of the Chinese special episodes), and the intermediary of the cross-cultural distribution (subtitle groups). The study found that Chinese producers, Chinese viewers and the subtitle team formed an organic link from bottom to top. Viewers interacted with the producers and the subtitle team through social networks and provided suggestions and feedback on the content of the programme, participating in the production of the Chinese special episodes in real-time. However, the subtitle team still acted as an intermediary in the dissemination of the pirated version of the programme, the invisible recognition of the producers reflected the helplessness of the Japanese officials who had a weak awareness of the copyrights in the Chinese market. In the future, there is still a need to raise Chinese viewers’ awareness of copyright and strengthen intellectual property protection to promote the dissemination of Japanese variety shows through legal channels in China and the healthy development of cross-cultural exchanges.