一名在中国深圳市被刺杀的日本男孩，年仅十岁，已引发中国公众对本国日益增长的国民主义情绪以及政府是否在煽动针对日本人的敌意，甚至是“仇恨教育”的反思。这种悲剧性事件再次聚焦于中日这两个亚洲最大经济体之间复杂的关系。此关系受到了两国二战历史和由于中国崛起而带来的权力动态变化的影响。
这起案件涉及一名生有日本父亲与中国母亲的男童，在上学途中遭深圳市一男子刺杀，成为第二起针对日本儿童的暴力袭击案及最近三个月内的第三起外国人在华攻击事件。北京方面对于每一起案件都拒绝公开动机，并将其描述为可能发生在任何国家的孤立事件。
但对一些深圳居民和网络评论人士而言，这起白昼间的杀人事件促使人们反思国家主义宣传与排外情绪如何在助长此类暴力行为中扮演了角色。“作为中国人，我感到心痛、愤怒和羞耻。”一名在男孩遇害后于日本学校外献上白玫瑰的深圳市民说，“这种暴力是长期仇恨教育的结果……从小灌输仇恨并无好处。”
这种反思反映出对反日情绪增长与基于国家主义叙事的互联网言论广泛充斥的现象的关注，这些言论随后可能影响“现实世界”。被中国网民大量转发的一篇网络文章写道：“针对日本的国族情绪激增主导了互联网。”“在线讨论……迟早会从屏幕溢出并影响现实生活。”
日本社区对此事件感到震惊，日本最大的企业之一已提议将员工及其家属撤回本国。该事件可能削弱北京吸引日本企业在华投资的努力，后者正值外国资本因中国疲弱经济而创纪录的流失之际。
历史性的愤怒 日本长期以来一直是中国人国家主义情绪的目标。这根源于二战期间的侵华行为与占领。自小在教科书和官方电视台上学习的日寇罪行使得代代中国人怀恨日方。东海领土争端与地缘政治紧张局势加剧了这种怒火，中国将日本与美国结盟视为意图遏制其崛起。
习近平领导下的中国加强了爱国主义教育，频繁唤起帝国列强压迫中国的“百年屈辱”，以此团结民众支持旨在在全球舞台上彰显中国力量的国家主义议程。遇害男孩之死正值日本侵华东北的周年纪念日，这是一场全中国各地都鸣响警报、静默以示哀悼的重要事件。
敏感的时间点加剧了对于事件动机可能基于仇恨的猜测。最近一周由几十位居住在日本的中国人发表的一份声明谴责了袭击，并呼吁反思背后的原因。“针对日本的极端国家主义仇恨教育在中国持续存在，它模糊了一些人的日本理解，甚至助长无知和邪恶。”这份以真实姓名署名的声明批评了北京政策并誓言改变“令人不安”的状况。
中国外交部发言人林健在周一表示：“中国不存在所谓‘反日’教育。”“我们倡导学习历史而非延续仇恨，以防悲剧战争再次发生。”
超国家主义宣传 中国政府长期通过培养国家主义来稳固其合法性。在习近平的领导下，受到严格审查的社交媒体上涌现出大量极度国家主义和针对日本的言论。某些情况下，这种愤怒似乎被中国政府和官方媒体用来向东京施压，例如去年关于福岛核电站处理废水事件引发的集体谴责。
在其他时候，国家主义则作为网络影响力者的诱饵，他们经常推销好战话语和阴谋论以争夺流量。最近一年内，一名中国人因在网上发布视频揭露东京靖国神社（日本军国主义遗产象征）而迅速走红。有关这些设施的恶意内容，自去年以来在中国最大的城市中涌现出数百条在短视频平台上煽动敌意与怀疑的视频。
许多人呼吁关闭学校，并有人指控它们秘密培养日本间谍。“针对日本学校的仇外宣传已成为病毒性内容的捷径。”一位WeChat博主在分析了快手上近300个片段后写到。他在周六发表的一份声明中表示，快手已暂停超过90个煽动中国和日本之间仇恨的账号。
有关在线反日言论的影响开始引起对中国的儿童成长感到担忧的声音。上海一所私立学校助教张女士表示，她注意到低年级的孩子们将日本人描绘为恶棍。“一年级的小男孩在看到画册中的日本国旗时会称呼日本人（侮辱性词汇）……他们还绘制战斗场面，在其中敌人总是日本或美国。”她说，“我们在学校里从未教过这些。”
“这完全无法代表我们遇见的中国人。”一位广州居住两年、有两位孩子的日本母亲在接受CNN采访时说。她要求匿名，因为该议题敏感。“我知道那么多不反日、爱日本的人。我被撕裂了。我对这一悲剧感到难过。同时我也为那么多日本人因这一事件而憎恨中国而感到悲伤。”
“一个疯狂的人可以做疯狂的事情，并不代表整个国家都疯了。”她说，“我只从广州的中国人那里收到过爱与善意。”她的部分中国朋友在附近的深圳向日本学校献上鲜花。
至周五晚，广州总领事馆称该学校的花束数量超过1000朵，其中包括来自遥远城市的居民。一些纪念品附带道歉信。“孩子，请原谅，愿你在天堂安息。”其中一张卡片写着，“但愿天堂没有仇恨。”
新闻来源：www.cnn.com
原文地址：‘Education of hatred’: Killing of Japanese boy sparks soul searching in China over rising nationalism
新闻日期：2024-09-25
原文摘要：
The killing of a Japanese schoolboy in China has sparked an outpouring of anger and soul searching over the rise of extreme nationalism in the country, with some accusing the government of fanning anti-Japan sentiment and even the “education of hatred.” The tragic loss of a young life has once again thrown a spotlight on the complex relationship between Asia’s two biggest economies, which has been shaped by their wartime history and changing power dynamics brought about by China’s rise. The 10-year-old, born to a Japanese father and Chinese mother, was fatally stabbed on his way to school by a man in the southern city of Shenzhen last Wednesday. It was the second knife attack on Japanese children and third assault on foreigners in China in recent months. Authorities in Beijing have refused to disclose the motive in each case, describing them as “isolated incidents” that could happen in any country. But to some Shenzhen residents and online commentators, the daylight killing in one of China’s most cosmopolitan cities has prompted urgent reflection on the role of nationalistic propaganda and xenophobia in fueling such attacks. “As a Chinese, I feel heartbroken, outraged and ashamed,” said a Shenzhen resident who laid a white rose outside the Japanese school following the boy’s death last Thursday. “This kind of violence is the result of long-term education of hatred … There’s no good in instilling hatred from a young age,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. The resident’s comments