Public reaction to McDonald’s plans to expand into West Lake, a Chinese tourist landmark often referred to as “heaven on earth”, was predictably dismissive. The Qianjiang Evening News criticized the plan, writing, “In the future, will Uncle McDonald (Ronald McDonald) with his red hair, and big smile on his face, be sitting on a bench just metres away from the Broken Bridge?” Online netizens reacted much the same. “This is a joke,” one person wrote on Weibo. “Can we turn Mao’s old house into a KFC?”

However, the outrage was not enough to sway the proposal. In addition to McDonald’s, a Starbucks also opened on the property two months ago.

Before approving the proposal, former Deputy Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage, Chen Wenjin, argued the residence was a cultural resource and that any commercial proposals should pass the scrutiny of government agencies and experts.

Chen also said the administration would ensure that the residence’s facade and internal structure remain unchanged, and that the residence would continue to serve the public good.

Chiang Ching-kuo was given the two-story residence by the mayor of Hangzhou after the Kuomintang successfully repelled the Japanese invasion during World War II. Ching-kuo’s father, Chiang Kai-shek, was given another residence, also on the West Lake property. Chiang Ching-kuo is said to have planted many of the trees on the property.

After the Kuomintang was ousted from mainland China by the Communists, Chiang Ching-kuo eventually succeeded his father and became President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) where he enacted press and free speech reforms, and allowed local Taiwanese to obtain positions of power in the government.

This isn’t the first time Western fast food franchises have set up shop in culturally-significant locations. In 2007, following a campaign initiated by former CCTV anchor Rui Chenggang, public outcry forced Starbucks to close a store it had opened at the Forbidden City in Beijing.

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According to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (China’s censoring body, otherwise known as SAPPRFT), for the next five days, holiday programming on Chinese network television will be dedicated exclusively to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. That’s right: exclusively.

Thanks to the SAPPRFT order, this weekend viewers will have to go without popular shows like Daddy Where Are We Going?, the Chinese version of The Voice, and the Chinese version of Korean celebrity reality show, Running Man. Instead the next five days will be loaded with Anti-Japanese War programming – just in case you’re unfamiliar with the outcome of WWII, or you’re interested in a unique retelling from the Chinese perspective.

The programming will include WWII “documentaries” such as Main Battlefield in the East, Confessions of a Japanese War Criminal, Light and Haze, and The War of Resistance: The Eternal Achievement. There will also be a number of war dramas, including Who is a Real Hero, War Souls, War God, and Attack on Moon Island.

And to ensure the holiday remains a truly family affair, there will also be a number of cartoons for the kids to enjoy like New Tunnel War (pictured), The Urgent Letter and The Battle to Defend Yuanzi Cliffs.

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The upcoming September 3rd military parade and national holiday will put a focus on China’s War of Resistance against Japan, known in the rest of the world as World War II, but those outside the country might be surprised to learn there has been a constant drumbeat of anti-Japanese dramas airing in the country now for years. Especially lately, there is a war drama being broadcast on national television every night, and people are getting fed up with it.

The dramas are called “God shows” in China because they feature Chinese protagonists who use “Godly” powers in order to defeat invading Japanese imperialist forces, often tearing apart Japanese soldiers by hand or performing other near-supernatural abilities against their enemies. One recent show called “Let’s Fight the Japs Together” featured sprinter Liu Xiang’s ex-wife’s character pulling out a hand grenade that was concealed inside her vagina.

A recent poll by China Youth Daily shows people are increasingly tired of seeing these “God shows” because they are so outlandish.

Out of some 2,000 respondents that participated in the poll, 46 percent say they are worried that “God shows” will influence the younger generation to improperly learn about the history of the war, while 47 percent say they distort history and show a basic misunderstanding of it. Forty-six percent said the market is over-saturated with “God shows”, while 39 percent criticized the shows for becoming entertainment that panders to a vulgar audience.

