A Japanese textbook (previously covered here and here) has recieved international criticism for allegedly covering up history. Having lived in Japan and traveled across China, this has seemed strange to me. The textbook may not appeal to some. But the average Japanese citizen can rationally discuss history and can agree or disagree with you on certain aspects of history. The same discussion with most Chinese citizens comes with emotional outrage and moral outrage, regardless of the topic of discussion—Taiwan, World War II, Japan, Mao Zedong, the Serbian Embassy Bombing Incident, the Hainan Island Incident, etc etc. My time in China has left me with the belief that China’s economic growth isn’t scary, but the mentality of its people is.
Which is why I was rather pleased to read the following critical introspective (via ESWN) by the “Freezing Point” weekly supplement of the China Youth Daily. Abridged:
The humiliation from the insults and injuries [of recent history] gave the Chinese people a new momentum in thinking. This is shown over the long-term in the form of a specious concept: since the “foreign devils” are the invaders, the Chinese are justified and praised in whatever they do. This is required by patriotism. [China’s] current history textbooks are using this concept to guide thinking.There are two ways to love our country. One way is to inflame nationalistic passions. Traditional Chinese culture had deeply ingrained ideas such as “Chinese and foreigners are different” and “if you not my kind, then your loyalties must be opposite to mine.” Our thinking is still poisoned by them today. The latest edition is this: if there is a conflict between China and others, then China must be right; patriotism means opposing the other powers and the foreigners. In the selection and presentation of historical materials, we will only use those that favor China whether they are true or false. The other choice is this: we analyze everything rationally; if it is right, it is right and if it is wrong, it is wrong; calm, objective and wholly regard and handle all conflicts with the outside.
In order to cultivate modern citizens with rational thoughts based upon the rule of law for the modernization project, now is the moment to correct those errors.
Read the whole thing here. To me, it’s a smart introspection into today’s China. Overcoming the resentmentful xenophobia that has become a critical compenent of contemporary Chinese nationalism is the biggest hurdle to Beijing’s 21st century ambitions.
What was the reaction to this article? The former Ministry of Propaganda forced the supplement to shut down. Reading the news articles makes it pretty clear why—the publication of “some sensitive reports,” specifically the one excerpted above. The reasons?
They have to correct the publication thinking behind Freezing Point Weekly; increase awareness of political ideology, awareness of the larger picture and sense of responsiblity; rigorously follow the news propaganda discipline; insist on the correct direction of opinion. After the related reorganization work is completed and the errors are corrected, Freezing Point may re-publish again.
So there we have it: any introspection, any criticism of China today and you’re an imperialist running dog in need of awareness, a correct direction of opinion, a greater awareness of political ideology, or said otherwise, old-fashioned Communist reeducation. The publisher has refused to apologize, and the paper has folded.
Article author Profesor Yuan Weishi had this to say about the target of his essay.
Reporter: The world thinks that the sentence in your essay :”We grew up drinking wolf milk” crossed the line for hinting that the Communist Party are the wolves.Yuan: You are simplifying the problem that way. The “wolf” in the essay refers to a certain xenophobia among the Chinese since the 19th century. It is a certain narrow nationalism. It is a thought process that wants to make the class struggle expansive, absolute and unilaterial. I am not pointing at the Communist Party. I was talking about the thought process that wants to use simplified concepts to describe history in order to harm people.
Sounds good to me. Just don’t try to tell that to anyone in China.
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Comments to this entry
Dan
January 29, 2006
2:41 pm
What's also scary is the ability of poliitcally motivated Chinese to criticize the party, while acting as mouthpieces of the party.
Example
Person 1: "The Communist Party is corrupt and maybe not good for China."
Person 2: "I agree."
Person 1: "But they are needed to stand up to dangerous cults, like Falun Gong."
Person 2: ?!
Person 1: "The Communist Party is good for peace, because it unifies Chinese in China and Taiwan, because all Taiwanese hate Japan too."
Person 2: ?!
Plunge
January 29, 2006
4:22 pm
I wonder at this considering how the best selling books at the end of last year were a series of comics degrading towards China and Korea as well as dismissive towards the past (see evil) actions of Japan.
While 99.9% of students might not have read the history book, they made up for it with the comic. Out of these two books, which is a kid mostly likely to remember, the boring text or the exciting comic?
Nick
January 29, 2006
4:34 pm
Korean (South) nationalism seems to be every much if not more xenophobic and paranoid than Chinese nationalism.
