According to the Chosun Ilbo, some pet shop in Yongin City had made a sign that was a photoshoped version of Tiananmen gate, with a picture of a dog instead of Chairman Mao — all for advertising his little shop. Thinking this to be cute, the store owner was surprised to get phone calls from the Korean Embassy in China and the (Korean) Foreign Ministry, asking for the signboard to be removed. As per the article:
Chinese students in Korea also called nonstop to protest saying that the signboard offends China’s pride.
Apparently a Chinese student posted a picture of this on the web, thus resulting in the extraordinary posturing by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which summoned an official from the Korean Embassy in Beijing to protest this horrible wounding of Chinese “pride”.
Granted, though the idea of putting a dog on the gate is not an interesting or good idea for advertising, there are few things as tedious as false pride and the heaviness that accompanies such, which is why one grows tired of politicians that carp about “freedom fries” and the humorless people that worry about their countries’ “pride” — as if it were a delicate thing.
In honor of these pompous gits, I submit my own Photoshop mash-up of the “China’s pride” meme, entitled “Chairman Meow“.
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Well, I think your photo-critique is a little classier. Only thing lower than a dog I could think of would be a monkey… or a white guy.
Maybe I should have put Gromit up there like this. or maybe this version.
I know what my art project is going to be today…
Isn’t this the same country that aired commercials trivializing the deaths of 3,000 people on September 11, 2001? Oh yeah, that was America, and this is China.
Remember kids: Hateful, violent provocation against Uncle Sucker — that’s just free speech. Nothing can be done about that; it’s a free country, dontcha know? Innocent, humorous (?) Photoshopping that Hurts China’s Pride™ — the government will come over to pressure you to stop.
do you think the Chinese will look back on the past and judge Chairman Mao as someone who set China back 40 to 50 years with Communism, War in Korea, War in Vietnam, Cultural Revolution, and failed economic policy leading to mass starvation?
Probably not. That will hurt China’s Pride.
Okay.
What it lacks in finesse, I think it makes up for in cleverness.
http://www.thewilliamg.com/chinaboobs.jpg
Couldn’t have you used Baduk’s crazy cat avatar instead?
Chinese won’t look back at their wretched history under Communism. They aren’t told the brutal truth about how bad it really was, after all, what’s a few tens of millions dead when you can get whipped up into a frenzy about far fewer Japanese atrocities.
Forget how bad this makes the Korean government look—after all, we know they’ll bend over and spread for anybody (China, Taliban) these days.
But China, ascendant world power that they supposedly are, summons an embassy official to the Foreign Ministry to lodge a protest against some schmuck’s pet shop sign?! That’s the kind of “statecraft” that ought to get a country sent back to the sandbox.
“Isn’t this the same country that aired commercials trivializing the deaths of 3,000 people on September 11, 2001?”
The commercial for one of the local “sports” newspapers, right? The one featuring armed terrorists in the airplane which narrowly misses a skyscraper? (It was explained to me at the time that because the ad was animated – therefore, funny – it in no way could be considered offensive by anybody!) Somehow I don’t think most Koreans would find it nearly as funny now. I wonder why that might be…
Oooh, China got its wittle feewings hurt.
Picture this: An overly sensitive inferiority-complex-suffering country with a military that can actually do something. Not a pretty picture.
That’s the one, global. And they would indeed find it just as funny now. Because 9/11 happened to other people.
#12 – You read my mind. Ninnies with nukes. Frightening.
#13 – Perhaps one of the GPS navigation providers should start advertising a real-time terrorist kidnapper avoidance feature, a la SK Telecom’s commercials for NATE Drive.
Wasn’t there a young Korean radical student type who stood outside Yongsan garrison every day for several hours, for a considerable period of time (a year or more?) — with a bullhorn, yelling “f… the USA” over and over?
Or am I dreaming I read about this somewhere? I’d appreciate a link; one within this blog would be find, assuning the Marmot was blogging back then. I can’t think of a good search word to google with, though maybe while I’m waiting to see if anyone responds I’ll try “Yongsan bullhorn” and see what comes up.
Every so often when I visit here I recall reading about this incident, and then I find myself wondering if the USFK commander ever complained about this and if so what the reaction to any such complaint by the Korean authorities was.
I’m not particularly interested in harping on about it, just curious to read the actual facts and then compare/contrast them to this incident.
It looks like I missed the party, but here’s my take on it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/rockyfella/Photoshop/WallaceandMao.jpg
I should have worked on the skin texture, but I couldn’t really be bothered.
LOL you photoshop ninjas.
It’s amazing and depressing how easily the Korean gov’t folds under Chinese pressure.
You guys realize, I hope, that the Chinese do this sort of thing because they are unhappy with something else South Korea did or is doing but they can not comment directly upon it, thus they use this sort of nonsense as a pretext for displaying their dissatisfaction.
I only wonder if it has something to do with the dead senior South Korean consular official that mysteriously died a week ago in Beijing? I would bet money that there is no further mention of that incident in any press, anywhere.
Well played, Mr. Kim
wow – so much sanctimonious snarkyness:
…there are few things as tedious as false pride and the heaviness that accompanies such, …. and the humorless people that worry about their countries’ “pride” — as if it were a delicate thing…..
OMFG – > Like we never see anything like this coming from Koreans who everyday congratulate themselves on not being “dirty” like the Chinese and constantly try to hide their chagrin at having their country overrun time and again by the Chinese hords and their sacred Shilla ancestors playing the suck up role of China’s beyotch. Lest we forget – the mongrel dog was a military master who kicked the South Korean’s (and big daddy macarthur’s) butt half-way down the peninsula without air cover. Not to mention the fact that China is South Korea’s #1 trade partner these days. And running a trade surplus with Korea – which means that they are slowly bleeding the koreans dry. Sweet irony. The dragon has a long memory and they are already own half the peninsula. When your banker says jump – you’d best bend those knees and prepare to get airborne.
