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ChinaSmack translates a post found on Tianya (now deleted) on a violent fight between Japanese and Chinese students at the Shanghai International Studies University that's said to have taken place on Monday:
At present, the police, including the special police present, have already dispatched 10 police vehicles to maintain order, and the gathered crowd has just dispersed.From the pictures posted, it does look like a fight did take place on the SISU campus, although we have no way of verifying the specifics of the story. Any SISU students here has more information?On October 20, 2008, about 10 P.M., over ten Japanese students were getting drunk and causing a disturbance in the school square. Their noise could be heard from every corner of the campus, which made the boys living on the 9th floor of the boy’s dormitory extremely upset. To protest against the Japanese, the 9th floor students sprinkled some water on the Japanese, resulting in the ten Japanese directly charging into the dorm to beat the two boys so severely that they had to be sent to the hospital.
After the beating, the 10 Japanese immediately fled the dorm room, and the students who heard the news immediately rushed downstairs to confront the Japanese students. At the time, the situation was chaotic. The police immediately dispatched special police to escort and evacuate over 10 Japanese from the school. Not only was the square swarming with patriotic students, I estimate there were approximately several hundred people. Over 10 police vehicles came one by one to maintain order, with everyone standing around watching each other for about 20 minutes.
Under the direction of several students, the students sang the national anthem, marching to the international guest house [the dormitory for international/foreign/study abroad students] to continue their protest against Japanese people. However, the police blocked off the entrance to the international guest house. At this time, we could see Koreans also hanging up their Korean flag. As the student protests increased, there were some foreigners upstairs in the international guest house (it was too dark to see clearly) throwing glass bottles down, causing the situation to escalate…only after the person in charge of the school immediately put forward that the first three students who knew what happened come forth and communicate with the Japanese did the university students calm down and behave themselves.
Over 2 hours later, the matter finally quiet down…at the time there were people using cameras and video cameras to film, which will probably be uploaded onto the internet soon.
UPDATE: Shanghai Daily's report of the story, entitled "University downplays clash of students" after the jump:
THE Shanghai International Studies University yesterday admitted that a group of Chinese and Japanese students clashed on Monday night but said no one was hurt.The university put out a statement after the issue was widely discussed on online forums. Netizens reported how a fight had broken out at the Xianda College of Economics and Humanities in Hongkou District, resulting in injuries and protests on campus.
The institute is an independent private college under SISU and Shanghai Xianda Investment Co.
The university, however, played down the incident. It posted a statement on its website saying: "No student was hurt in the accidental dispute."
According to the statement, trouble started around 10pm on Monday when a group of Japanese students returned from a birthday celebration at a nearby restaurant. They hung around dormitories housing Chinese students and became boisterous.
Students from the apartments protested, and some of them threw empty plastic bottles from the balconies, according to the statement. The revellers then got abusive, according to some reports.
Japanese students then went to the ninth floor and knocked on several doors. A fresh round of quarrels broke out between the Japanese and Chinese students, according to the statement. The situation was brought under control by security guards.
A witness told Shanghai Daily that more than 100 people had gathered outside the students' dorm. But the Japanese students continued to be abusive as they left the building. This in turn angered local students.
A group of Chinese youngsters then gathered at the SISU guest hotel, where the Japanese students were staying. University officials, teachers and guards arrived on the scene and restored order.
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Sounds like alot of people at SISU need a good spanking.
Seriously, what a bunch of morons. Coming out en masse to sing national anthems. They should be embarrassed. I guess that's what a patriotic education will get you.
The language of this translation sounds biased from the way that it describes the Chinese students as having "sprinkled" water, which deliberately minimizes whatever they did. I assume that the account was given by one of the Chinese involved, if there were any first hand accounts given.
I am convinced that Chinese chauvinism will be a big problem around Asia, as China leverages it's diaspora to exert undue influence in other countries. What's really striking is the extent to which the diaspora expresses allegiance/sympathy with China even after many generations of separation.
I don't doubt there was a fight. The Japanese may have even started it. I question the use of this piece to describe it though. I know you don't have much more to go on, but this reads as an account from a biased source who got his/her news, at least of the original fight, second-hand.
"patriotic students"
"Japanese students were getting drunk and causing a disturbance in the school square" (causing a disturbance is an opinionated judgement)
"sprinkled some water" (Oh, is that all...?)
"to continue their protest against Japanese people" (not the Japanese perpetrators?)
"only after the person in charge of the school immediately put forward that the first three students who knew what happened come forth and communicate with the Japanese" (so all of this went on without communication with the Japanese?)
I would have thought the shanghaiiest learnt its lesson the last time when it reported second hard news about how a zillion chinese mobbed two white guys coming out of carrafore only for one of the guys to come public to state it didnt happen as reported.
what kind of story begins 'Overheard?'
overheard from what? two drunk men in a tiolet?
Confirmed, I had the exact same story from a SISU student that very night.
an SISU student who... read it on the internet???
