Japanese Invasion and Discriminatory terms

[dalaowai]

I'm working on a psychology paper discussing how the Japanese people, newspapers, government viewed Chinese people at the fall of the Qing Dynasty, pre-war and immediate post-war times.

I'm looking for a source that can confirm that the Japanese discriminated against the Chinese by viewing/calling them 亞洲病夫 (sick man of asia) during these times. Also the term 支那 (Shina) in Japanese.

Good old Wikipedia reports it, however no sources.

Any help or opinions would are welcome!

[Lugubert]

There's a long discussion on Japanese Expressions for "China", with a certain emphasis on Shina, here.

If the Japanese would have found "Shina" derogatory, I think there wouldn't have been a market for the song "Shina no yoru" (China Night), popular during the years preceding WWII. It's for example on a 78 rpm record by Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan

Translation of its end:

Forever, I will remember / Even after we separated, / Ah, China night, / A dream night.

[889]

The OED shows the following appearing in the Japan Times of March 30, 1897:

"Mr Valentine Chirol, who shortly after the war published in the London Times a series of remarkable articles exposing the rottenness of China . . . has recently been in the East again . . . and has commenced a second series of equally striking articles on the 'Sick Man of Asia'."

[leeyah]

支那 (シナin Japanese) seems to have originated in China proper from the Chinese transcription of Sanskrit word for China, and originally wasn't derogatory in meaning. The trouble seems to have started when 大支那共和国 was officially used by early 20th century Japanese government in place of 大中华民国, and 支那人 for 中华人民, and copiously misused during the Sino-Japanese War (中日战争).

二战时期，日本使用支那这个词汇的原因并不是基于以上的理由，而是因为日本人认为中国人不配享有中央之国的称呼，更主要的是，如果我们是中央之国，那他们就成了东夷了，从此支那的含义中就带有了攻击性的内涵

i.e.:The Japanese thought China unworthy of the central position in the world, as the Chinese name 中华 implied.

Even the Chinese nowadays seem to use the word 支那人 to name those among themselves who are a disgrace to the nation, the despicable 小人, non-patriots or traitors, for example.

Other Japanese derogatory terms included (baka) chankoro (バカ)チャンコロ for (stupid) chink, chanchan チャンチャン = 猪尾巴猪尾巴 in Chinese, and bozu（秃子) same as the later derogatory *豚尾奴. Bozu was allegedly used by Japanese kids in play to denote bald-headed chinamen, and later again abused by Japan, and, of course 畜生 (mongrel)

You can read about it >> here

Here's also a short quote from Baiduzhidao on the connotation of 支那 (シナ) :

可就在五年前，我在日本留学的时候，日本学校给我准备的学籍表上填写的就是支那人孔昭绶。每次遇到日本人的时候，他们都会说，看，支那人来了。他们当时说话的表情，我想我这一辈子都不会忘记！那是一种看到了怪物、看到了异类、看到了某种不洁净的东西、看到了一头猪混到了人群里，才会表现出的轻蔑和鄙夷！于是，我就去查字典，我不相信日本人的字典，我查的是荷兰人出的1901年的《荷兰大百科通用词典》。我查到了：“支那，中国的贬义称呼，常用于日本语，亦指愚蠢的、精神有问题的中国人。

The excuse behind the derogatory 亚洲病夫 / 东亚病夫 'Sick Man of Asia', is said to have been the instability and inner fractionating & tumult during the Qing Dynasty. The same goes for チャンチャン & 秃子, the *obligatory head-fashion for all Chinese under the Manchus.

You can read on 东亚病夫, 鲁迅 & 李小龙 >> here, and you can also just 自己 百度一下 for more sources.

And, yes, for those interested, the Chinese response to those insults nowadays includes 日本鬼, 狗日的小日本 or 小日本畜生, and some less polite sentences & expressions, but if you'll excuse me, I'll leave the introduction of those to others ....

Edited June 20, 2009 at 10:57 AM by leeyah
date typo for republic ;)

[dalaowai]

Wow! thanks for all the great info everyone! Looks like I've got lots of reading to go through.

[zozzen]

not sure if its relevant or not.