echo a groundswell of commentaries and online posts calling for a reckoning on anti-Japan sentiment, many of which have since been censored by Chinese social media platforms. “The ‘anti-Japan rhetoric’ based on nationalist narratives has increased to dominate the internet,” a Chinese blogger said in a now-removed viral article on social platform WeChat. “These online remarks … will inevitably spill over from the screen and impact the ‘real world,’” they wrote. The killing has shaken the Japanese community in China, with some of Japan’s biggest companies offering to repatriate staff members and their families. The development risks undermining Beijing’s recent efforts to court Japanese businesses to expand investment in China, amid a record exodus of foreign capital from the country’s flagging economy. Historic anger Japan has long been a target of Chinese nationalist ire, rooted in its brutal invasion and occupation of China in World War II. Generations of Chinese grew up learning about the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in school textbooks and on state television. That feeling of resentment is further fueled by territorial disputes in the East China Sea and geopolitical tensions, as Beijing seethes at what it sees as Japan’s deepening alliance with the United States intended to contain its rise. China has ramped up patriotic education under leader Xi Jinping, who frequently evokes the country’s “century of humiliation” by imperial powers to rally public support behind his nationalistic agenda to assert Chinese power on the world stage. The fatal stabbing of the Japanese boy coincided with the anniversary of Japan’s invasion of northeast China, an emotionally charged day commemorated with sirens and moments of silence across the country. The sensitive timing has further fueled speculation that the attack was motivated by hatred. A rare statement issued last week by dozens of Chinese people living in Japan condemned the assault and called for reflections on the “underlying causes.” “The extreme nationalist hate education against Japan has been prevalent in China for a long time. It has obscured some Chinese people’s understanding of Japan, and even indulged ignorance and evil,” the statement said. Signed by intellectuals, professionals, businesspeople and students with their real names, the statement mounted a sharp criticism of Beijing’s policies and vowed to change the “disturbing situation.” Beijing has denied the accusations. “There is no so-called Japan-hating education in China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Monday. “We advocate learning from history, not to perpetuate hatred, but to prevent the tragedy of war from happening again.” Nationalistic clickbait The ruling Chinese Communist Party has long cultivated nationalism to shore up legitimacy. Under Xi, China’s heavily censored social media has seen a surge of ultra-nationalistic, anti-Japan rhetoric. In some cases, the anger appears to have been fanned by the Chinese government and state media to exert pressure on Tokyo, such as the coordinated outrage last year over Japan’s release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant. In other instances, nationalism is used as clickbait by online influencers, who often peddle jingoistic rhetoric and conspiracy theories to compete for traffic. A Chinese man recently went viral after posting a video of himself defacing the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, a controversial symbol of Japan’s military legacy that honors