MCLC: television war on Japan

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: television war on Japan
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (2/9/14):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/opinion/murong-chinas-television-war-on-j
apan.html

China's Television War on Japan
By MURONG XUECUN

BEIJING — Iron Palm Du Dapeng’s eyes are burning with rage. The Chinese
martial arts expert strikes a Japanese soldier with his fist and then,
using his supernatural powers, tears the soldier in half. Blood splatters,
but not a drop lands on the kung fu master.

This is one of many violent scenes in the Chinese television series “The
Anti-Japanese Knight,” a recent action drama set during the Japanese
invasion of China in the 1930s. Like many Chinese television dramas, the
“Anti-Japanese Knight” promotes patriotism and praises the Communist Party
for defeating the Japanese, while conveniently leaving out mention of the
decisive role played by the Chinese Nationalists in that war. The violence
and anti-Japanese tone send a clear message that killing is acceptable —
as long as the targets are “Japanese devils.”

I have little doubt that many Chinese people take the “Anti-Japanese
Knight” and its version of history as fact, just as I used to think that
China won the second Sino-Japanese War by digging tunnels in villages and
planting homemade land mines, thanks to “Tunnel Warfare” and “Landmine
Warfare,” two classic Chinese-made war movies from the 1960s.

Before television arrived in the countryside, film teams took projectors
to villages to screen movies; they were often shown outdoors. As a child
in the 1970s, I’d go to screenings as often as possible, blissfully
unaware that most of what I was watching was Communist Party propaganda. I
must have watched “Tunnel Warfare” and “Landmine Warfare” at least a dozen
times.

When I turn on the television these days, I notice not much has changed.
The second Sino-Japanese War may have ended in 1945, but the Chinese
people are still haunted by it. Enemy Japanese soldiers run amok on
Chinese screens. The state-approved films and TV dramas of today are more
colorful and the actors are better-looking than in the films of 1960s and
 ’70s, but the themes remain the same.

The state prohibits content that “incites ethnic hatred,” yet according to
Southern Weekly more than 70 anti-Japanese TV series were screened in
China in 2012. And in March 2013 the newspaper reported that 48
anti-Japanese-themed TV series were being shot simultaneously in Hengdian
World Studios, a film studio in Zhejiang Province, in eastern China.

The result of this stream of rancor is just what you’d expect. A July 2013
Pew research report found that 90 percent of Chinese people have an
unfavorable view of Japan. And the hatred for Japan is intensifying. Pew
said that “favorability” for Japan has fallen 17 percentage points since
2006.

The anti-Japan virulence drummed up by the media is in full display
online. Websites popular among young Chinese nationalists, like Tiexue
(Iron Blood) and April Media, are riddled with slogans such as “Destroy
Japanese dogs!” or “Annihilate the Japanese people!”

The flow of hate comes while China is building up its military, leaving
its neighbors on edge. Beijing will spend $148 billion on its military
this year, up from $139 billion in 2013. It launched its first aircraft
carrier in 2012, and is building a fleet of submarines that it hopes will
outnumber the American fleet.

A hard-line, anti-Western documentary film produced by the Chinese
military called “Silent Contest,” circulated online in October 2013,
revealed a troubling war-thirsty mind-set among the military. The video
attempted to make the case that the United States is actively working to
sabotage the Chinese government. Whoever leaked this video may not
represent mainstream military thinking, but there is no doubt that
pro-military voices are growing louder.

Meanwhile, Beijing repeatedly criticizes Tokyo’s “militarism.” But what
are China’s leaders thinking when they promote such hate of their
neighbor? The world must be vigilant against “militarism” whenever it
arises, but the Chinese government needs to review its own propaganda
policies — and weigh the consequences of barraging citizens with such a
negative view of Japan.

For now, a small chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea is the
focal point of contention between the China and Japan. In 2012, tensions
over the islands triggered anti-Japanese riots in Chinese cities. Cai
Yang, a 21-year-old construction worker in Xi’an, smashed the skull of Li
Jianli, the owner of a Japanese car, with a bicycle lock.

Mr. Cai’s mother, explaining the source of her son’s “patriotic” rage,
couldn’t have been more trenchant with her question: “When we turn on the
TV, most of the dramas are about anti-Japanese war. How would it be
possible to not to hate Japanese?”

Murong Xuecun is a novelist and blogger and the author of “Leave Me Alone:
A Novel of Chengdu.” This article was translated by The New York Times
from the Chinese.