For a special group of people in China, the influence of the Transformers is quite out of the ordinary.
This group was born between the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Transformer TV cartoon series was irreplaceable entertainment for them in their childhood. As the first generation under the one child policy, they had no brothers or sisters, and most of their spare time was spent sitting in front of a TV set which may have even been black and white.
At that time, Tangram (七巧板) was a typical “mainstream” kids program on CCTV. It taught kids how to do simple paper folding and sing children’s songs – all the TV station cared about were the educational aspects of the programming.
Then the Transformers arrived, greeted by surprise and wild enthusiasm. Now, with those kids all grown up, they will take their own children, wives (they were mostly boys), and childhood memories and flock to the cinemas to see the new movie.
That’s why the Transformers is much more influential in China than it is in the United States, says New Century Weekly in its cover feature.