Is Japan the place of romance in Chinese shoujo light novels? Just as Europe was the place of romance in Japanese old-school shoujo manga?

I was browsing through a mainland Chinese bookstore and came upon a section of original Chinese shoujo light novel. I checked out some of the novels and an idea crossed my mind: Is Japan the place of romance in Chinese shoujo light novels? Just as Europe was the place of romance in Japan in old-school shoujo manga?

I say so because:

• Some of these stories are set in present-day Japan or some fictional place bearing strong resemblance to present-day Japan.
• The characters tend to have vaguely East Asian names that are conceivably Japanese as opposed to distinctly Chinese names.
• The covers and artwork that accompany these novels are the of the generic Japanese shoujo artstyle.

As I discussed in my earlier post Racial Identity in Anime, anime/manga is a medium on which issues of racial identity are projected. Europe was the stage of choice in countless old school shoujo works from The Rose of Versailles, The Poe Family, Kaze to Ki no Uta, The Window of Orpheus to Candy Candy, and it seems fair to say that there was a prevalent wishful longing (憧れ) for Europe in these works. The romance and drama in these stories all happen in Europe, or at least a fantasized or refined version of the old aristocratic Europe, at a time when the real Europe of the 60s and 70s succumbed under the fads of the Beat Generation - a cultural movement that was in many ways a backlash against tradition. The male chivalry, the feminine grace, the elevating concepts of refinement, honour and nobility that were celebrated and idealized in these shoujo manga were no more. It seems as though these shoujo manga artists longed for a Europe that no longer was (or perhaps never had been).

Returning to my question of whether Japan is the place of romance in Chinese shoujo light novels - I would probably need more time to investigate what is it about present-day Japan that these Chinese shoujo light novels long for, though I have to say at this stage that most of these light novels seem to be copycats with ideas pinched here and there from J-drama and present-day Japanese shoujo manga - in other words, the typical boy-meets-girl stuff.