> Do keep in mind, of course, that not all Chinese people are the same.
That's a snarky comment.
Obviously not everyone raised in a given country holds identical views, but there are real differences in cultures and beliefs between countries (especially those with centrally managed media).
It's a gentle reminder to all who read things like this that Chinese people are individuals too, and don't all subscribe to the same beliefs. The notion that the modern Chinese person is racist towards the Japanese is pretty laughable, for example.
A "gentle reminder" that a 1.4 billion group of people are not identical is about as condescending as it gets.
> The notion that the modern Chinese person is racist towards the Japanese is pretty laughable, for example.
It's hard to see how anyone with any familiarity with China who does not themselves hate Japanese would laugh at this.
Not only is there widespread hatred of Japan (including Japanese people whose parents weren't even born during WWII), but it's fanned by the government[1]. Anti-Japanese specials run on TV during national week and over 200 anti-Japanese films are produced in China every year. In some cases anti-Japanese films are censored for being too moderate. A well known example is the 2000s war film, Devils at the Doorstep, which was nationally banned for including a scene where one Japanese soldier was friendly with Chinese villagers.
Despite your implication that modern China suffers less from this, surveys have shown that anti-Japanese sentiment in China is higher among the current generation than among the Chinese who lived through the war occupation. [2]
Personal anecdote is the weakest form of argument in this kind of debate, but I'll also add that while living on the mainland, I've personally received criticism simply for having befriended several Japanese students during my uni days.
What's really weird about Devils at the Doorstep being banned - SPOILERS eventually the Japanese killed everyone in that village and the Japanese soldiers were not punished because of the ending of World War 2.