Most surprising, perhaps, is that a whopping 75 percent blame the government for the glut of outrageous war films because it has sole approval over what films are broadcast. Especially in the last few weeks, some “God shows” have shown Chinese heroes battling Japanese soldiers using increasingly outlandish plots, but China’s film watchdog has still given them the greenlight.

Chinese audiences have long spoken out against the proliferation of these shows. Recently, an unnamed 99 year-old Sichuan veteran of the war spoke out against “God shows’, saying:

How was the war of resistance as easy as seen on TV? As if a few people could have easily killed a whole squadron of Japs? If it was really that way, would we have had to sacrifice so many of our brothers, and had to have arduously fight the war of resistance for eight full years?

Xu Zhenglin, professor at Shanghai U Film and TV Art Academy, said Chinese audiences ridicule “God shows” for having exaggerated plots that are contrary to history:

What’s worth noting is that these War of Resistance ‘God shows’ portray the enemy as mentally deficient, and exchange the arduous blood-soaked battles with victories that are easily won. This doesn’t just distort history, this doesn’t respect the martyrs that defended this country with their lives. These shows will no doubt have a negative impact on the public, in particular upon the values of young people and upon their perspective of history.

Zuo Heng, researcher at the National Film Art Research Center, said there should be a distinction between historically accurate War of Resistance war dramas and “God shows”:

Many War of Resistance serials portray the enemy as being extremely stupid, something that is most irresponsible.

Sun Chengjian, deputy researcher of the Film and TV Research Wing of the National Art Research Center, said there is something much greater at stake when considering the global impact these shows have on the international stage:

Think about it, our film and television products should have a degree of influence of soft power when distributed to other countries, but all of this is completely eliminated by the massive production of cheap and inferior ‘War of Resistance God shows’ in which the Japs are torn apart by hand.

Meanwhile, Chinese war propaganda is alive and well in the USA with the broadcast of a WWII veterans video in New York City’s Times Square.

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…leaving us with some mightily over-wrought symbolism. The Xinhua report says that the V-shaped Great Wall represents not only the victory but the unity of the Chinese nation. A wall is an unusual symbol of unity.A wall is an unusual symbol of unity, and it sounds like a last-minute addition to the list of underlying messages that had to be crammed into the design. The doves bear an even greater burden in this respect:

The five pigeons demonstrate the memory of history and the aspiration for peace, representing people from the five continents united and moving together towards a beautiful future after going through “bloods [sic] and fire.”

But wait – the poor birds aren’t finished:

The doves also symbolize the Chinese people … flying to a future of great rejuvenation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China…

They could have said the bold red colour of the ‘70’ represents the rejuvenation Communist blah-blah – thus leaving the doves to signify only the nice cuddly brotherhood-of-man stuff – but maybe that was too goes-without-saying, and the Party wanted more.

The logo is busy in terms of symbolism because the anniversary itself has to convey multiple meanings. The event, including a military parade in Beijing, has to stress the Chinese victimhood thing, and the Communist Party-to-the-nation’s-rescue thing. But it also has to lay on a specifically anti-Japanese message, while paying lip-service to future international cooperation and peace. Given the Communist Party’s difficulties in calibrating finesse and good grace, Western countries will apparently downplay their presence at the celebrations.

The Xinhua story says that the graphic may not be used for commercial purposes. It’s unlikely that anyone would want a Chinese-logo T-shirt without the usual friendly smiling panda bear. And the red-and-yellow colour scheme is a turnoff, with the Leninist, Maoist and other sinister connotations. As the alternatives below show, even with its plodding grim symbolism, the design could have been jazzed up for extra ‘soft power’ and all-round coolness. That said, perhaps with Hong Kong’s forthcoming September 3 Victory over Japan public holiday in mind, it would make a good label for a beer bottle…

A nagging thought… Is there a piece of shadow missing from the inside of the zero in the ‘70’ (as corrected on the right)?

These things irritate me.

