China, then under the Qing Dynasty, was defeated by Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894??5. China was forced to cede Taiwan to the Japanese, and to recognize the independence of Korea in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Qing Dynasty was on the brink of collapse from internal revolts and foreign imperialism, while Japan had emerged as a great power through its effective measures of modernization.

Japanese often mocked Chinese between the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the end of World War II. The Chinese were seen as culturally backward and objects of derision.