Patriotic Mobs

The anti-Japanese demonstration in China has evolved into riots in several cities as the Chinese surveillance ships approached Diaoyu Island. Xi'an, once the capital of China in ten dynasties in history, witnessed an organized riot on September 15, when hooligans and ruffians held wrench, hammer, iron rods and other "weapons", destroyed several Japanese restaurants and chain stores (some of them were found out to be Singapore's or Taiwan's) and burned down Japanese cars which are owned by Chinese citizens. One car owner was injured as mobs overturned his Toyota car when he was still sitting inside. The riot should be one of the biggest sarcasm for Xi'an, who always boasts itself as an emblem for Chinese ancient civilization. Later a few riot "leaders" were arrested, and it turned out that most of them are notorious habitual criminals. Therefore we should ask at least two questions:

Why people followed these criminals? I'd assume that when people took to the street, they meant for a peaceful demonstration. However when mobs started to beat people, smash store and set fires, why the crowd didn't stop them? Well a few protesters did stop mobs from beating a young mother and her daughter who were sitting in their Japanese car when the mobs came, but most pictures showed onlookers were just watching numbly.

Why the mainstream media remained silent at the riots? Xi'an was not the only city falling in chaos yesterday, similar riots were found in Guiyang, Beijing and many other cities. The riots were understated as "rational and restrained protests", and more demonstrations were expected to take place in the next few days under the ambiguous attitudes from mainstream media who usually represent intentions from the central government. The entire event became even more intriguing when one of the leading mobs was found to be a local government official.

A comment from Weibo answered the first question very well. It says, as I quote, that the riots are "a brilliant demonstration of the achievement of brainwash by the CCP." After decades of communist propaganda through well-designed history books and strictly censored movies, Chinese anti-Japanese nationalism has been well formed based on stereotypes and misconceptions. People may find it wrong to smash cars made in other countries, but they believe it's patriotic to "fight against Japan" in doing so. Another disastrous result from the brainwash, which is probably much worse than the former, is to deprive people of the capacity of independent thinking. Le Bon may argue that collective irrationality applies to any group in the world, but it has been so perfectly reflected in today's China. Despite the implementation of nine-year compulsory education in the last three decades, people seemed to forget all about laws, justice or morals, but watched atrocities apathetically and sometimes even excitedly.

The answer to the second question is much more puzzling. Rumors say the media couldn't form a unified view due to the power games in the high level; but it could also be an official acquiescence for potential anti-Japanese riots in the future. For whatever reason it is, mainstream medias in China again embarrasses themselves by confounding black and white and abandoning professional ethics. Obviously medias won't claim responsibilities for potential damages produced by their misleading reports, but how much could they benefit by stirring up troubles? We don't know.

Decades ago, a Chinese satirist Lu Xun has vividly pictured some bad habits that are deeply rooted in contemporary countrymen. In one of his books, he created a character called Ah Q who hates but sucks up to the strong and bullies the weak, just like today's "patriotic" mobs who dare not to go to Diaoyu Island or join the army but are very proud to burn down other Chinese citizens' Japanese cars. Lu Xun also described in another fiction about how onlookers indifferently watched an execution of a hero, which is paralleled to the crowd looking at and conniving the outrage. More than half a century has passed since Lu Xun published his books, but his readers are unfortunately repeating their ancestors, at least in yesterday's China.