the country’s war dead, including some convicted of war crimes. Some of that online hatred has turned to Japanese schools in China’s biggest cities with a large presence of Japanese businesses and workers. Since last year, hundreds of videos fanning hostility and suspicion of these facilities have emerged on Chinese video-streaming sites. Many called for the schools to be shut down, and some even accused them of secretly training Japanese spies. “(Conspiracies against) Japanese schools have become a cheat code for viral content,” a blogger wrote on WeChat last week, after analyzing nearly 300 clips on video platform Kuaishou, which he said drew more than 2 million upvotes. Following the article, Kuaishou suspended more than 90 accounts that fanned hostility between China and Japan, the platform said in a statement Saturday. Some have voiced concerns about the effect of growing online xenophobia on Chinese children. Zhang, a teaching assistant at a private school in Shanghai, said she noticed children as young as 6 portraying Japanese as villains. “Little boys in the first grade would call Japanese people (slurs) when they see Japanese flags in their picture books … They also draw battle scenes, in which the enemies are always either Japanese or American,” she told CNN. “We never taught them any of that stuff at school,” Zhang said, adding she suspected the children had picked up the anti-Japan sentiment from TV dramas, online short videos or their families. ‘Absolutely unacceptable’ On Monday, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa urged Beijing to crack down on online anti-Japan posts and ensure the safety of Japanese citizens in a meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in New York. “Groundless, malicious and anti-Japanese social media postings and others, including those targeting Japanese schools, directly affect the safety of children and are absolutely unacceptable,” Kamikawa told Wang, demanding a thorough crackdown as soon as possible, the Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Wang, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, vowed to protect the safety of all foreign citizens in China and urged Japan to “remain calm and rational” to avoid “policization and escalation.” A Japanese mother of two in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou said her husband’s automotive company had given families the option to return home, but her family decided to stay. The mother, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the extreme nationalist rhetoric online did not represent the views of Chinese people she has met during her two years living in China. “I know so many people who are not against Japan, who love Japan,” she told CNN. “I’m almost torn in the middle. I’m so sad about the tragedy. But at the same time, I’m also so sad that so many Japanese people are hating China about this one incident. “One crazy person can do crazy things, doesn’t mean everyone in the country is crazy. I’ve only received love and kindness from the Chinese people I met in Guangzhou.” She said some of her Chinese friends who live in nearby Shenzhen went to lay flowers at the Japanese school. By Friday evening, the school had received more than 1,000 bouquets, according to the Japanese consulate in Guangzhou – including from residents of faraway cities. Some tributes carried a note of apology. “Child, I’m sorry, please rest in peace,” said a note signed from “a mother in Shenzhen.” “Wish there’s no hatred in heaven,” another reads.