GI Korea
January 29, 2006
4:57 pm
However, Japan is not alone in distorting history because the Koreans and Chinese do the same thing to a limited extent in their textbooks, but what is different about Japan is that they were the aggressor during the war and memories run deep in Northeast Asia. Any perceived distortion of history or perceived lack of accepting responsibility for the many attrocities committed by Japan will used by the Chinese and Korean governments to incite nationalism to obscure their own governments failings.
So there is plenty of blame in both the Korean and Chinese governments for inciting xenophobic nationalism but Japan is as much to blame for it as well with the examples Plunge and I cited that keeps providing fuel for the xenophobic nationalism.
Mike
January 29, 2006
5:49 pm
That said, the CCP is a retarded political dinosaur and they'll inflame the issue anytime they need a distraction. But there are plenty of Chinese people who I know personally who do not look at the issue in such stark terms. They are the minority, but they are also among the educated elite. The question is whether their voices will count or not under the current leadership.
Plunge
January 29, 2006
8:28 pm
With that caveat, what I wrote above applies.
Chirol
January 29, 2006
8:53 pm
Grant
January 29, 2006
9:45 pm
You can't tell an Irish man walking down the street from an English man but that doesn't keep them from finding reasons for killing each other. The same is true of Shiites and Sunis in Iraq or any number of other groups in the world who are only separated by a language or a religious belief. People who were once part of the same group often separate and learn to hate each other afterward.
And once they start hating each other, there is no end to the nasty things they can do to each other, which only brings on more hatred and perpetuates a vicisous cycle of hatred and revenge.
The twisting of history is a means of justifying what lies just beneath the surface of their interactions with each other. I remember seeing it in comic books and movies during world war two. The old propaganda machine ground out stories making comic villains of Germans and Japanese, turning people of every country into good guys and bad guys which we were encouraged to love and hate, respectively.
Now, in my lifetime, I've seen the roles reversed time and again. We loved the Russians and good old "Uncle Joe" when we fought along side them to destroy Hitlers legions and immediately afterward hated them for being minions of Joseph Stalin and the communist regime.
It's always governments that try to control and direct our feelings about our neighbors so they can use them to carry out whatever schemes they have going at the moment. Individuals usually seem more rational in their feelings. They usually have less of an axe to grind.
darin
January 29, 2006
10:38 pm
Plunge, you apparently haven't read those comic books in question. See, Japanese have this great ability to read something for themselves and then decide. It's really quite amazing -- I would recommend you try it some time. Just because something sells well doesn't mean it's good, it means it's controversial. That's why I have all the Kobayashi Yoshinori comics, one must know the enemy. Books on Mao are best sellers around the world, in Plunge's world that would mean that the whole world loves Mao. Fortunately we live in the real world...
Elizabeth
January 30, 2006
4:24 am
China is the jingoistic and bad for its xenophobia, but a Japanese textbook glossing over their role as agressor and perpetrator of atrocities during WWII "may not appeal"?
Is this because Japan is an ally in the war on terror (they have fewer troops here than Germany, but I don't see anybody on this website complaining- interesting)?
It seems that it's not only East Asians who are the xenophobic nationalists.
Joe
January 30, 2006
5:13 am
Curzon
January 30, 2006
6:45 am
Referring to your comment in the other post, I see Japan as an fascist-imperialist power, not one guilty of genocide, thus I find comparisons with Nazi Germany inappropriate. (Comparisons with WWII Italy are more reasonable.)
darin
January 30, 2006
6:52 am
During the anti-Japan Chinese riots last year, does anyone else remember seeing signs that said "攞”ºÃ¥”ºÂ½Ã§”žÂ¡Ã§Â½Âª" (Loving your country is not a crime) or "抗日朔°Ã§Â?” ã€Â?攞”ºÃ¥”ºÂ½Ã§”žÂ¡Ã§Â½Âª" (Hating Japan is rational"”?loving your country is not a crime; basically meaning that hating Japan and loving your country are the same thing therefore barbarous acts are excusable and even expected).
("source":http://tinyurl.com/7w3ls -- The wikipedia entry does have a warning about neutrality in it, but upon checking the notes you will see that the part that is in dispute is about the use of slogans during the cultural revolution)
China has attempted to use this same logic to better relations with Taiwan by saying things to the effect of, "as Chinese, our Taiwan comrades also naturally hate Japan", except it didn't work at all and backfired because Taiwan petty much is in love with Japan, so if being Chinese means hating Japan, then Japan loving Taiwan clearly isn't Chinese.
