Ay Caramba! The Simpsons in Sanlitun?

Hey Sanlitun: Eat my shorts!

That's right, our fair city is rumored to be the spot for Planet Earth's first The Simpsons retail store come March.

Bart Simpson and his yellow-complexioned family are rumored to be coming to life in the form of endless merchandise that planners hope will be snapped up en masse by Chinese fans of the series. A Shanghai branch is set to debut in June.

Chinese customers will now have an official store in which to snuggle Bart dolls, examine nutrition labels on Krusty the Clown-themed cereal, try on t-shirts, and measure up cell phone cases and other such merchandise inspired by the wildly popular American cartoon that is now in its 27th season.

On Tuesday afternoon the BBC ran an article about the opening, questioning why parent company 20th Century Fox Consumer Products decided to unveil its flagship Simpsons store in the PRC, of all places.

It may seem like a puzzling move to some because the long-running cartoon has frequently poked fun at China (for the un-initiated, there are no sacred cows in The Simpsons), and it has only recently been part of the filmed entertainment landscape via Mandarin-captioned episodes streaming on Sohu (the most current season) and archives covering most of the seasons on iqiyi.

However, 20th Century Fox has perhaps been inspired by the approximately 48,000 branded items that appear on a Taobao search for Simpsons, and the success local brand New Project Center has had with its Simpsons co-branded apparel.
 

China's not been all that receptive to primetime, adult-oriented cartoons either, going so far as to ban the Simpson family and its brethren from airwaves in 2006. At the time, officials said they were prohibiting the wackily irreverent series as part of an effort to "protect local animators" while also bolstering Chinese content. Other critics also surmised that the series' fearless cultural and political skewering was likely deemed too sensitive by Chinese censors.
 

While the BBC raised doubts about the The Simpsons' Chinese business potential – citing cynical neitzen posts such as: "(It) isn't cool enough. It doesn't have any good looking characters ..." – China Daily had a much more optimistic take. That piece pointed out that Chinese consumers are receptive to many a pop culture merchandising frenzy, even without a long history of the characters. Case in point: Star Wars, which sold USD 30 billion-worth of merchandise in China between 2013 and 2014 alone, long before its latest sequel was ever screened in the PRC. 

That sentiment is echoed by several experts, who say Simpsons iconography should fare well here even without the mass following that it boasts Stateside. Darren Gan – who learned about the business potential of unfamiliar foreign brands while handling PR for the The Place's mammoth new Star Trek exhibit – says The Simpsons' subversive sense of humor is unlikely to be a big draw in the PRC, compared to its North American audience but adds that Chinese consumers could be attracted to the series' simpler pleasures. "It's very cool, visually," he says, adding that the animators' distinctive "colors and images will catch people's attention the first time they see them." 
 

Stella Sun – a pop culture writer for the Chinese outlet Guokr – agrees that The Simpsons should have a major novelty factor when the new Sanlitun shop begins its promotional blitz. But she's hesitant about its long-term prospects, saying the series reached its peak in global popularity "before Chinese people got interested in foreign shows and cartoons. I honestly don't know if it can beat a shop with a trendier cartoon theme, like Rick and Morty, right now." Still, she was surprised to see that, as of January 27, The Simpsons had 12,198 comments on Chinese ticketing and pop culture site Douban, compared to Rick and Morty's 7,216. That leads her to wonder if Homer and co. have a far bigger presence than newer, flashier cartoons, saying: "It's a lot more popular than Adventure Time on Douban, or even Futurama."

That potential promise seems to outweigh the risks for the heads of Fox, who are no doubt hoping the shenanigans of Springfield's most notorious family will be as ubiquitous on Chinese apparel and accessories as Doraemon, Hello Kitty, and other foreign brands. But Chinese consumers are, of course, much more familiar with, and can easily to relate to, such Japanese icons. Without long-held nostalgia for the vast range of Simpsons characters, only time will tell whether this American stalwart catches on or leave Fox executives shouting "D'oh!" in Homer-esque despair.

Photos: BBC, Weibo, NPC