Research and Other Investigations from China

Chinese Heavy Metal Crowd Burns Japanese Flag on National Day

October 1, 2010

This post must start with a disclaimer. I do not in any way believe in or support the acts performed in this video. I can only hope for greater understanding and congenial relations between China and Japan in the future. This act of flag burning was filmed purely for documentary reasons. The event occurred on the first night of the 2010 Zhenjiang MIDI Festival after a particular rousing performance by a death metal band. The kids are singing the Chinese national anthem while burning the Japanese flag. The first night of the festival also landed on October 1 which is China’s National Holiday. It goes without saying that tensions between China and Japan have peaked in the past week thanks to the standoff over sovereignty issues regarding the arrest of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat on disputed waters in the East China Sea by Japan’s coast guard. This friction and general hatred of the Japanese runs deep and dates back to the brutal and humiliating treatment suffered in China at the hands of the Japanese during World War II. Even though the Chinese captain in question has since been released, the incident ignited the embers amongst China’s increasingly nationalistic youth.