Elizabeth
January 30, 2006
9:16 am
Also- depends what you mean by "gloss". I didn't mean lie about or omit- I meant keeping off the rough edges making less ugly, which is more or less true.
DBm
February 1, 2006
8:47 pm
Darin,
you misinterpret the statement, it is resisting Japan is rational, not hating, it was a slogan during the WW2.
davesgonechina
February 1, 2006
11:06 pm
Yuan Weishi's article nails it when he says xenophobic nationalism, based on a history of humiliation, came up in the 19th century and has stuck with China since through every major political movement. I'd point out, however, that his attitude has a great deal more support amongst Chinese intellectuals and elites than they are often given credit for. The propaganda department, unfortunately, lives in a time warp and is still an essential tool for the governing Politboro.
As for the comic book, Plunge, I remember seeing numbers (perhaps here at CA?) on the comics sales and it didn't really seem as pervasive as some made it out to be. Not to mention things like that can and are bought for rubbernecking, like a car accident. Readers may not agree, but the controversy brings sales. That said, Japan definitely has some similar issues to work through. But I think Japan has developed more of a sense of national self divorced from narratives of humiliation and defeat than China has - a more positive form of national pride. If China's intellectual elite, who read things like Dr. Yuan's article as samizdats, continue to develop ideas along his lines, then that pride may develop and trickle down to the masses. Then China may not have to engage in vindictive behavior against other nations in retribution for its past sufferings.
darin
February 3, 2006
4:53 am
Another reason I choose to interpret that phrase as hate and not resist, is the way children are taught to hate the Japanese in China. For example the "teachers":http://www.geocities.jp/pandianikorea/l-Shot_28.jpg "manuals":http://www.geocities.jp/pandianikorea/l-Shot_39.jpg "order":http://www.geocities.jp/pandianikorea/l-Shot_30.jpg "the":http://www.geocities.jp/pandianikorea/l-Shot_31.jpg teachers to dig up how barbarous the Imperial Japanese were, instill hate and detest for the Imperial Japanese, to be sure to tie in that the issue of history acknowledgment at the same time, and to make this whole situation a chance to think about the problem with Japanese textbooks.
Now to the teaching manuals credit, I applaud it for not saying "Japanese people", or "Japan" but rather "Imperial Japan" which truly deserves to have no legitimate punches held. However the people that "resist" modern Japan are faced with the issue that no one is attacking them to resist against, so they have to revert to hate.
DBm
February 3, 2006
5:09 am
davesgonechina
February 3, 2006
5:36 am
If you going to translate, then the meaning of the word ought to come from the word, not the context. Let's keep those two distinct. So if you're saying your interpretation is based on the cultural matrix those banners plug into, then thats cool. But that's not what the literal meaning of the banner is, and the word kang as far as I know does not carry the connotation of hate. The context does.
darin
February 3, 2006
8:57 am
No I don't believe I was misleading anyone on purpose, or misleading anyone at all for that matter. As I say, I stand by what I said before for the reasons I gave. I don't believe I was changing the meaning of the words, because meanings also are taken from context. In the context of WW2, it was clearly resistance, however during peaceful times, there is no resistance, only hate. I put this in context when I said it the first time here "During the anti-Japan Chinese riots last year"...
"So if you're saying your interpretation is based on the cultural matrix those banners plug into, then thats cool."
Yes, that's what I'm saying, please refer to the original post for the context.
I noticed that for some reason the links to the Images didn't work .. I don't know why as they still load in the page "here":http://blog.goo.ne.jp/pandiani/e/aead2a9bc06342e70a862ea3619faf85
BillyBob
February 17, 2006
9:37 am
By JASON DEAN
February 17, 2006
BEIJING -- The government-controlled China Youth Daily decided to resume publication of its prominent weekly section without the editor who built it into one of the country's most respected journalistic institutions.
Li Datong, who founded and edited Bing Dian, or Freezing Point, said he was informed Thursday by the China Youth Daily's top Communist Party official that he had been permanently removed from his position as editor. Mr. Li's deputy, investigative reporter Lu Yuegang, also was removed, he said.
The decision to remove Mr. Li marks the latest in a string of setbacks for press freedom in China amid a widening government crackdown on dissent in the news media and on the Internet. Chinese journalists have grown increasingly bold in recent years, with reporting that pushes the limits of official censorship on issues such as official corruption and social unrest. The government, which has ultimate control over all Chinese publications, has responded by firing or transferring journalists at several liberal newspapers.
