MCLC: 'no Japanese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, or dogs' (3)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Kevin Carrico <kjc83 at cornell.edu>
Subject: 'no Japanese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, or dogs' (3)
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I'm unfortunately not surprised by this sign. Instead, what surprised me
is the attention that this particular sign has generated. Perhaps because
the targets were so numerous- the Philippines, Vietnam, and Japan. And
also because someone was willing to speak up about it.

Such signs targeting "Japanese and dogs" seem increasingly common in
recent years on sensitive dates like September 18th or December 13th, or
whenever the official media descends into periodic anti-Japanese fury
(most recently this past fall, but also in the fall of 2010 and spring of
2005). They might also be encountered at no particularly special time-
I've stumbled across a few over the years in Harbin, Nanjing, and most
recently Zhengzhou. Most were in places where you did not exactly have a
long line of Japanese people (or dogs!) eagerly waiting outside to enter,
so the target audience is clearly domestic, based in the hope that those
who agree might view it as good patriotic advertising, and those who
disagree might err on the side of nationalist political correctness and
let it slide. In this case, thankfully that did not happen.

The most disheartening aspect of this practice, I feel, is its
appropriation of a long condemned framework of discrimination (i.e. "No
Chinese or dogs") toward purposes equally worthy of condemnation. Rather
than drawing lessons from the past, some seem all too eager to repeat it.

Kevin

PS- For interested readers, a google image search for "日本人與狗" produces
photographs- not of Japanese people playing with dogs- but rather of a few
cases of such signs over the years.