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INTEREST: 9 'Spiritually Japanese' Cosplayers, Cartoonists Arrested in China For 'Anti-China Extremi


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ErikaD.D



Joined: 09 Jun 2019
Posts: 658
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 12:58 pm Reply with quote
Communist China strikes again. And it's sad that nowadays China becomes more authoritarian country.
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Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 1:31 pm Reply with quote
The problem is, how do you determine someone is “spiritual Japanese”? The two Chinese dressed as Japanese wartime soldiers part shown in the article I can understand (in the same veins of cosplaying KKK and Nazi) , but this is just...what? There are dozens of anime Cons took place in numerous Chinese cities, and thousands of cosplayers, how do you exactly define spiritual Japanese then if the ones who love Japanese entertainment and culture aren’t define as one, at least according to the local police

Lots of inconsistencies once you think deeper. Depicting Chinese people and police as pigs can be read in various ways, spiritual Japanese? Not that one, sorry
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:39 pm Reply with quote
There’s so much yikes in this that I’m not sure where to start. For one, no one can be “spiritually [insert ethnic group]” if you’re not, y’know, that ethnic group. Secondly, there’s quite a bit of truth that Japanese people have a not-insignificant level of contempt for the Chinese (a friend of mine taught in several middle and elementary schools in Japan and was horrified at the Chinese stereotypes (they’re dirty, dumb, etc.) being bandied around),and I think it’s pretty telling that Chinese people who claim to be “spiritually Japanese” latch onto anti-Chinese sentiment specifically. Internalized racism, thy name is “spiritually Japanese”, apparently.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
The problem is, how do you determine someone is “spiritual Japanese”? The two Chinese dressed as Japanese wartime soldiers part shown in the article I can understand (in the same veins of cosplaying KKK and Nazi) , but this is just...what? There are dozens of anime Cons took place in numerous Chinese cities, and thousands of cosplayers, how do you exactly define spiritual Japanese then if the ones who love Japanese entertainment and culture aren’t define as one, at least according to the local police

Lots of inconsistencies once you think deeper. Depicting Chinese people and police as pigs can be read in various ways, spiritual Japanese? Not that one, sorry


I don't know if that is a problem here past the semantics. The article says they were arrested for Anti-China extremism, but I do question exactly how "extreme" these people were given China is the one cracking down on them. People may have called them spiritual Japanese, but it doesn't sound like whether they fit under that rather vague term or not was the reason for the arrests. It sounds like they were arrested for speaking out against the state.

Unrelated to the spiritual Japanese comment, I'm not really sure that this case which seems to about people making a political statement and the other story linked in the article about a woman selling adult material that violated the governments obscenity laws for profit have much in common. Even Western countries which guarantee free speech like the US still often allow for obscenity laws. It seems like some major overreach linking the for profit sale of banned adult material violating obscenity laws and not-for-profit political criticism / activism. Making a business out of doing something illegal and political activism seem rather far apart.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:05 pm Reply with quote
Without reading the seized novels, the only information we have is that they contained/ centered on gay romance. Getting a 10 year sentence for writing gay books is pretty relevant to being arrested for creating political cartoons. It's all art.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:33 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
There’s so much yikes in this that I’m not sure where to start. For one, no one can be “spiritually [insert ethnic group]” if you’re not, y’know, that ethnic group. Secondly, there’s quite a bit of truth that Japanese people have a not-insignificant level of contempt for the Chinese (a friend of mine taught in several middle and elementary schools in Japan and was horrified at the Chinese stereotypes (they’re dirty, dumb, etc.) being bandied around),and I think it’s pretty telling that Chinese people who claim to be “spiritually Japanese” latch onto anti-Chinese sentiment specifically. Internalized racism, thy name is “spiritually Japanese”, apparently.


I’m not sure that they self-identify as “spiritually Japanese”. From the article, it seems to be a derogatory term, so it is probably something people are called rather than something they call themselves. It seems more like their government is trying to paint some dissidents as hating their country and sympathizing with the villains of history rather than people spuriously identifying as a different ethnicity, at least without further details about the particular case.
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Amibite



Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:54 pm Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:
I’m not sure that they self-identify as “spiritually Japanese”. From the article, it seems to be a derogatory term, so it is probably something people are called rather than something they call themselves. It seems more like their government is trying to paint some dissidents as hating their country and sympathizing with the villains of history rather than people spuriously identifying as a different ethnicity, at least without further details about the particular case.


"According to The Beijing News, one of those arrested was a 22-year-old cartoonist surnamed Zhang. The artist is reported to have drawn comics depicting Chinese people as pigs. "

Well, we know at least one.

Of course, the nice thing about labels like this is you can apply it to anyone and don't need any kind of proof. Who's going to disagree with the Chinese government? Nobody.
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:56 pm Reply with quote
They're not wrong you know...