“You guys realize, I hope, that the Chinese do this sort of thing because they are unhappy with something else South Korea did or is doing but they can not comment directly upon it, thus they use this sort of nonsense as a pretext for displaying their dissatisfaction. “
And what would that be?
“I only wonder if it has something to do with the dead senior South Korean consular official that mysteriously died a week ago in Beijing? I would bet money that there is no further mention of that incident in any press, anywhere.”
I’m surprised his possible food poisoning + botched medical care death hasn’t gotten more attention. Imagine if this had happened to a US official in the wake of all the China scare coverage.
@Paul.H.
http://www.cathrights.or.kr/news/photo/2881-2-1345.jpg
He’s old.
http://www.minjog21.com/news/photo/181-2-702.jpg
She’s not at Yongsan.
This will all go very well into my thesis regarding Korea’s “Finlandization” by the PRC.
I still don’t know how to do quotes, so…
“Lest we forget – the mongrel dog was a military master who kicked the South Korean’s (and big daddy macarthur’s) butt half-way down the peninsula without air cover. ”
You tit, they did that not with superior military technology or tactics or anything…just sheer brute force and absolutely disgusting disregard for human life. There are many incidents of heroism of US Marines standing against what was little more than a barbarian horde.
That anyone would reference this remotely positively on behalf of the PRC government suggests a staggering lack of military history, diplomatic history, and/or common ense.
Why on earth does this interweb thingy think I am in France?
Not that I have anything against France (as of Sarkozy, that is), but still…I’m in Seoul this week, dangit!!
Janus,
exactly how it was in the Korean War.
In Hae Jun Sool.
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_blockquote.asp
follow this link for quoting,
Right under
Tips and quotes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6931819.stm
I guess mentioning this will hurt Chinese pride as well.
Many PRC nationals studying in the US will say
1. they never heard of a one child policy.
2. they have a sibling.
Maybe because of slogans like,
I can see how Chinese may feel offended on this. Mao’s little picture on the entrance to the Forbidden City is considered one of the national symbols of China. I’ve heard of two foreingers who threw something at the picture, and were immediately deported. On the other hand, I think this shows how there is little tolerance to be found in China, especially for a “big country”. So easily offended, the Chinese government meddling in civilian affairs over something that can be considered by others as very trivial, this certainly tells us how volatile and unreilable the PRC regime actually is.
Speaking of “disgusting disregard of human life,” has anybody read the Mao bio by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday? What do you think of it?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/25/BAG13FTR9A1.DTL
The Jung Chang Biopic of Mao got mixed reviews by other historians. I started reading it, but couldn’t finish it because it is so frustrating. It is not the writing that is frustrating. Rather it is frustrating in that there seemed to be decent (or , less evil) communists in th early days of the CCP, but Mao always wins by deceit over them. Maybe I should give it another go.
It sounds interesting just because it’s supposed to be more detailed than other Mao bios, but it did get mixed reviews.
Mr. Elgin, to avoid a second international incident, could you make the cat’s collar red? (Or show that he is a post-ideological cat by lining up in the foreground a slew of efficiently-caught mice.)
I’ll be boycotting the games. They are using this to gloss things over. I dislike being played for a fool.
1. Bootzilla, you’ve got it backwards. China is not running a trade surplus with South Korea. It is South Korea that is running a trade surplus with China.
2. For the first time I actually agree with most of the posters on this board. This move by the foreign ministry smacks of pansyism. The South Korean government is now telling a pet shop owner what he can and can’t do with his shop at the behest of a foreign power? This Roh government is confused. They’ll do anything to bend over to China. Complete madness. The GNP had better win and restore some sanity to Korea’s foreign policy.
“Gray Hat”, if you recognized that cat’s picture I used, you would understand there is a bit of hidden significance therein.
#34 – Mr. Elgin,
Care to spell it out for those of us who don’t have the γνοσις?
Oscar, the cat . . .
Very clever.
Might I suggest a new version incorporating this portrait? In my ever-so-humble opinion, he looks positively Chairmanly in it.
猫主席万岁！
Or should that be “喵主席万岁！”?
Re #36
As I recall, one of the Great Helmsman’s aphorisms was the nonchalant “People die all the time.” But he was known to accelerate that process, wasn’t he? No one has accused Oscar of this.
Or should we infer a prophecy?
#5, Bingo!
#6, Of course, the older generations do. They’ve had to survive his failed policies for years, after all. Just remember that the people who complained were students, people that are too young and naive to know the truth.
#19,
Thank you, Mr G.
Mao made millions die but his portrait is a symbol of how China fought back. Every single Chinese knows hat Mao caused pain and suffering to his own nation but China does not look at Mao’s portrait as a person, it is a symbol for all Chinese people. Despite his drawbacks we are willing to look forward and look at the bigger picture that it was a time when China finally would not take anymore harassment. For centuries China had been plagued in corruption in addition to fighting other countries wars that bankrupted a peaceful ming. Mao is like the once wise man that has gone haywire in his retirement home but China will still look after this man. We may not hail him; It serves a reminder to us that with power comes responsibility.
Chinesedragon, a little more reality and less symbolism would help China and the rest of the world, since it is too often used to hide the evils that should be revealed.
P.S. The rest of the world and the little pet shop owner in Yongin City are not trying to harass China.
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