Two Minute Hate

This one is conducted with photos, not a telescreen, and the object of the blind rage are the Japanese, not Goldstein. The intended effects are the same:

In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O’Brien’s heavy face was flushed. He was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out �Swine! Swine! Swine!� and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen. It struck Goldstein’s nose and bounced off; the voice continued inexorably. In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.

The Discussion: 45 Comments

richard, i was wondering what would you say if those people in the photos are former german soldiers and young germans hailing to their nazi buddies and holocaust butchers in berlin today. i am 100% sure you won’t be able to keep the same calm as you are now.

look at the faces of those former japanese soldiers, just image how many jews they would murder if they were in europe.

and read the lines at the beginning of the post:

It is not that China does not want to forgive Japan.
It is only that Japan does not think she needs to be forgiven.

November 10, 2005 @ 4:44 am | Comment

The lines at the beginning and whether they are Nazis or Japanese, it doesn’t matter: the effect of the photos mirrors that of the 2-minute hate, elevating people’s emotions and making them hate. Maybe the hatred is justified; I make no judgement on that. But it’s the same thing. If they were Nazis and you showed similar photos of them and their victims like this, it would still be a 2-minute hate. Whether the parties deserve that hatred is not my point. Those who committed the atrocities you depict deserve to be hated. But by doing this, don’t deny what you are doing: whooping up hatred. Personally, I think it makes you appear obsessed, but that’s your privilege.

November 10, 2005 @ 4:51 am | Comment

i think the purpose of the photos is explained in the subject and the two lines very clearly, if you want to interpret it as something else, it’s your choice.

actually my “obsession” becomes quite reasonable because of the existence of many westerners like you, who are obsessed in defending japan or trying to be evasive by pointing fingers to chinese.

without doubt, the question why chinese can not forgive japan doesn’t fit into your political agenda

November 10, 2005 @ 5:10 am | Comment

I don’t believe I have ever once defended Japan’s war record. Ever. And I have been very hard on Koizumi’s visits to the shrine and condemned them. Check it out. Let me know where you feel I have defended Japan — I am really curious as to what you have in mind. If you can’t find an example, then perhaps you owe me an apology. (Not that I expect one.)

November 10, 2005 @ 5:35 am | Comment

MANY WESTERNERS like you, who are obsessed in defending japan or trying to be evasive by pointing fingers to chinese.

————————-

oh no, japan is a democracy

oh no, china is evil too

oh no, why chinese are so angry

oh no, why chinese can not forgive japan

oh no, japan has free speech

oh no, japanese are very civilized

oh no, i have many japanese friends

oh no, ccp murdered more chinese

oh no, chinese are all brainwashed

oh no, you only have blind hatred

well, like a US president has summed up – “it’s a SOB, but it’s our SOB”

November 10, 2005 @ 5:49 am | Comment

I don’t say China is evil, and I don’t have many Japanese friends.

I have asked you where I have defended Japan, and here’s all you can say: [crickets chirping]

And it’s really okay to hate the Japanese for what they did. I hate them for it. But when someone keeps reviving it and dwelling on it and making it a sustaining force in his life, he becomes like the people in front of the telescreens, surrendering to “a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer” and becomes in effect “a grimacing, screaming lunatic.” Not that you’re like that necessarily. I know you can be a thoughtful, bright and compassionate person. But when this topic comes up, there’s a chemical change, and it’s extraordinary that you don’t see it.