China isn't the only place where this type of behavior would make the "law" fall on you.
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#HayamiLover



Joined: 22 Jul 2018
Posts: 796
Location: Eastern Europe
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:58 pm Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:
whiskeyii wrote:
There’s so much yikes in this that I’m not sure where to start. For one, no one can be “spiritually [insert ethnic group]” if you’re not, y’know, that ethnic group. Secondly, there’s quite a bit of truth that Japanese people have a not-insignificant level of contempt for the Chinese (a friend of mine taught in several middle and elementary schools in Japan and was horrified at the Chinese stereotypes (they’re dirty, dumb, etc.) being bandied around),and I think it’s pretty telling that Chinese people who claim to be “spiritually Japanese” latch onto anti-Chinese sentiment specifically. Internalized racism, thy name is “spiritually Japanese”, apparently.


I’m not sure that they self-identify as “spiritually Japanese”. From the article, it seems to be a derogatory term, so it is probably something people are called rather than something they call themselves. It seems more like their government is trying to paint some dissidents as hating their country and sympathizing with the villains of history rather than people spuriously identifying as a different ethnicity, at least without further details about the particular case.


You may be surprised, but such a phenomenon is quite common in countries whose authorities are in conflict with the "Western world." For example, in Russia it is very easy to meet young people who not only hate and despise everything Russian, but even elevate it to a kind of fetish. Such people are so toxic and noticeable that it makes them a very easy scarecrow for the authorities, who use them at every opportunity. So, in reality, such people not only do not “help” the progressive forces (although the idea of ​​help in this way is generally extremely doubtful), but inadvertently even help demonize them.
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:17 pm Reply with quote
octopodpie wrote:
Getting a 10 year sentence for writing gay books is pretty relevant to being arrested for creating political cartoons. It's all art.


So it really is Japan that decides...?

Sorry...South Park Tweek & Craig episode reference.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:11 pm Reply with quote
Amibite wrote:
zrnzle500 wrote:
I’m not sure that they self-identify as “spiritually Japanese”. From the article, it seems to be a derogatory term, so it is probably something people are called rather than something they call themselves. It seems more like their government is trying to paint some dissidents as hating their country and sympathizing with the villains of history rather than people spuriously identifying as a different ethnicity, at least without further details about the particular case.


"According to The Beijing News, one of those arrested was a 22-year-old cartoonist surnamed Zhang. The artist is reported to have drawn comics depicting Chinese people as pigs. "

Well, we know at least one.

Of course, the nice thing about labels like this is you can apply it to anyone and don't need any kind of proof. Who's going to disagree with the Chinese government? Nobody.


I think we need more to go on than just what is in the article. We don't really know the context from the little information we have. Does it depict only Chinese people as pigs and people of other national origins otherwise, or are all the characters depicted as pigs and it's just set in China? Is it an Animal Farm reference? What history are they supposedly "warping"? What we have doesn't answer those questions (and likely others) and personally I'm skeptical of the Chinese government's characterizations, at least without more information.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:29 pm Reply with quote
ErikaD.D wrote:
Communist China strikes again. And it's sad that nowadays China becomes more authoritarian country.

I don't think China is any worse than it was in previous decades and occasionally we hear about these incidents due to the internet. All communist countries have gulags, propaganda, and thought police though they usually go with nicer sounding names. I suspect that the anti-Japanese stories that are starting to be seen from the Chinese government will eventually be used as an excuse to ban anime and manga since China would vastly prefer young people to stick with government controlled entertainment.

whiskeyii wrote:
Internalized racism, thy name is “spiritually Japanese”, apparently.

Of the many possible explanations for why those people were arrested the Chinese government explanation is one of the least likely.
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zunderdog24



Joined: 08 Jun 2014
Posts: 362
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:29 pm Reply with quote
Jingri means "imperial weeb" in chinese? I'll remember that.
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SheRrIs





PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 6:02 pm Reply with quote
It's kind of ironic that ANN links an article about crackdown on artistic freedom in China to Yahoo! - the very company that sold Chinese dissidents' info to the nasty party, which got innocent people jailed.

Yes, I still haven't moved on. Burn in hell, Yahoo!
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 6:55 pm Reply with quote
Sherris wrote:
It's kind of ironic that ANN links an article about crackdown on artistic freedom in China to Yahoo! - the very company that sold Chinese dissidents' info to the nasty party, which got innocent people jailed.

Yes, I still haven't moved on. Burn in hell, Yahoo!


Google isn't any better.

Anyway, the CCP sucks some major donkey balls, I mean this is the same party that gets angry at Jinping being compared to Winnie the Pooh. The entirety of the CCP needs a hug and some honey, they have to be the most miserable people on Earth.
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