The English term "Chinese" has raised some concerns too. Some Chinese assert it's a derogatory term, luckily so far no any widely acceptable alternatives so they keep it.

Maybe one day we'd be named as Chinian, Hanian, Hanese, Zhongguoese, Zhongguoian, Huaren, Huanese, Huaian. Ah... that's not important at all because the Chinese language would take over the world as a lingua franca. So we only say 中国人.

[stonelee]

Here is a joke about Chinese football team,but it can help you to imagine the relationship between Chinese and Japanese.

有个人遇到了上帝(Someone met the god.)

上帝说要实现他一个愿望(God said he will made one of his dream come true.)

那个人对上帝说：“把日本沉了吧”(The man said:"Please make Japan sink.")

上帝说：“这个有点难度，要不你换个愿望吧”(God said:"It's a little difficult,you should change a wish.")

那个人想了想以后对上帝说：“那让中国男足在世界杯小组出线吧”(The man thinking and then said:"Let Chinese football team qualified for the World Cup.")

上帝听完以后擦了擦额头上的汗说(God wiped his sweat and said:"Give me your globe,I will try to sink Japan..... ")

“你去把地球仪拿来，我看能不能把日本沉了.....................”

一个电视剧中的片段 ，can help you to understand what they did and what our Chinese people thinking about them.Recommend!

Edited June 28, 2009 at 01:00 PM by stonelee

[stonelee]

I'm looking for a source that can confirm that the Japanese discriminated against the Chinese by viewing/calling them 亞洲病夫 (sick man of asia) during these times. Also the term 支那 (Shina) in Japanese.

Here are some Japanese pictures during these times can confirm them discriminated against the Chinese.

日本支那事变画报.jpg

日本造彩瓷地球仪.gif

不知羞耻！日本侵华老兵解释为何称中国人“支那”

What they did to Chinese people will never being fogoten!

Edited June 28, 2009 at 12:59 PM by stonelee

[dumdumdum]

the discrimination thing existed, but was also largely escalated due to war tensions between the 2 nations.

the word 支那 was also used by KMT govt in china. chinese history textbooks, chinese maps at that time, chinese media, all used the term. japanese started using it probably after the meiji restoration, to keep itself in-line with europeans. the western word for china is china, cine or maybe chine, in various european languages. this is also why 'sinology' and 'sinologists', all came from the same latin word. so japan follow suit, to tell westerners that it is also a modernised country. later on, the chinese themselves did the same, as an evidence of modernisation.

but as war broke out, that of cos became a mocking phrase, and the chinese banned the word after WW2. there were other translations of china at that time, from buddhists scriptures. rev xuanzang used the term 震旦, when he translated buddhists scriptures in tang dynasty. some japanese publications still used the term in 1930s, but certainly it is a bad omen for japan. japan being the country of the rising sun, and 震旦 means 'trembling the sun'... 'cina' would be more neutral.

[dumdumdum]

not sure if its relevant or not.

The English term "Chinese" has raised some concerns too. Some Chinese assert it's a derogatory term, luckily so far no any widely acceptable alternatives so they keep it.

Maybe one day we'd be named as Chinian, Hanian, Hanese, Zhongguoese, Zhongguoian, Huaren, Huanese, Huaian. Ah... that's not important at all because the Chinese language would take over the world as a lingua franca. So we only say 中国人.

that is just some uneducated ranting of chinese ultra-nationalists. to stir up emnity against foreigners.

china was once called 'chinean', back in the age of sails. the latino countries were the first explorers so they named places and people latino style, with all the '-an' or '-ean'. after that the brits came into power it became english style, with all the '-nese'. simple language usage thing. the one with the most influence gets the say.

same thing for 东亚病夫, it was not a japanese invention, but possibly a british/overseas chinese creation. china participated in 1932 LA olympics and 1936 Munich olympics. if my memory served me right, it was after the 1936 olympics, only one chinese athelete made it into the finals, out of a delegation of 139 people. after that the local 'straits times' newspaper in singapore, then a british colony, used the term 东亚病夫 to make fun of the chinese reps. but of cos, during the war everything bad must have been the work of the japanese.