November 10, 2005 @ 5:54 am | Comment

i don’t hate japanese or anybody, i don’t even hate bellevue. i pity them.

compared to chinese, japanese are more obsessed in the past and keep the bankrupt mentality of the 19th century. they can be very brave but in this regard, japan is a coward.

i am not saying you defend japan, i am saying there are MANY WESTERNERS, and you happen to be the person as an example

November 10, 2005 @ 6:15 am | Comment

i don’t believe you can not find out the root cause of the problem.

don’t you think it’s silly to massage your foot when your have a headache?

in china-japan related topices, you always massage your foot

November 10, 2005 @ 6:18 am | Comment

I don’t know of many Westerners who defend Japan, but I’m sure there are some. I do believe that if I put up strings of Nazi photos and pictures of their tortured victims and repeatedly went on about it I would be seen as either emotionally unstable or strangely obsessed. I also believe that until the Chinese who do things like this grow up and take positive action to address their concerns, they leave themselves open to international ridicule and ostracization. That’s all. I am sympathetic to their claims against the Japanese. I recoil when I see them drive themselves into a frenzy over it, unaware of how it seems to others who believe there comes a time to address these kinds of grievances in a constructive way, one that doesn’t result in a self-perpetuating and wildly self-defeating orgy of martyrdom (whether such a sense of martyrdom is reasonable or not).

November 10, 2005 @ 7:08 am | Comment

Bingfeng, have you ever read Moby Dick?

November 10, 2005 @ 7:39 am | Comment

What I feel when I see those pictures is not hate, but grief.

That said, I was discomfited by them. Photographs can be powerful weapons of truth, but sometimes they don’t reveal all of the truth. And the truths that those photographs don’t reveal is that MOST Japanese are not apologists for their country’s past crimes, that they mourn instead of glorify war (I mean, just check out all those Hiroshima memorials in Japan, though y’know, I do wish they’d have one for the Nanjing Massacre as well, like Germany with the Holocaust Memorial), that they are decent, liberal people and not ANYTHING like those right-wing nutfucks shown. So whatever the mishandling of this issue by the Japanese government, it’s not representative of the whole of Japan.

However, I must say that it’s too much, this implying that Bingfeng is a hate-monger or a emotionally unstable and strangely obsessed Captain Ahab or some such. I’m sorry, but once again that’s a veiled reiteration of “Freaks! Why can’t they just Get. Over. It. Already???“, no matter how many wispy qualifers or euphemism you may preface it with.

November 10, 2005 @ 8:45 am | Comment

Agreed, nausicaa. On balance, though, I must say that the current Chinese government is using this to whip up Chinese emotional sentiment–though not to draw away dissent. Current Sino-Japanese tensions are as much an outgrowth of current issues as they are of past issues–it’s just that the Chinese people choose to moralize their position on these current issues (oil and gas, leadership ambitions in E. Asia) just as much as the Japanese use the “bushido” spirit to moralize theirs. It may be distasteful, but as Mao would put it, “people’s choice.” :P….

November 10, 2005 @ 9:15 am | Comment

You’re right, Naussica, I shouldn’t have used such strong language. But I was trying to make a point, that it strikes others as obsessive to keep banging the same drum in the same tired way, without offering a solution but seeming to want to keep the 60-year-old hatred flaring just because it’s become a kind of security blanket, a way of life, a raison d’etre.

November 10, 2005 @ 5:33 pm | Comment

China’s hatred of Japan fosters a strong sense of unity and racial solidarity, both highly valued traits in Chinese society.

November 10, 2005 @ 6:19 pm | Comment

Yes Peter, I totally agree. Much like hatred of the Jews has been a unifying force among nations throughout history, and not dissimilar to the way some on the right in the US are using hatred of Moslems (and, for a much longer time, blacks) to bolster “patriotism.”

November 10, 2005 @ 6:37 pm | Comment

Hi, Peter, just one (small) quibble. “Racial” solidarity is not the right word to use in this case. Ethnic solidarity, maybe. Or nationalism on ‘roids. But it has little to do with race and racism. All Asians belong to the same race.

I pretty much agree about everything else, though. The whole thing’s a little wierd. I mean, Bingfeng had a bunch of innocuous posts about the recent blogger conference, and then – BAM! – a series of photographs straight out of agitprop. Something/someone must have set him off. That whole post seemed contrary to the general tone of his blog.

