Posts Tagged ‘nationalism’

Korean monks tear down evil Japanese fence

A group of Buddhist monks at Beomeosa in Busan show their national pride for Korea’s “Liberation Day” by tearing down a stone fence that was apparently built during the Japanese occupation. [via Brian in Jeollanam-do]

Meanwhile, South Korean netizens are outraged by the existence of a Japanese poop character that is meant to insult their great nation.

The character, a part of the unlucky group of the Unko-san turd collection, can be seen in the upper right hand corner of this image. His name is “Kim Ben,” and he is described as, “A tough high school student who is easily angered.” He also “loves kimchi.” Kim Ben’s classification as unlucky, along with his small-eyed appearance are apparently examples of Japanese hatred of Korea.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Why Japanese (and not Koreans) won 2 Nobel prizes for literature

A South Korean teacher explains why no Koreans have won a Nobel prize for literature:

His statement of “fact”: Korean is superior to all other languages. Japan, a culturally inferior nation, has won two Nobel prizes for literature because Japanese is a crude language that is so simple to translate into English. Korean, on the other hand, is harder to translate into other languages because it is so damn exquisite and beautiful.

[hat tip to Mulboyne]

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Related story: VANK, South Korea’s leading ultra-nationalist organization, giving away laptop computers to foreign bloggers who write positive things about Korea. Maybe some of you out there can borrow this guy’s idea about the superiority of Korean and get a chance at some prizes…

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Anti-Japanese mob surrounds international dormitory in Shanghai

Some trouble broke out at the Shanghai International Studies University after a group of drunk Japanese students returning from a birthday party made some noise near Chinese student dormitories between 9 and 10PM on Monday night:

Students from the apartments protested, and some of them threw empty plastic bottles from the balconies, according to the statement. The revellers then got abusive, according to some reports.

Japanese students then went to the ninth floor and knocked on several doors. A fresh round of quarrels broke out between the Japanese and Chinese students, according to the statement. The situation was brought under control by security guards.

A witness told Shanghai Daily that more than 100 people had gathered outside the students’ dorm. But the Japanese students continued to be abusive as they left the building. This in turn angered local students.

Check out ChinaSmack for some translations of Chinese BBS postings from students apparently involved in the incident. Here’s an excerpt from one posting about the situation after the police arrived and apparently took away a few drunk Japanese students:

4-5 police cars came and escorted the little Japanese away. One Japanese who had drank too much was also sent to the hospital.

Throughout all of this we were screaming fuck Japan, fuck your mothers, etc…the entire school was very magnificent…I estimate over 80% of the guys had come downstairs…

Seeing as how they did not even give a single apology, and were so arrogant, students who could not accept the situation shouted, “Rush the international guest house!”

So the big team [crowd] again changed to rushing the international guest house.

People started yelling, fuck Japan, little Japanese, fuck your mother, etc. One by one the lights in the international guest house flickered on.

There were foreigners upstairs taking pictures (this was indeed embarrassing), and people from other countries were sticking their country’s flags on their windows, afraid we would charge up there and accidentally cause them harm.

The situation was brought under control a few hours later, with police and security having prevented the angry mob from actually storming the international dormitory.

[hat tip to Jay K.]

Press criticizes decision to display Japanese flag at official government briefings

When Finance Ministers in other countries appear before the press, it is quite common to see national flags displayed behind them. However, when Japan’s new finance minister suggested such a practice, some members of the press criticized the move:

Press club members were divided over Nakagawa’s move.

“I’m opposed to it,” said one club member. “Mr. Nakagawa is a hawk. There is a political intention to what he is trying to do.”

Another saw nothing wrong with displaying the Hinomaru in the briefing room.

A third said the issue comes down to individual choice and thus the press club shouldn’t try to come up with a unified response to the ministry’s plan.

In the end, press club members decided to ask the ministry to explain further its intention and to hold off on displaying the flag until members have a chance to thoroughly discuss the matter.

A similar case occurred in 1999 when Nakagawa was serving as agricultural minister. He clashed with press club members there after placing the Hinomaru in the press briefing room over the protests of the press club.

The article notes that half of Japan’s government ministries display the national flag in their briefing rooms.