Schadenfreude and Sympathy in Shanghai

[RandySF]

Late Friday afternoon at the Hengshan Road Starbucks in Shanghai's French Concession, most of the customers were browsing iPhones, laptops, and -- in the corner -- an iPad. A few hours earlier, news of the devastating Japanese earthquake had ricocheted across Chinese sites, becoming the third-ranked trending topic of the day on Baidu, the country's leading search engine, with 2.5 million searches for "Japan earthquake" as of 5:30 p.m. -- just a few hours after the event, and, according to a tweeted account, racking up more than 8 million mentions on the country's leading microblogging service, Sina Weibo. "Anything like this is going to trend," said Kaiser Kuo, director of international communications for Baidu in a call from Beijing. "Chinese user behavior isn't different than anywhere else. But the reaction to the news can be, of course, quite different."

At Starbucks I tapped the shoulder of a thirty-ish young man in a dark suit whom I noticed switching between his email, Chinese news sites, and a stream of microblogged comments on a relatively new Lenovo laptop. His family name is Cai, he told me, and he works for a machine parts manufacturer with clients in Japan. "I feel bad for my customers," he said in extremely polished English. "This is really going to hurt their orders and probably us too." When I asked him if he sensed sympathy from the Chinese netizens he was following on his screen, he laughed uncomfortably. "Not everybody in China has such warm feelings for Japan." How about you, I asked. "I feel for my customers!"

Though it's nearly impossible to characterize how the world's largest population of Internet users feels about a particular event, even a brief, afternoon trawl through the comments left on the country's vibrant and chaotic forums shows two most predictable strains: first, a strain of tender sympathy that was so movingly expressed in the aftermath of 2008's devastating Wenchuan earthquake (often appended with a call to "pray for Japan"); second, a darker, celebratory strain frequently invoking variations of the phrase "Warmly welcome the Japanese earthquake." To an extent, both of these reactions are quite predictable, especially -- in the last case -- considering the deep ambivalence toward Japan felt at all levels of Chinese society.


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/11/schadenfreude_and_sympathy_in_shanghai

[KT2000]

1. I am worried about radiation

reaching Shanghai - SIL is there now.

[aquart]

2. "Ambivalence"?

Is that the right way to say "hate their guts"?

[Old and In the Way]

3. I'm not totally surprised that Chinese reaction would be conflicted.

The Japanese occupation of China is not that far removed from general society...many have grandparents that still remember those years of extreme atrocity. Obviously, times have changed and Japan is close enough in trade and location that these generational animosities are muted and present day realities are more relevant to the situation at hand.

[RandySF]

4. I was once in Shanghai

When, in 2003, a girl in her early 20's said to me "I HATE the Japanese. I hate them!!" I thought it was a bit strong for someone several decades removed from WWII.

[Esra Star]

5. When the USA forgets Pearl Harbor

The Chinese will forget Nanking.
I think we're talking twelfth of never here.

[Old and In the Way]

7. You are correct...

here's a thread that underscores your point. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=624134&mesg_id=624134 And our Japan haters seem to gloss over our civilian bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the case of the Chinese, their animosity towards the Japanese is certainly more understandable.

[Old and In the Way]

6. I certainly believe it.

Shanghai was one of the places where those atrocities occurred. Who knows what her family might have experienced during the 30's. Those stories were told 1st hand in many cases, so it's entirely understandable that there are Chinese who'll never forgive the Japanese for the pain and suffering that they inflicted on many Chinese during those times.