The post China’s Jam-Packed 70th Anniversary of World War II Logo – With No Panda appeared first on The Nanfang.

Jump for joy, there won’t be any work on September 3 this year as China has just created a new holiday to commemorate the end of World War II, otherwise known in China as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

The holiday actually means you’ll get three days off work: Thursday, September 3; Friday, September 4; and Saturday, September 5. However, in fine Chinese holiday tradition, you’ll have to work on Sunday, September 6 to make up for all that time off.

This year, Mid-Autumn Festival (September 27) falls on a Sunday, so people wondered if there would be a make-up day thrown in there somewhere. This, they think, is it.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war. President Xi Jinping represented China at a parade commemorating the event in Russia over the weekend, the largest ever held by the former Communist state.

There’s no word yet if this new holiday will become a permanent one in the years to come.

Related:

• Chinese University Says Deadly Shanghai Stampede Proof Western Holidays Shouldn’t Be Celebrated in China
• China’s Antiquated National Holiday System Could Be Overhauled
• “Pink Holidays” Proposed Each Month in China For Menstruating Women

The post China Has Gone and Created a Brand New Holiday in September This Year appeared first on The Nanfang.

Tensions between China and Japan continue to run high thanks to the dispute over the Senkaku/Dioayu islands, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, and Japan’s latest attempt to revise its anti-war constitution to give it more freedom to engage in military activities when its allies are under attack.

To express their distaste for all things Japanese, women dressed as Chinese soldiers staged a skit on July 7, which marked the 77^th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident, which kicked off Japan’s invasion of China.

Women wielded their weapons at a pudgy-looking man playing a Japanese solider in Laojun Mountain in Henan Province. The Japanese soldier happened to have a toothbrush moustache inconspicuously placed on top of his upper lip. This facial feature has become a trademark for any Japanese soldier depicted in China’s patriotic anti-Japanese films and TV dramas.

The Japanese stand-in knelt in front of a giant golden statue of Lao Zi, founder of Taoism, and confessed his crimes that included murder, arson, poisoning, and rape. He was also seen “learning to write the Chinese character ren (meaning “human” in English)”, the Guangming reported. The character ren (人) only consists of two strokes, and the newspaper went on to say “it contains profound wisdom of how to be a human”, hinting that the Japanese seem to have failed to comprehend it.

The central government is promoting other campaigns to mark the anniversary, and Xi Jinping has commemorated the event. Dancing grannies in Beijing have even incorporated Japanese-bashing into their dance routines.

Most online comments criticized the Henan skit. It was mainly labelled as a ludicrous “travesty“. One Weibo user wrote: “Somewhere, (people) are using their own countrymen to portray a ‘Japanese bastard’ in a movie-style to promote anti-Japanese education. When commemoration becomes a travesty, it is a real distortion of that grim episode of history”.

Photos: icpress.cn, Weibo

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Crackdowns on granny dancing aren’t anything new, but a stalwart troupe of granny dancers in Beijing may be looking to evade any criticism by changing the way they dance. This group has moved away from traditional fan dances and scarf waving seen in plazas around the country, instead turning to that other cultural institution: bashing the Japanese.

A group of dancers was recently seen performing near the Raffle City shopping mall in Dongzhimen, Beijing. There, granny dancers armed with toy AK-47s danced in formation and waved their replica firearms in the air in an activity described as “killing bastards”.

A man carrying a gun and wearing the hat of a 1940s Japanese imperialist soldier served as the focal point for the dancers. According to 163, the man reportedly wore a T-shirt that said “Jap bastard”. As part of the performance, the man dutifully raised his weapon and surrendered.

We can only suppose the off-Broadway dinner theater musical Nanjing! Nanjing! will open next.

Related:

• “Long-Legged Foreign Babe” Takes Lesson from “Dancing Auntie”
• Armed Police to Keep Foshan Gaokao Examinations Quiet from Dancing Aunties

Photos: 163

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