Image of Anti-Japan

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Anti-Japan

In August 2017, four Chinese men dressed in Second World War Japanese
military uniforms posed at the Continental Bank Warehouse in Shanghai
where Chinese troops fought the Japanese imperial army in 1937. In February 2018, two different men, also in Japanese military garb, struck various poses in front of a memorial site on Zijin Mountain in Nanjing where
Chinese civilians were murdered by the Japanese army, also in 1937. The
images went viral and predictably garnered strong and mostly negative
reactions from netizens and unleashed a flood of criticisms against these
youths in both mainstream and new media. The situation has escalated
to the extent that China’s top legislative body, citing the Zijin case as an
example, is proposing a “heroes and martyrs protection law” to punish
people who “glorify wars or acts of invasion.” Even the Chinese foreign
minister, Wang Yi, joined the fray by calling them “scums among the Chinese people” (Huang 2018). What upsets the netizens and politicians alike,
I surmise, is not only that these men dressed up as Japanese soldiers but
also that they deliberately posed in front of memorial sites of Japanese
aggression and Chinese resistance that formed the foundation of postwar
anti-Japanism.

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Detail Information
Series Title
-
Call Number
303.4825052 CHI a
Publisher
Durham, NC : Duke University Press.,
Collation
176p
Language
English
ISBN/ISSN
9781478001881
Classification
303.4825052
Content Type
-
Media Type
-
Carrier Type
-
Edition
-
Subject(s)
anti-Japanism
pro-Japanism
sentimentality; reconciliation; intimacy
Specific Detail Info
-
Statement of Responsibility
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No other version available

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  • Anti-Japan
    In August 2017, four Chinese men dressed in Second World War Japanese military uniforms posed at the Continental Bank Warehouse in Shanghai where Chinese troops fought the Japanese imperial army in 1937. In February 2018, two different men, also in Japanese military garb, struck various poses in front of a memorial site on Zijin Mountain in Nanjing where Chinese civilians were murdered by the Japanese army, also in 1937. The images went viral and predictably garnered strong and mostly negative reactions from netizens and unleashed a flood of criticisms against these youths in both mainstream and new media. The situation has escalated to the extent that China’s top legislative body, citing the Zijin case as an example, is proposing a “heroes and martyrs protection law” to punish people who “glorify wars or acts of invasion.” Even the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, joined the fray by calling them “scums among the Chinese people” (Huang 2018). What upsets the netizens and politicians alike, I surmise, is not only that these men dressed up as Japanese soldiers but also that they deliberately posed in front of memorial sites of Japanese aggression and Chinese resistance that formed the foundation of postwar anti-Japanism.
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