Obviously, I’m pro-China when it comes to the war atrocities issue. There are times, however, I ask myself, as important as it is for the Japanese to fully recognize that dark passage in their own history and thereby not insult our’s, whether it’s not equally as important that we as Chinese show we have the capacity to forgive, for our own sake, regardless of whether Japan has demonstrated it wants that forgiveness or not.

November 10, 2005 @ 7:39 pm | Comment

“China’s hatred of Japan”

this is typical childish over-generalization, generalizing both china and japan.

this is like saying, America’s hatred of Iraq, or Iraq’s hatred of America. and ignoring different ideas and feeling exist among any country or nation.

November 10, 2005 @ 7:44 pm | Comment

Nausicaa- fair call.

Sun Bin- yes it is a generalisation. Not all Chinese hate Japan, although it seems to be more the rule than the exception. The haters certainly think all Chinese people should have the same attitude as them, and they are quick to denounce as “han jian” and worse any of their compatriots who question their hatred.

November 10, 2005 @ 8:39 pm | Comment

I ask myself, as important as it is for the Japanese to fully recognize that dark passage in their own history and thereby not insult our’s, whether it’s not equally as important that we as Chinese show we have the capacity to forgive, for our own sake, regardless of whether Japan has demonstrated it wants that forgiveness or not.

———————-

the way how japan looks at its past indicates how it will behave in the future

it’s a bullshit that majority of japanese feel sorry about the war. their PM visits to the shrine is not a personal thing and in a “democratic” nation like japan, it is driven by japanese “people”, especially those powerful japanese “people”

November 10, 2005 @ 8:41 pm | Comment

it’s a bullshit that majority of japanese feel sorry about the war. their PM visits to the shrine is not a personal thing and in a “democratic” nation like japan, it is driven by japanese “people”, especially those powerful japanese “people”

Thanks for that, bingfeng. Now we all know.

November 10, 2005 @ 8:57 pm | Comment

Perhaps Bingfeng, when you can post pictures on yr website of those who starved to death during the 3 yr famine, those who were chopped up and eaten in the cultural revolution and those who died in the Tiananmen square massacre along with a caption ‘the ccp does not feel it needs to be forgiven’ will foreigners respect you.

perhaps when the ccp stops telling chinese schoolchildren that the korean war started when the us invaded north korea or that genghis khan was chinese or that it was illegal to buy opium in the uk at the time when we forced out chinese markets will foreigners respect your point of view.

The Japanese have apologised in the past and they have paid reparations, a fact not reported in the chinese press. they are also one of the main contributors to the un and have a pacifist constitution.

yes, koizumi is a fool. no, he doesn’t have the backing of the majority of japanese people. yes the textbook is a disgrace, but less of a disgrace than chinese history books.

napoleon (if it was him who said it) was wrong. china does not need to wake up. it needs to grow up.

November 10, 2005 @ 9:34 pm | Comment

Bingfeng, if you really believe that , then I don’t know what to tell you. Strange, though – all my Japanese friends are quite vehemently anti-war. I mean, what are the odds, you know, since the majority of Japanese are by your account apologists and deniers, that I’d picked the few who are not? Oh, and since state leaders always act on behalf of the citizens, I guess the Iraq invasion was driven by the American “people” , too. Too bad about 60% of Americans would disagree you.

The Japanese don’t feel sorry about WWII? They’re on track to repeat history? Oh, Nosferatu, oh prophet of impending doom, what about –

“Let all the souls here rest in peace as we will never repeat this mistake.” – inscription on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial

