Chengdu Business News
August 14, 2009

52-year-old Meng Xianqing is a Beijing-based collector. Recently, when he was showing a friend his collection, the friend's eight-year-old son saw a jade statue of a solar deity from the neolithic Hongshan culture and exclaimed, "Wow, a little Ultraman!"

Meng, who knew nothing about the popular Japanese TV character, was confused and asked what Ultraman was. The boy told him that Ultraman was a super-hero who saved the earth from monsters.

Meng logged on to the Internet and found some information about Ultraman. He was surprised to find that the Hongshan sun god did resemble Ultraman. Then he found a TV series about how the Chinese people in Henan prevented Japanese invaders from stealing Chinese national treasures during the Anti-Japanese War, and information on the auction of animal heads in Paris.

Could the Japanese have stolen some of the statues and copied them for commercial use?

Hongshan sun god and Japanese Ultraman

Xu Qiang, an expert specializing in ancient jades of the Hongshan culture, told the Chengdu Business News that historical records describe excavations conducted by Japanese archaeologists in Mongolia during the 1920s and 1930s, but there is no evidence that they found similar statues.

However, Meng believes that it is possible that TBS, which broadcast the Ultraman series, was inspired by the Hongshan sun god when they designed Ultraman in 1965.

"I couldn't contact the designer of the Ultraman," said Meng. "Additional research is needed to reach any conclusions."