I have a bunch of friends who got accosted in Shanghai by racist mobs over normal stuff. In nearly all cases the local girlfriends get called dirty sl*ts and traitors too.
It's pretty disappointing when it's young students taking part in racist mobs too. Never mind this story, which isn't really confirmed - does anyone remember the Xian Incident over a Japanese student performing in a freshers week skit? Scary stuff.
When I was at university, if someone had come by the dorm and said "Hey, let's all go down to X dorm, there's some Chinese there who insulted the Queen" or whatever, we would have said "F*ck you, racist assholes"
So an alleged big bad gang of big bad Japanese students attacks a couple of innocent Chinese students with bottles of water in the male dorm of a Chinese university? Yeah, that makes about as much sense as the KKK trying to lynch a single black man in Harlem, Compton or South Chicago.
More likely those ten Japanese students were just hanging out after dark and a bunch of drunk, single, man-ass grabbing fuck qingers went after them looking for fights and apologies for "looking down on China" and this BS story is what the Chinese students are coming up with.
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[COMMENT MODERATED]
fcuking hell
to nakamura
--"let's slaughter them'?
you'd say let's massacre them as in nanjing.
to nanheyangrouchuan,
you'll give you a weekend break for your azz maintenance. say thanks.
This is so retarded.
Imagine this happening in a university in America or England. I guess that's the difference between China and the West. Chinese students are ultra-nationalist neo-nazis while western students are ultra-liberalist pc wimps.
@taihanasie and @paintingrainbowsblack
Any reader will see I am skeptical that what was posted on Tianya represented the full picture unless he/she has severe comprehension problems. Shanghaiist is NOT Reuters or AFP or AP. We point to what's being talked about currently on the internet elsewhere, but we're not going to fly down to everywhere where there's been a fight or riot to conduct investigative research to verify what did or did not happen. What we WILL do is to update stories as and when new developments occur or when new info becomes available on the internet so readers get the full picture.
And yes @paintingrainbowsblack, you will be seeing lots more "Overheard" stories like this. If you have a problem with that, maybe you shouldn't be reading Shanghaiist... or any other blog.
In defense of Kenneth - in this case, the story is clearly labeled and contextualized and thus there's no need to comment on it's authenticity or whatever.
"And yes @paintingrainbowsblack, you will be seeing lots more "Overheard" stories like this. If you have a problem with that, maybe you shouldn't be reading Shanghaiist... or any other blog. "
thank you, I agree with you. I will leave you in peace with your happy audience like nakamura and nanheyangrouchuan.
And I will rest well tonight knowing you will keep coming back to Shanghaiist for more.
Shanghai Daily did report this story too.
What I don't get is though why did the Chinese students have to sing national anthem for ? Just grab the batons, sticks or whatever and beat those 10 Japanese, no need to sing or whatever. What I also find funny is when the Chinese students sing China's national anthem, the Korean students wave their national flag, rolf lol lol . and some foreign students throwing bottles down, to cheer for the fight ? or throw at who ?
@ Nakamura, I don't know but as far as I am concerned the Japanese in Shanghai got a good beating back in 2002 (I think ??) when the Chinese went on the streets of Shanghai for a massive demonstration and Shanghai hospitals refuse treatment for anyone Japanese at that time. Sound good ?
And did the Chinese students beat the Japanese students before the head of school calm the crowd down ?
I think Japan and China should just fight it out again and the loser has to agree not to bitch and moan about it 60+ years later.
After this incident, I don't know what is the real intentions of the Japanese students in China, to study or to stir up troubles, those Japanese students should know that in China , Japanese sentiment is pretty high, especially in Shanghai where 2 anti Japanese riots happened previously, so I kinda expected them to behave themselves in Shanghai, not getting drunk and make loud noises at night around a Chinese area (if this happen around an expat area or foreigners areas then this would not have happened)
Skyline- I've BEEN to Xinjiang and loved the hospitality and kindness of the Uighurs that I met. As with every place in the world, there are good apples and bad apples. Hate speech ends up making YOU look like an ignorant person, not the people you choose to insult.
As per this article...well, I agree that no blame should be placed on Kenneth for reporting what was "overheard". The word "overheard" implies that there are grains of truth. And with any story that the Chinese media reports on having to do with fights between the Chinese and Japanese, there will always be some fabrication.
I don't understand how the comments to these types of stories can be so biased and filled with hate. Talk about eliminating any form of intelligent discussion or input. Ugh.
This is the story from Shanghai Daily
University downplays clash of students
THE Shanghai International Studies University yesterday admitted that a group of Chinese and Japanese students clashed on Monday night but said no one was hurt.
The university put out a statement after the issue was widely discussed on online forums. Netizens reported how a fight had broken out at the Xianda College of Economics and Humanities in Hongkou District, resulting in injuries and protests on campus.
The institute is an independent private college under SISU and Shanghai Xianda Investment Co.