Mr. Li, in a brief interview Thursday evening, condemned the decision. "They have taken away the spirit [of Freezing Point] and just left some skin."
Mr. Li founded Freezing Point in 1995 and turned it into a popular weekly with articles and essays that often challenged the official line. He was able to persist so long, he has said, because market-oriented media overhauls have left China Youth Daily, like many government publications, increasingly desperate for readers. Freezing Point was consistently named the newspaper's most popular feature in reader surveys.
Late last month, however, Mr. Li was informed that publication of the weekly would be suspended. He said he was told the trigger for the decision was an essay by Chinese scholar Yuan Weishi criticizing official history books for glorifying Chinese history at the expense of accuracy. Mr. Li said Thursday that the first issue of Freezing Point after it resumes publication is slated to include an article criticizing Mr. Yuan's essay.
Officials at China Youth Daily couldn't be reached for comment. In a press conference Tuesday, an official at the State Council Information Office, an agency under the Chinese cabinet, played down the Freezing Point suspension. "Personally, I think that a newspaper's decision to reorganize one of its sections shouldn't be sensationalized. It's quite normal," said Liu Zhengrong, deputy director of the information office's Internet affairs department.
Earlier this week, a group of 13 former party officials, scholars and journalists made public a letter dated Feb. 2 decrying the suspension of Freezing Point and calling it a "historic incident" in the struggle for free speech in China. The signers of the letter said the closure was part of a series of moves that "are ridiculous and rude and totally beyond the boundaries of law."
Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing-based human-rights lawyer, called the removal of Mr. Li and his deputy, Mr. Lu, "an extremely bad outcome." The decision "shows that the authorities won't give in this case. Without Li and Lu, Freezing Point will become a cup of lukewarm water."
Mr. Li said Thursday that he had been informed that his removal was the "final decision" of leaders at China Youth Daily, which is controlled by the influential Communist Youth League, once headed by current Chinese President Hu Jintao. He said one of the three remaining Freezing Point editors had already tendered his resignation, while the other editors and Freezing Point's eight reporters were still deciding what to do.
"This is like a castration," Mr. Li said.
mingseshu
March 8, 2006
7:03 pm
personally speaking, i have never heard the name of "freezing point", and the resignation of li, according to li's open letter, was decided by the department called ä¸Â宣部, which is not dominated by jintao as you simply considered......jintao is a leader, of both the country and the party. nevertheless, how to say, the ä¸Â宣部 is not run by his family......the current situation has changed a lot from the era of mao, hence, the prisident are NOT in charge of every aspect of daily detail work. so, the shut down should be an one-sided action taken by heads of (silly) ä¸Â宣部......shan tou ling li ...
and another point must be made clear is that, mainland china has a very very large population with a poor economic condition, far from you developed countries!!! have you ever learnt phylosophy? things that are different should be dealt with in different ways......
in addition, when you western countries are talking about freedom, hunman rights, demo, and the like, it always reminds me the history record in recent china. the invasion, the killing, the robberring, the firing......need i to be more specific???
Curzon
March 9, 2006
1:02 am
tele
April 29, 2006
6:39 am
抗 can only means resist or resistance. Anyone who can read and unstand chinese has no way would associate it to hate. How sad to see a liar who twist simple word to fit his own agenda.
「攞”ºÃ¥Å“”¹Ã§”žÂ¡Ã§Â½ÂªÃ£â‚¬Â?is loving one's own country is not a crime. It is a slogan protesting against the communist government. Communist government had shut down website which people critizie Japan and try to organize protest on the street. Leaders who try to organise the anti-Japan protest was arrested and under custody of the communist government. Most of the war history and terror in the WWII was pass on through family members. School did not have much a say about the details of those war. But Parents or the elderly who were surviours do have first hand testmony to taught the after second world war generations. My mother had to me her childhood during the Japanese occupation in Hongkong. It was far more horrible than a written number of death on a text book. When she went on street seeing dead people pile up on the streets. How they get beat up by the Japanese army while taking a quene for food and supply. The Japanese raid family if they hide some rice in the house and wipe out the whole family. My mother was just an average woman who are full time house wife. I dont see why she would lie about the Japanese occupation. She did not even dislike Japan now a day. Her favourite visiting place is Japan.
sun bin
April 29, 2006
9:22 am
darin, why not look up the kanji meaning of "抗":http://translate.google.com/translate_t
sun bin
April 29, 2006
9:30 am