But Si , saying Japan have apologised in the past and they have paid reparations, a fact not reported in the chinese press. they are also one of the main contributors to the un and have a pacifist constitution is, too, not a fully satisfying rebuttal, because it implies that the Japanese government, then, has done its part, has done enough. I mean, Japan pays dues to the UN? Whoop de doo. It has a pacifist constitution (drafted by the U.S.)? Fine. But those things haven’t much to do with Bingfeng and other Chinese’s ‘plaint about how the Japanese government shows recalcitrance in accepting full blame for its past atrocities in East Asia. And yes, in spite of the apologies and the reparations, there has been recalcitrance or, at least, mixed messages, which is unacceptable when military agression of the scale committed by Japan in WWII demands unwavering and absolute contrition, a la Willy Brandt and his Warschauer Kniefall , in order to be satisfactory to the victimized parties concerned. So cabinet members (Horata..?) saying something along the line of how Japan HAD to invade neighbouring countries because of oil embargoes was not on. Koizumi defiantly visiting Yasukuni was not on. The issuing of that textbook, same. And that 3-ring circus in the Diet over the No War Resolution was most definitely not on. Honestly, sometimes the Japanese government acts like that girl who says no when she really means yes, who screws guys up with her contradictory signals..

That said, yes China needs to grow up, start picking at other, more shamefully private scabs instead of just this one, stop using it (the “foreign invaders ruined China” line) as a crutch for everything. In this sense, I think it’s better that China forgives, not necessarily out of any neighbourly feelings, but for its own sake. But none of the above in any way invalidates China’s claims when it comes to demanding that the Japanese government handles itself better in accepting war responsibility.

Sorry. I do feel like I’m bitchin’ at everyone left and right. Swaying like a pot with an arse. It’s just that I think both are you are somewhat right yet both of you are a little wrong, or at least, not correct. Ah, just call me both CCP stooge and “han jian”.
🙂

November 10, 2005 @ 10:27 pm | Comment

pls read “The Evolution of Cooperation” Robert Axelrod, you will see why i was upset by japan’s attitute towards history.

no, the majority of japanese don’t care about the war, some feel truely sorry but some, unfortunately very powerful some, feel they were wronged during and after the war. and mostly importantly, they can not get rid of the mentality that brought japan into the war – read the book and you will understand what i mean.

as for the pix of 3 yr famine and cultural revolution, i think i have done more than enough in chinese forums. these topics should be addressed to chinese readers, especially those who don’t understand why they happened.

November 10, 2005 @ 11:10 pm | Comment

1. the majority of japanese, by that i mean at least 50-60% are pacifist. no doubt about that.

2. the lunatics in BF’s pictures are worrisome, even though they might only represent 5-10% of the population, or less. that is because the general education and attitude in japan toward war is still “jungle’s law”.

and the # of people in Japan backing yasukuni is certainly larger than 5-10%, i don’t know the number and i guess no one knows exactly, may be 10%, maybe 15%, may 30-40%, regarding what specific issue you are talking about.
But that is worrisome enough for a democracy. what i know is that the support is so significant that all LDP PM felt obliged to visit, and that ishihara shintaro got elected in tokyo.

I think some balancing BF could have made, is to also show the historians who investigated 731 bio-chem warfare unit, and the teachers who refused to sing militarism revisionist songs in school. there are the pacifist among the Japanese. China need to appreciate the peace-loving japanese people. It is important to know that not all of them support revisionism.

also, it is important to understand that if China blindly attack all japanese establishment it is going to push the pacifists to the right wing.

November 11, 2005 @ 12:13 am | Comment

“the way how japan looks at its past indicates how it will behave in the future”
interesting…uh… logic? if the same applies to china, then i am getting on the next plane back to America. that would mean that now that the “despicable Gang of Four” is gone, everything will remain “perfect,” and that China will continue to have famines, years of chaos, attack other countries, and slaughter its own people, all the while claiming that “everything is going just dandy” and never taking responsibility for any errors.
is that right?

November 11, 2005 @ 12:52 am | Comment

kevin,

if you invite bellevue to guest blog, don’t forget to give bellevue the link of your blog

November 11, 2005 @ 1:09 am | Comment

thanks sun bin, very good point.

November 11, 2005 @ 1:20 am | Comment

I trust he would be able to figure it out.

