Sep 04, 2021 (The Times) - The Chinese authorities have shut a £928 million Japanese-themed shopping centre just two weeks after it opened after protests by locals that it represented a “cultural invasion”.
The Tang Little Kyoto project was opened to great fanfare in the northeastern port city of Dalian and had dozens of shops selling Japanese cuisine, cultural items and electronics. However, within days social media was awash with complaints over its Japanese architecture in a city that suffered under Tokyo’s imperial rule early last century.
In a video posted online a Chinese man was seen chiding shoppers for being “spineless” because they were buying Japanese products. “I just want to tell fellow countrypeople not to worship Japan,” the man said as he walked through the project’s shops.
