“Point at a Deer and Call It a Horse” (指鹿为马, zhǐlùwéimǎ)

Open shows of rejoicing and Schadenfreude on Chinese language social media after a damaging magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck western Japan on New 12 months’s Day have been adopted by two new (and much sillier) incidents of xenophobic or anti-Japanese sentiment in China. The latest is the Nanning Metro “rising solar flag” fiasco. After a nationalist Douyin vlogger complained {that a} colourful new commercial on the Nanning metro system resembled the previous “rising solar” flag of the Imperial Japanese Military (旭日旗, xùrì qí in Chinese language, kyokujitsu-ki in Japanese), Nanning Metro promised to delete the offending paintings as quickly as doable and to enhance its oversight of future promoting. (The flag is deeply controversial as a consequence of its affiliation with Japan’s WWII conquest of East and Southeast Asia.) However a have a look at the whole thing of the commercial reveals that the picture isn’t a Japanese rising solar in any respect, however a standard Chinese language folding fan:

An article from WeChat account 小宋威武 (Xiǎo Sòng Wēiwǔ) notes the rise in on-line trolls making an attempt to whip up anti-Japanese or anti-foreign sentiment by means of deliberate misrepresentation (指鹿为马, zhǐlùwéimǎ, which accurately means “to level at a deer and name it a horse.”) The creator additionally writes that lately, corporations, organizations, and even native governments have change into extra fearful about offending nationalists, and are inclined to apologize and again down first, somewhat than defend their actions—even within the case of such ridiculous allegations comparable to this one.

One other incident was an announcement from the Pingyao County Tradition and Tourism Bureau that it could be prohibiting “vacationer pictures” outlets in Pingyao’s historic metropolis middle from promoting clothes from “non-Han-Chinese language” ethnic teams. A furor ensued, and the announcement was withdrawn, with one WeChat blogger suggesting that shutting down the Pingyao tourism bureau would possibly make extra sense than shutting down the sale of non-Han clothes and costumery. 

Different latest writings with reference to anti-Japanese sentiment embrace a WeChat article by Huang Zhijie evaluating 2024’s vitriolic reactions to the Japanese Noto Peninsula earthquake with the extra compassionate responses of the Chinese language authorities and citizenry a century in the past, after Japan’s Nice Kanto Earthquake of 1923. A WeChat article from the account 走读新生 (Zǒudú Xīnshēng) bemoans the pattern towards labeling Chinese language individuals “traitors” for daring to precise sympathy for Japan or the Japanese individuals. And writing for China Story, Phil Cunningham has some fascinating observations on state broadcaster CCTV’s protection of the latest earthquake in Japan, and the large hole between the way in which CCTV covers earthquakes, floods, and different pure disasters in China and different international locations:

“[I]f a China home information story can’t be spun in a optimistic path, it’s unlikely to advantage any state TV protection in any respect. The conventional guidelines of journalism merely don’t apply.

In the case of overseas protection, CCTV and different state media typically commit one thing akin to journalism, if solely opportunistically, as a result of the easiest way to buttress a worldview wherein China is sweet and the world is unhealthy is to air well-reported tales about unhealthy issues taking place around the globe.” [Source]