November 11, 2005 @ 1:59 am | Comment

Actually I’m with bingfeng on this one. I personally found those photos informative, because I had NOT been aware that some of the Japanese nut jobs had been going so far as to dress up in the old uniforms – excactly like some neo-Nazis dress up like the SA (Brownshirts) today.

Sure, the Japanese nut-jobs are a minority. But so are the neo-Nazis in various Western countries (including Russia, shockingly), and it’s better to be aware of them, to nip them in the bud.

And, the Nazis started out as a tiny group of nut-jobs. There really is some value in keeping the world aware of all “hard minorities” like the neo-Nazis AND the Japanese neo-militarists.

Now aside from all that: About boo’s comparison of bingfeng with Captain Ahab in “Moby Dick”: I just thought it was funny. Actually it was hilarious – and I say that as one who otherwise agrees with bingfeng here. And by the way, Captain Ahab was a man with some real virtues and admirable qualities. In fact, Captain Ahab personified a lot of what is best in America. So, I think it’s mostly a compliment to compare bingfeng to Ahab. 🙂

November 11, 2005 @ 4:18 am | Comment

Furthermore (re-reading nausicaa’s objection to comparing bingfeng to Captain Ahab):

“….implying that Bingfeng is a hate-monger or an emotionally unstable and strangely obsessed Captain Ahab…”

…well, actually I think there IS a good point to be made about this comparison, and not just about literature. Captain Ahab was NOT “emotionally unstable” – he was deadly serious and very, very stable.
Ahab was NOT “strangely obsessed”, rather, he had damned good reasons to be angry. And he was NOT a “hate-monger”; he hated feral, unreasoning injustice.

And so, I think it IS a good comparison, between Bingfeng and Ahab – but it’s not a comparison between two madmen. Quite the contrary. What Ahab hated, and what he hunted (yes, obsessively, but not unreasoningly) was INHUMANITY! That was what Moby Dick embodied for Ahab: The Whale represented everything which is irrationally destructive of Humanity, everything feral and beastly, everything which is senseless and unjust….

….which is exactly how the Japanese war criminals behaved, like irrational animals with no regard for justice.

Ahab might have been obsessive, and imprudent. But he was not irrational. On the contrary, Ahab was EXTREMELY logical, and obsessed with Justice. You can call it imbalanced, and you can call it imprudent, but you cannot call it irrational.

(And who ever would have imagined that a time would come when I would argue in favor of Bingfeng? 🙂

November 11, 2005 @ 4:29 am | Comment

And more, from Moby Dick, about “insanity”, from chapter 93:

“So man’s insanity is Heaven’s Sense, and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought which, to reason, is absurd and frantic – and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.”

(Sorry for any errors there – just wrote it from memory.)

November 11, 2005 @ 4:34 am | Comment

Bingfeng wrote

it’s a bullshit that majority of japanese feel sorry about the war.

Typical Bingfeng tactic. Simply declare what you want to believe as a fact.

Tell me, Bingfeng, exactly how many Japanese do you personally know, and have discussed this with? Sorry, online nationalistic bouts with chatroom warriors don’t count – I mean Japanese people you really, personally know.

Of the ones I personally know (perhaps two dozen), I believe 100% are anti-war pacifists. Two dozen is a small sample size to be sure, and certainly not randomly chosen, but it gives me reason to believe that many other Japanese feel this way, too.

I discussed this once with a Japanese guy I dated. He said many young Japanese were quite aware of their WWII history, and felt ashamed over it. “Ashamed” – that was the exact word he used.

Richard, please warn us where we are headed next time you link us to the Bitter Tea House. I don’t care to visit hate sites.

