I think it's because the author is Japanese, so this cartoon was shot by Japanese. I think many viewers have this idea. If they didn't watch the animation on TV at that time, because OP and ED are both in Japanese, if they don't watch it carefully, not only the story background, but also the names of China people (except the protagonist and his family, all of which are of the same brand), they can all think that it is a domestic animation. At that time, the only way to understand it was through TV. Many people can't view information online. Many people mistakenly think that it is a domestic animation or a co-production between China and Japan.

The original name of "Little Master China" is "China". Etsushi Ogawa himself likes China culture and Chinese food. Later, he consulted many books about China's cooking before he started to create the cartoon "The Story of China". It can be said that the creation of this cartoon is largely due to the author's preference, and it is also the first creation of the cooking competition. Comic books were serialized from 1995 to 1999. At that time, the theme of domestic animation was fairy tales and children's stories.

It is difficult to create animation on this theme. Although China also had cooking animation later, it was hard to compare with A China Story. There is a big gap between the story and the painter. Therefore, it is understandable that Japanese cartoonists created the theme of "China", which is a kind of China culture. We can't stop people from building it just because China can't. As it turns out, this cartoon was serialized and adapted into an animation, which was very popular. Many viewers still think this is a very classic children's animation.

More importantly, Japanese creators at that time were no longer limited to exploring Japanese cultural themes, but combined elements and contents outside Japan to create. Of course, such creation also requires a lot of cultural knowledge and efforts, so it is not surprising that Japan can create such works first. Today, the number of cartoons and animations related to China's traditional culture and myths is increasing gradually, so it is a waste not to dig and create them. So I think this cartoon was shot by Japanese, because the author is Japanese.