Tuesday’s 2-1 victory of Japan against Columbia marks the first time an Asian side has beaten a South American opponent at the World Cup. Some Chinese journalists, however, don’t seem to be rejoicing in Japan’s win.
On June 19, Japan played against a 10-man Columbian team; Columbian player Carlos Sanchez was already sent off in the third minute of the game after he had received a red card.
In a commentary published by popular news outlet Beijing Evening News (12+ million fans on Weibo), the Japanese soccer victory was called “disgraceful” (literally “disgraceful deceit”:”不光彩的欺骗”) due to the ‘deceptive’ actions by Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima.
In the 39th minute of the game, when the score was 1-0 for Japan, Columbian player Juan Quintero scored with a low free kick, but keeper Kawashima got a touch of the ball and then protested to the referee that he actually kept it out (see at 4:53 in video below), although, as Beijing Evening News puts it, “it was very clear that the ball had entered the goal.”
According to Beijing Evening News, the referee did not take Kawashima’s “unreasonable demands” into consideration, adding that the goalkeeper’s “deceitful behavior” is a “disgrace for himself and for the Japanese team.”
They concluded their article by calling Japan’s victory mere “luck.”
The Beijing Evening News article was viewed thousands of times on Weibo and was also quoted and mentioned by many other Chinese news outlets, of which many did not comment on it, but just republished the entire text.
The article was later removed from Weibo on June 20 after igniting discussions among netizens. Some argue that although Kawashima perhaps was not most “honest,” the article obviously had a prejudiced stance.
“Japan has won, but it is Beijing Evening News that is being disgraceful!” some commented.
“Of course a goalkeeper will fight for the advantage of his own team,” other commenters wrote, while one Weibo user simply called the column “retarded.”
Although Anti-Japanese sentiments can, at times, flare up on Chinese social media, it mostly does so in response to events in Japan that relate to the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute, the Second Sino-Japanese War, far right politics or the denial of war atrocities committed by Japanese troops in China.
Trending topics of the past have shown that random hateful actions or comments towards Japan are generally condemned by Chinese netizens and that they are not deemed “patriotic.”
In this instance, not only did the majority of Weibo users commenting on the issue condemn the Beijing News for their column, they also praised Japanese fans for cleaning up the stadium after the game; the rows and seats were left meticulously clean as fans joined in cleaning up any trash that was left behind.
The hashtag “Japanese soccer fans clean up after game” (#日本球迷赛后捡垃圾#) received over 52 million views on Weibo today.
By Manya Koetse
HT via @sanverde
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