The university, however, played down the incident. It posted a statement on its website saying: "No student was hurt in the accidental dispute."
According to the statement, trouble started around 10pm on Monday when a group of Japanese students returned from a birthday celebration at a nearby restaurant. They hung around dormitories housing Chinese students and became boisterous.
Students from the apartments protested, and some of them threw empty plastic bottles from the balconies, according to the statement. The revellers then got abusive, according to some reports.
Japanese students then went to the ninth floor and knocked on several doors. A fresh round of quarrels broke out between the Japanese and Chinese students, according to the statement. The situation was brought under control by security guards.
A witness told Shanghai Daily that more than 100 people had gathered outside the students' dorm. But the Japanese students continued to be abusive as they left the building. This in turn angered local students.
A group of Chinese youngsters then gathered at the SISU guest hotel, where the Japanese students were staying. University officials, teachers and guards arrived on the scene and restored order.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=377991&type=Metro
Snowisred
The situation can be analyzed very easily. Please consider this:
If a group of Chinese students were being noisy late at night and some other Chinese students shouted at them and threw stuff down at them - and it ended up in a fight - would there be a big protest or news story? Obviously not.
When the students are Japanese there's a protest and a bunch of people get involved and comment too.
This means the only difference is the race/nationality.
This means the people getting involved and protesting, who were not in the fight themselves, are ignorant racists.
Students on a campus being noisy - then getting into a fight with some other students = no big deal.
Andy Best
Yes I know this should have been treated as a normal brawl between boisterous people.
But
As I said before, the Japanese students should know that they are not really favoured in China, especially place like Shanghai where anti Japanese riot DID happen BEFORE. So making noises in an area full of Chinese is like pouring petrol in fire.
Seriously, if this was to happen in Nanjing, I could imagine Shanghai Daily headline would have been "Japanese students funerals in Nanjing International University"
Honestly, this incident is not as high profile as the other two riots that happened in Shanghai before. Compare to 5 years ago, the anti Japanese sentiment now is not as high as before, now the sentiment is actually easing down, since Japan did send help to China during the Sichuan Earthquake, and the Chinese press was courteous enough to read days of headlines about that so there was quite a lot of appreciation for the Japanese in China during that time (and I do think that appreciation is still lingering now), and the relationship between Japan and China is actually warming up thank to Fukuda, Japanese products are gaining popularity in China now compared to numerous boycott calls before (but it is really getting popular now), Japanese cars are making a killing in China, kicking the American GM aside and Toyota is poised to remove German VW from the top spot in China. If the trend keeps up, the American products (they were really popular in China before and still are) will soon lose the market share in China and the Japanese gain big time.
But despite all of these, the anti Japanese sentiments are still there even just a little bit in the future, it is like flammable gas, it just needs a little spark to cause an explosion. The best thing for both side is the Japanese keep a low profile in China and avoid being boisterous around the Chinese.
Racial issue has always been a problem in Asian countries whether we like it or not, although it is less of a problem in Western society, maybe because the Western society is more familiar to diversity.
It is quite weird to notice that Asians (orientals) normally keep a low profile life in Western countries but when living in other Asian countries, it is hard to put that into practice, I just don't know why, that's just my observation.
@Buck Rogerz
No, she called me. Do you want to get the Shanghaiist "Eastman Award" for your postings?
The only "boisterousness" sin that the Japanese committed was speaking Japanese out loud at a Chinese university.
Since when does the word slut need an asterisk? You suck
@Pirx
...after she read it on the internet?
@Buck Rogerz
Just because you are disconnected, it does not mean that everybody else is.
Don't be an Eastman. Make friends, get a life.
to pirx,
seems you simply cannot forget me. but you see, ‘eastman award’ can be granted only to somebody who timely report the recall yesterday of half a million packs of poisoned fast noodles made in japan. every small man here sure will try every mean to cover it, right?
to Buck Rogerz
--'what a bunch of morons coming out en masse to sing national anthems'?
i agreed it is somewhat silly singing natioanl anthem at the incident. however these students in fighting mood against japanese (not japaiwanese) could be understood considering the anthem, which you might've learnt by heart during beijing olympic as played so many times, was also a battle song written, not by 'commie' as you expected, in WW II against japanese occupier，just like american nationa anthem was written for fight against british and named ‘defence of fort mchenry’ at beginning.
weren't you among the loudest singing ‘en masse’ the ‘star-spangled banner' and waving your kisch flags before the fight when tyson bit holli's ear off? what a bunch of morons in caesar vigas! lol!
@Pirx
You comment on this blog too much. Some life you have, bub. I was just egging you on, and you took the bate, so suck on that!
Now, I am going to make friends -- make friends with eastman, your imaginary internet enemy. So you can suck on that too, you sucking sucker!
Snowisred
Thanks for the detailed reply.
Oh boy. No help for anyone. This is just nuts. Especially the bickering (however justified).
Those Japanese students will get the last laugh when [COMMENT MODERATED].
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