November 11, 2005 @ 4:59 am | Comment

Hmm….
…on the ONE hand, Slim made a good point, asking how many Japanese bingfeng has ever actually met.
But on the OTHER hand, Slim has only met “perhaps two dozen” Japanese. And so, both bingfeng and Slim both have limited experience with Japanese.
But on the OTHER OTHER hand, Bingfeng made a categorical statement about what the “majority” of Japanese were like, but Slim did not. So on that count, Slim is being more logical than Bingfeng.
So, on the one hand, I think Bingfeng was mistaken, to assume that a majority of Japanese do not feel sorry about the war.
But on the other hand, I still think it was worthwhile information, for Bingfeng to post those photographs.
(I assume Richard knows the old Yiddish story, about two Jews arguing: The Rabbi hears one Jew making his argument, and he says, “You are right.” And then he hears the OPPOSITE argument, and the Rabbi says, “and YOU are right.”
And then someone tells the Rabbi:
“They CANNOT BOTH be right!” And the Rabbi says, “And YOU are ALSO right!” 🙂

November 11, 2005 @ 5:51 am | Comment

i have met quite a few japanese people recently, and would like to comment on that experience. the one thing that sticks in my mind, was how different they all were…not like some stereo typical, mono personality, war robots. just normal people. however…one guy i did meet, was obviously of a higher social class, son rich investor type. i could not shake the feeling that he reminded me of every japanese concentration camp commander i had ever seen in any film. and ive seen every film from bridge on the river qwai, et al..creepy guy to say the least. ive lived in china for alot of years now, and have met alot of people, from small farm towns, to top govt people. i dont recall anyone that i felt was on that kind of level.

just my 2 cents

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November 11, 2005 @ 3:35 pm | Comment

thanks ivan

shanghai slim, more precisely i should say “it’s a bullshit that majority of japanese feel sorry for the pains they brought to other countries”

most of them feel sorry that they lost the war and that the war ruined their country, but most of them don’t care too much for the pains of the vicitims

i know a dozen japanese, not close friends but mostly acquaintance throgh family or business. it’s a small sample size and doesn’t say anything but if you go through the related reports on this issue, it’s no doubt that japanese don’t have that much sense of sin and more likely consider the lose of the war a shame.

how can we forgive them if they don’t think they make anything wrong to other countries?

my post is not intented to stir hatred towards japan or japanese, it’s up to you to judge and put your value into it, my post, as it clearly stated in the title, is to explain the root cause of the chinese sentiment, whether you like it or not, it’s there

if you don’t want to know the fact and stick to your belief that china doesn’t want to forgive japan for many other reasons, then it’s up to you to be brainwashed

ccp used to polish the facts that they don’t like to see and believe that is what the world is, i hope you are a little better than them

and richard, talking about “obsession”, i think you too are obsessed in some very old topics about china in this blog

November 11, 2005 @ 8:38 pm | Comment

Thanks Bingfeng. I’m admittedly and proudly “obsessed” with a lot of things, which is exactly why I have this blog! They include: Politics, Bush’s lies, repression in China, censorship, police states, government hypocrisy, corruption, etc. All of these things are current events, not age-old grudges and whinges. I’m obsessed with the Holocaust and World War II as well, always reading new books about them and ocasionally blogging about them. But I don’t think there’s any topic on this blog that I pound away at that compares to your obsession with the Japanese, in effect condemnding an entire people. I may condemn the US and Chinese governments, but their citizenries — now that’s going into a dark and dangerous realm a la Charles Johnson and other serial haters. I can get really furious at the CCP, but I would never, ever put up a string of photos portraying Chinese people (or blacks or Moslems or anyone else) as butchering barbarians (even though such photos exist), with the inevitable result of stirring up resentment and outrage at the Chinese people. That would be juvenile, obsessive and thoroughly unfair to the many, many magnificent Chinese people I know and work with. Blind rage is soooo ugly.

November 11, 2005 @ 8:48 pm | Comment

i only bring up the topic when 1) mate waters posted a photo about an anti-japan bar 2) anti-japan demonstrations broke out 3) china daily posted an article asking for forgiving japan

there are current issues when they come out

as for generalization, i think it’s very clear for many people how TPD generalize china and chinese

November 11, 2005 @ 8:58 pm | Comment

Well, you also think – and I quote – “it’s a bullshit that majority of japanese feel sorry about the war. t.” You think a lot of things, Bingfeng, but that doesn’t make it true.

