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This week we explore online conversations about the right to wear what you want in China.
It’s a journey which takes us from Song Dynasty poetry, to Japanese Manga, to censorship in China today.
A Chinese blogger dressed in a kimono (和服 hé fú) is where we begin.
She describes herself as a ‘cosplayer’, someone who dresses up as a fictitious character normally from anime or manga (漫画 màn huà), photographed reenacting a scene from a story.
There is no Chinese word for cosplay, it just appears as the English, or the shortened, ‘cos’:
穿上和服，在拍照，原本是想cos漫画中某个场景 - I was wearing a kimono and being photographed as I wanted to cosplay a Manga scene.
The outfit a cosplayer wears is simply called a ‘c - 服’ in Chinese.
On the evening of 10 August in Suzhou’s ‘Little Tokyo’ district, home to Japanese businesses and restaurants, the cosplaying woman dressed in her kimono was approached and taken away by police.
She had just finished being photographed reenacting a scene from a Japanese Manga series, when approached by the local police officer asking what she was up to, and why she was wearing a kimono:
如果你穿汉服来，我绝对不会这样说，是吧，但是你穿和服，作为中国人来说，你是中国人！你是中国人吗？
If you were wearing a Hanfu, I wouldn’t bother you like this would I? But you’re wearing a kimono and are a Chinese! You’re a Chinese!
The cosplayer was eventually taken away for 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble', 寻衅滋事 xún xìn zī shì in Chinese.
She was released five hours later.
The story hit the top of social media rankings on 15 August, with the release of the video, a post on Weibo on her own account and at least one from a friend who was there.
There’s some excellent language hidden in the comments, and commentary in the media, with references to the Song Dynasty (poetry, betrayal and death), mixed with modern Internet slang.
Some slang words, for example, are written as romanised ‘pinyin’ acronyms:
JC = 警察 jǐng chá - police
ZZ = 政治 zhèng zhì - politics
As always, a few keyboard warriors had their say, but overall netizen comments were sympathetic to her right to wear what she wants:
穿个和服紧张成这样，其内心有多恐惧啊！
Wearing a kimono has become this stressful? She must be terrified!
好好生活，努力工作，比你去管人家去哪里旅游看花，去开什么车，吃什么料理，穿哪国民族服装要正能量得多。请不要对私人生活进行ZZ审判
Living life and working hard is much better than focussing on where people go on holidays, what car they’re driving, or where their clothes are from. Please don’t politicise people’s private life!
On 20 August, the cosplayer was interviewed in Beijing Youth Times (北京青年报). Although that interview has since been taken down, there’s a lot of discussion about it in other press articles.
So that’s what we discuss this week!
Favourite Five
1. 今夕是何年 jīn xī shì hé nián
what year are we living in?
请问在街上走就是寻衅滋事了？... 今夕是何年？Is walking down the street picking fights and provoking trouble? ....What year are we in?
Note: a line from a well-known poem by Song Dynasty poet, Sū Shì 苏轼. It’s used as a subtle criticism here - read more in SupChina phrase of the week.
2. 莫须有 mò xū yǒu
a groundless or fabricated accusation
寻衅滋事，这个罪真他妈无敌，简直就是当代莫须有 - Picking fights and starting quarrels is an unbeatable accusation, it’s like a modern version of Qin’s groundless accusation of Yue.
Note: A reference to Yuè Fēi岳飞 who was a Chinese military general in the Southern Song dynasty, known for leading Southern Song forces in the wars in the 12th century between Southern Song and the Jin dynasty in northern China. Yue was put to death by the Southern Song government (his own side) in 1142 under a concocted charge, after a negotiated peace was achieved with the help of Yue. ‘Mò xū yǒu’ was the phrase used by the Southern Song Chancellor, Qín Huì 秦桧, to suggest: ‘perhaps there was evidence?’ In modern Chinese the phrase - which I translate as ‘Qin’s accusation of Yue’ - is a metaphor for making groundless accusations against somebody.
3. 二次元 èr cì yuán
2-dimensional; Japanese influenced media; ‘Nijigen’ in Japanese
我是个coser，喜欢二次元文化，除了和服，也喜欢汉服 - I’m a cosplayer. I like Nijigen culture. But apart from kimono, I also like to wear Hanfu.
Related:
二次元经济 èr cìyuán jīngjì - Nijigen economics - big business in China
二次元文化 èr cìyuán wénhuà: the thriving subculture associated with comics and Manga in China - which includes cosplaying - ‘Nijigen culture’.
4. 小粉红 xiǎo fěn hóng
‘small pink fans’; pro-CCP Internet trolls
我知道可能有小粉红要冲我但是没关系这样可以双删了 - I know I’ll probably be attacked by pro-CCP Internet trolls but I don’t care. We can just unfriend each other.
Related: 公知 gōng zhī - public intellectual (derogatory)
5. 欲加之罪，何患无辞 yù jiā zhī zuì, hé huàn wú cí
If you want to punish someone, you can always find excuses
真是寻衅滋事，一招通吃，欲加之罪，何患无辞 - This really is picking fights and causing quarrels. It covers everything. If you want to punish someone, you can always find a reason to do so.
Note: traced to Zuǒ Qiūmíng 左丘明, a historian alive during the Warring States period (453 - 221 BC), and a contemporary of Confucius.
Consuming the conversation
Useful words
怒火 nù huǒ
anger
不少网友以为这件事发生在8月15日，也就瞬间点燃起了网友的怒火 - Lots of netizens thought this happened on 15 August which caused a lot of anger online
Note: a reference to the date on which Japan surrendered at the end of WWII.
滋味 zī wèi
taste
看到一名小姑娘说出这么沉重的话，让人心里很不是滋味 - It’s uncomfortable to see a girl be put in a position where she has to say such serious things.
殆尽 dài jìn
exhausted
唯有如此，才能挽回已经被一名法盲警察折腾到近乎殆尽的执法公信力 - This is the only way to rebuild trust in law enforcement after someone was treated so badly by a police officer who is blind to the law.
坍塌 tān tā
collapse
人治战胜了法治吗？维系社会运行的逻辑和规则终将一夜坍塌 - Have people overridden the law? The logic and system for managing society is on the brink of collapse.
鹰酱 yīng jiàng
‘eagle sauce’; America
古有胡服骑射，今有摸着鹰酱过河。我们更应该发扬“以我为主，兼容并包，和同为一”的中华民族的伟大精神 - In ancient times there was ‘adopting Hu tribe's clothing and learning their cavalry archery’; in modern times we’ve learned much from the US. But now we should focus on the Chinese spirit of ‘the self, tolerance, and living together.’
Background: 鹰酱 yīng jiàng is a character in the Chinese webcomic, Year Hare Affair (那年那兔那些事儿), in which animals represent nations. The US is an eagle called 鹰酱 yīng jiàng, which has become Internet slang (with a derogatory twist) for the country.
Three-character phrases
大麻袋 dà má dài
large hemp bag; a catch-all
寻衅滋事真是一个大麻袋，什么东西都可以往里装 - Picking fights and starting quarrels is so broad. It can pretty much mean anything.
Note: this metaphor isn’t that common but it’s a great and authentic way to make this point.
扣帽子 kòu mào zi
put on a hat; label something negatively
