Issued on: 19/08/2022 – 17:19
In a video reportedly shot on Aug. 10, a police officer accused a young Chinese woman wearing a kimono, a traditional Japanese outfit, of “causing trouble” before arresting her. The scene, which has been going viral online since August 14, has been the subject of debate on Chinese social networks, 77 years after Japan’s surrender in World War II.
The controversy that has fueled Chinese social networks in recent days involves a cosplayer, a person who dresses up as a Japanese manga and anime character. The cosplayer shared on her Weibo account, the equivalent of Twitter in China, a video in which a police officer accuses her of wearing a Japanese kimono.
In the video, she can be seen from behind facing a police officer. She wears a blonde wig and a pink floral kimono, similar to the one worn by the heroine of the Japanese anime”Daylight Saving Time Display(2022). She explained on her Weibo account (archive link available here) that she was standing in line with her photographer outside a Japanese restaurant after a photo shoot on Aug. 10 when police arrived.
A young Chinese woman was taken away by local police in Suzhou on Wednesday for wearing a kimono. “If you were wearing Hanfu (Chinese traditional dress), I would never have said this, but you wear a kimono, as a Chinese. You are Chinese!” pic.twitter.com/et8vWOferQ
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) August 15, 2022
Video originally posted on Weibo account “是影子不是本人”.
— bridgeduan (@bridgeduan) August 16, 2022
A video circulating on Twitter shows the cosplayer being taken away by the police and another man in front of her. The cosplayer had indicated that she was with her photographer.
In the original video, which had been viewed nearly 8 million times before it was removed, the young woman is confronted by police officers. A police officer tells her in Chinese, “If you were wearing a hanfu there would be no problem, but you are wearing a kimono and you are Chinese. Are you Chinese?”
The woman takes offense and the policeman tells her that she is suspected of “causing a nuisance”.
Daylight saving time display of final coloring pages to commemorate the end in the Shonen Jump+ app. In addition to the TV anime and Live-Action adaptations, an Escape Game will be created based on the series. pic.twitter.com/sRPlFDy226
— Shonen Jump News – Unofficial (@WSJ_manga) January 31, 2021
A scene from “Summer Time Rendering” that the cosplayer wanted to reproduce, where the heroine wears the Yukata (summer kimono) worn by the cosplayer and eats Takoyaki (octopus fritters) available at the restaurant she queued at.
The scene took place in the city of Suzhou, a neighboring city of Shanghai. More specifically, on Huaihai Street, known for its many Japanese restaurants and shops, where the cosplayer explains that she was going to recreate several scenes from an anime series.
According to the young woman’s account on social networks, she was interrogated for nearly five hours before being released. Suzhou police have not officially responded or responded to requests from various media outlets such as The Guardian, nor have they officially announced any sanctions against the cosplayer. According to CNN, the young woman explained on her profile on the “Qzone” platform that the police asked her to write a letter of apology.
Between nationalist criticism and photos of supporters in kimonos
The video has sparked widespread online debate, against a backdrop of heightened anti-Japanese sentiment in China to mark the 77th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries remain tense, with China arguing that Japan has failed to adequately apologize for abuses committed during the war, most notably the 1937 Nanjing massacre. Tensions are currently particularly high as Japan blames China of threatening the peace by conducting military exercises in the Taiwan Strait.
On Weibo, several posts criticized the young woman for wearing traditional Japanese clothing in such a context.
“Japan’s national outfit shouldn’t be in this country!” says this Weibo post, alongside others with a similar sentiment. © Weibo
A Weibo post from the Chinese Communist Youth League recalling that the Japanese military forced “comfort women” (women who made sex slaves during the Japanese invasion of China during World War II) to wear kimonos. “The heinous crimes committed by Japanese militarism against the Chinese people are too numerous to forget,” the post concludes. © Weibo
Others said the officer overreacted, saying the young woman wore the outfit on August 10, not August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender.
The post says, “To be honest, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a person wearing a kimono or western dress, it’s a matter of human freedom.” © Weibo
“Congratulations, you patriots, for what you are doing in addition to intimidating your compatriots,” this Weibo post jokes. © Weibo
Some Chinese women have posted photos of themselves in kimonos in support, such as this young woman who posted a photo of herself in kimono in Japan in 2016. This photo was also picked up and heavily criticized on Weibo. © Weibo
It’s hard to give a full rundown on the reaction to the incident, though: CNN claimed a related Weibo hashtag has been censored after racking up 90 million views.
For his part, the news site What’s on Weibo notes that on the night of the controversy, state broadcaster CCTV promoted a topic on Weibo about China’s hanfu, the equivalent of the Japanese kimono.