I’ve just given an example of how you generalize about the Japanese. Please provide an example of what you see as my inappropriate generalizing about the Chinese. Thanks buddy.

November 11, 2005 @ 9:10 pm | Comment

Shanghai Slim: Richard, please warn us where we are headed next time you link us to the Bitter Tea House. I don’t care to visit hate sites.

I like Bingfeng and his blog is one of those I visit daily; I even named him i my Top 10 list over at the new China Blog List. But when he gets off onto this topic, he morphs into a red guard, kicking and shouting. If you look over his blog, most of the posts have few or no comments (which is normal for most blogs and is in no way a sign of bad blogging). But whenever he does his little schtick about the Japanese, he gets a big spike in comments and most likely in traffic as well. This also happens whenever he allows Madge to comment there, which is pretty frequently. These posts nearly always garner lots of comments (though most are from Madge himself and his various personas) and form a marked contrast with the usual number of comments there (zero). So I think Bingfeng knows where his bread is buttered, and these posts and Madge’s soliloquies will continue. That said, Bingfeng is creative, funny, literate and a damned good blogger. It’s just a shame he allows this thirst for comments to cloud his better judgment and to display a side of himself that’s best kept private.

November 11, 2005 @ 9:18 pm | Comment

Bingfeng wrote:

shanghai slim, more precisely i should say “it’s a bullshit that majority of japanese feel sorry for the pains they brought to other countries”

Don’t know if you will see this, Bingfeng, but think about what you are complaining about: Japanese people don’t feel sufficiently sorry for things that happened before they were born!

I think this is one of the biggest problems with China’s anti-Japanese rage. Many Chinese keep demanding and insisting that Japanese take personal responsibility for actions performed before they were even born!

Think about it – what if Japanese people were endlessly screaming and protesting about how Chinese did not sufficiently express their deep remorse over China’s two attempted invasions of Japan during the Yuan Dynasty.

Have you ever apologized to any Japanese for those invasion attempts? Have China’s leaders?

People can only accept so much responsibility for things that happened before they were born. To go beyond that point is just being unreasonable.

November 14, 2005 @ 7:39 am | Comment

Comparing something that happened 60 years ago to something that happened over hundreds of years ago is destroying your point of “reasonable responsibility” rather than proving it.

November 14, 2005 @ 4:03 pm | Comment

Oh, and if Japan should ever, out of the blue, feel like pursuing that thread of protest, they should take it up with the Mongols and good ol’ Kublai lah, not the Chinese. 😉

( P.S. I get your original point. But the analogy needs work.)

November 14, 2005 @ 4:13 pm | Comment

Yes, yes, let’s paste pictures of Japanese Yasukuni shrine visitors on our page… over and over and over again. This is not the first time that comrade bingfeng has posted such pics, as you can see from looking at his archives. He makes us proud.
All Chinese need to remember the crimes committed by the Japanese, and remember to focus all their anger and animosity on the Japanese (especially not on the Chinese gov).
Now, roll over and take it like a bitch from us…
Kevin, newly employed at the lovely Publicity Dept.

November 15, 2005 @ 6:41 pm | Comment

In fact, less than 3 months ago, on August 26th, bingfeng posted similar pictures, even containing the same people. And no need to even mention 3, 4, or 5 months before that… we all remember what happened in April and May, huh?
I would like to present bingfeng with our Publicity Department’s “Obsessing… er… Focusing on the Correct and Pressing Issues Award.” It is rewarded on an annual basis to the blogger who best directs the Chinese people’s bitterness to someone besides their own gov… usually the Japanese.
Congratulations, comrade!

November 15, 2005 @ 6:52 pm | Comment

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December 1, 2005 @ 10:02 pm | Comment

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