Diaoyu Protests

This is Baiyi Lou, with the protests.  They were peaceful for now...

I don't know how many of you know what the Diaoyu islands are, but I sure knew nothing about them before I came to China.  Sometimes I am surprised how ignorant you can be of the world and world issues, then suddenly you step outside of your comfort zone and realize how big and real these issues are.  In the USA, it is easy to feel like world issues are so distant and far away.

Picture from: http://www.morningwhistle.com/html/2012/Macro_0910/213955.html

These islands are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.  They have some prime fishing waters and access to natural gas.  For years there has been some official disagreements but no official action, as far as I can gather.   I have no real knowledge of the actual situation.  But what I do know is recently Japan somehow produced a contract saying they own the islands.  I don't know anything more than China does not recognize this contract.  The people in China have been whipped up into a very strong anti-japanese mood.  Yesterday there were to be protests, protesting Japanese businesses.  In Changsha the people were going to march from one Pinghetang (a japanese import grocery store) in the west to one in the east.  I first heard about the protests from a friend who was trying to get to the Train Station.  They had shut down Wuyi for the protests, she had been stuck on the bus for about a half an hour.  Then I was walking to a restaurant for lunch,  my friends and I were surprised to see the protest walking down the road between us and our food.  We crossed quickly, taking a few pictures.  But it was peaceful, just people walking with banners with pro-China, anti-Japan signs.  We arrived at the restaurant, I called a friend of ours to see if he was still coming.

Zhuzhou, Photo by Diana Linay Lopez Ruano

"I am sorry, I can't come.  I am stuck" was what I was able to hear over the noise of the restaurant.  It wasn't until later that night that I was able to understand what exactly that meant.  Although sitting in the teacher's office between my classes, they were all discussing the protests.  Chris helped translate some of what they were saying.  Apparently a car had been set on fire by Carrefour for being Japanese.  Then I went into class number 1.  I was teaching a lesson on "What do you want?"  "Why should you get it?"  A lesson geared towards having them tell me why they deserve to do something.  When I invited students up to the board to write what they wanted I got some cute answers.  "I want an iPhone 5," "I want to get married," and "I want to play DOTA."  But I also got some interesting answers from students.  "I want the Diaoyu Islands."  "I want to kick the Japanese president's ass."  I was surprised and totally unprepared for this.  I handled it badly, and had them practice saying them but didn't even ask them to justify why they wanted it.  But after that, I hopped in a cab and headed to dinner with Teresa and Becky.  We saw no signs of protests, but did smell smoke when we passed Carrefour.

Changsha, Photo by Phil LePoidevin

After dinner we were going to head over to the West side of Changsha and meet up with a friend of Teresa's.  This friend was afraid for her car, which was a japanese car.  Her friend's car had been flipped apparently.  So we went to the south end of Buxingjie.  I saw no signs of the protests as I relaxed and got my frozen yogurt!!  Then we went to get a massage, our masseurs asked us (of course) "Ni shi nali ren?" (What nationality are you?).  We responded "American."  They then commented to each other, "Good thing they are not Japanese."  Then we went to Mr. Beer, to have a beer.  We met up with one of my friends who had to miss lunch.  It turns out he was actually stuck in his building.  Protesters were clashing with police who were trying to contain some of the violence that had broken out.  He had amazing photos from up in his building.

This morning things have returned to normal, Pinghetang was looted.  Cars were flipped, schools are making students go to class to keep them from any further unrest.  Whether this will have an impact outside of China remains to be seen.

Zhuzhou: Photo by Diana Linay Lopez Ruano