Chinese interest in Star Wars dwarfed by buzz in Japan and Korea ahead of premiere

Space opera franchise is admittedly fairly new to Chinese cinema-goers, but web chatter in Japan ahead of today’s opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was way higher than in China

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Japanese artist Taro Yamamoto's artwork, in which he substituted Star Wars’ Rey and droid BB-8 for Fujin, the Wind God, and the deadly Kylo Ren for Raijin, the Thunder God. Armed with lightsabres, they float on wispy clouds hovering over a stunning golden foil backdrop as they prepare to duel to the death.

Published: 12:37pm, 17 Dec 2015Updated: 12:37pm, 17 Dec 2015

The Force may be awakening in China, but online chatter about the new Star Wars film was muted there ahead of the space blockbuster’s premiere.

Social media intelligence company Lamplight Analytics tracked online buzz about the film in China, Japan and South Korea in the first week of December. Chatter about Star Wars: The Force Awakens was minimal in China, it says.

“The level of conversation in China was just a third of that in South Korea, while Japanese social media users had three times as many online conversations as South Korean and Chinese users combined,” says Nomfundo Msomi, Lamplight’s Hong Kong-based marketing manager.

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China Star Wars “ambassador” and singer Lu Han’s song, The Inner Force, caused periodic spikes in conversation, as did imported toys and merchandise – indicating the interest could be speculative, says the company, which mines 20 million data sources. Most chat took place on Weibo and in blogs and forums, with the biggest debate focusing on whether it would make a breakthrough like it has elsewhere in the world.