Author: Chunmei Fox
Published "Illustrated Traditional Chinese Costumes"
With the arrival of the cherry blossom viewing season, there has been more and more controversy on the Internet about "kimono cherry blossom viewing" in the past two years. When I saw #Man complaining that woman wearing kimono taking photos in scenic spots#, I even wondered if this is a new hot spot this year, or is it fried and noisy with last year's cold rice?
The source of the controversy is as the "police" man in this hot spot said: "I feel that the behavior of wearing a kimono to play in Nanjing is somewhat disrespectful to history and contrary to customs." The man uses "kimono" as a symbol of Japan, and putting "Nanjing" and "kimono" together is particularly eye-catching. But the media will basically highlight another key information, which happened at the "gate of the ancient Jiming Temple attraction". What's the difference?
1
Nanjing, why is it full of cherry blossoms?
Jiming Temple is a famous cherry blossom viewing area in Nanjing, and it is also a tourist check-in place with cherry blossoms as a selling point that Nanjing focuses on building and publicizing.
In 2018, Nanjing engaged in the "Jiming Temple-Xuanwu Lake Area Cherry Blossom Viewing Area Project", the bidding showed that the investment scale was about 55 million, and the contractor also won the "2019 Nanjing Quality Garden Structure Engineering Award" and "Nanjing Garden Quality Project Jinling Cup Award".
△Announcements and reports related to this project
In 2021, Nanjing also held the "'Hanami City Wall, Sakura Coming About' City Wall Cherry Blossom Festival", of which the most famous shooting angle is the cherry blossom avenue of Jiming Temple from the city wall.
△ Nanjing City Wall Cherry Blossom Festival
Although many people will argue that cherry blossoms are of Chinese origin, it is necessary to admit that cherry blossom cultivation in Chinese urban parks and the cherry blossom-viewing tourism economy such as Nanjing City are inseparable from Japan.
The city park was originally an imported product, and in the early days, the great powers themselves built parks in China according to their needs. Around the beginning of the 20th century, the mainland began to build its own, the earliest of which is said to be the "Sikkim Public Garden" (later renamed "City Park") prepared by local squires in Wuxi in 1906, and in 1921 hired Japanese gardening experts to plan and introduce cherry blossoms from Japan. It can be said that cherry blossoms have a deep relationship with urban parks in China.
△ Old photos of Sikkim Gong Garden
(However, the cherry blossoms in Wuxi City Park later withered backwards and died, and people said that "the cherry blossoms came from Dongying, and they were stubborn, and they did not listen to the dispatch, and Yu asked the emperor to get out of Siyuan.") It seems that Shiba Inu Akita is called "cherry blossom seed" because the cherry blossoms themselves are quite fierce. ）
△ Wuxi Yuzhu cherry blossoms are also very famous
In the 70s and 80s, friendly relations between China and Japan began, and cherry blossoms in most cities that we can see today were planted at that time. I haven't found the exact information about Nanjing, but I can mention that my city, Ningbo, is associated with cherry blossoms, starting in 1983 with 20 Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms donated by the sister city of Nagaokakyo, Japan.
△ Ningbo Cherry Blossom Park
It is said on the Internet that the Somei Yoshino print at the entrance of Nanjing's Jiming Temple is also a Somei Yoshino print, which was given away by Nagoya, a sister city of Nanjing at that time.
△ Cherry blossoms leading to Jimeiji Temple
The reason why Nanjing is so focused on creating a cherry blossom viewing culture is because the "blossom viewing economy" in spring is really a big cake. However, compared with rape blossoms and peach blossoms, cherry blossoms can not only be planted as urban street trees, but also have successful Japanese experience with a strong cherry blossom viewing culture to learn from, and there is no need to spend additional money and effort on "consumer education".
The "blossom viewing economy" generally has a strong timeliness, and Japan has made cherry blossom viewing its own national culture brand culture to make flowering forecasts based on the city, which can be regarded as the tourism promotion and warm-up of the "blossom viewing economy".
Since last year, the Cherry Blossom Research Center of Nanjing Forestry University has also compiled and published "China's Cherry Blossom Frontline", which "scientifically predicts the best blossom viewing period in China's major cherry blossom viewing areas". The name of the report, "Sakura Front," is a direct reference to the Japanese term used to predict the date of cherry blossom bloom.
△ China Sakura Front 2023
△ Sakura front forecast in Japan
If the cherry blossom, one of the Japanese symbols, can appear in Nanjing so brightly, why is the other symbol, the kimono, so eye-catching in the eyes of some people? Just because cherry blossom trees are planted on the road and kimonos are worn on people, you can't dare or blame the road, you can only vent on individual humans!
But there are also some Internet celebrities who even feel striking cherry blossoms on Nanjing roads, although cherry blossoms, as the most famous flower species in the blossom viewing economy, may also be a highly beneficial flower species, planted in many cities in China, and most of the origins are related to Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. But in the eyes of these netizens, Nanjing, as a place that experienced the Nanjing Massacre, planting Japanese cherry blossoms is another original sin, and even the Sino-Japanese cherry blossom friendship park common in many cities cannot appear in Nanjing.
△ China-Japan Friendship Parks in various places with cherry blossoms as symbolic media
So, I'm a little curious. Because Nanjing was massacred by the Japanese, Nanjing citizens are less worthy of cherry blossom viewing than other cities? Or is Nanjing more unworthy of growing cherry blossoms and developing a cherry blossom economy? Is that the logic? So who exactly is punished?
△ Even the cherry blossom festival in bulk Jiangsu is held separately
2
Can I wear a kimono to see cherry blossoms?
In response to this incident, some netizens put forward a hypothesis, if the woman who took the photo is a Japanese, does she have the right to wear a kimono and take pictures of cherry blossoms on the streets of Nanjing?
This brings us to the identity of clothing. We have mentioned many times before that ethnic identification is not based on clothing, but clothing does play a certain role in distinguishing, because clothing provides identity within the group. Not only ethnic groups, but also many subcultural groups, clothing, accessories, hairstyles and even ID nickname suffixes are their internal identity basis, and even a passport to integrate into this group.
△ Killing Matt group
△ Lolita clothing hobby group
Conversely, people think that people who hold these characteristics and wear these clothes are members of certain groups, or at least fans. Especially those who have experience of subcultural groups, such as rice circles, are pink and black.
Except for this one, there have been many incidents of controversy caused by wearing kimonos, and the frequency and trigger threshold are much higher than other things related to Japanese culture. In other words, wearing a kimono is more likely to be considered an act of identifying with Japan, and identifying with Japan is directly equivalent to agreeing with Japan's crime of aggression against China in the eyes of these people. (Some people who love Japanese pop culture themselves think so, perhaps because "kimono" and "cherry blossoms" are more external, and those people often don't have this ability to recognize their hobby Japanese pop culture.) ）
Judging from the screenshot of the video released this time, the woman stood on two superimposed stools, which should be to get closer to the cherry blossoms when shooting. And the kimono on her body is relatively rudimentary, holding a lace umbrella with no practical value, and it can be almost obvious at a glance that she is the most common check-in photo during cherry blossom viewing, using the popular (and maybe a little outdated) kimono photo routine.
△ Press photo
△ Kimono photo
The cherry blossom viewing event is also deeply tied to the "fancy costumes". Because the people attracted by such cultural tourism activities are basically immersed in Japanese popular culture, imitating the scene of cherry blossom viewing in Japan is a common behavior when checking in and taking photos.
In addition to kimono, hanfu is also common.
△ Nanjing City Wall Cherry Blossom Festival
△ Nanjing cherry blossom festival report
Many times, although you are wearing Hanfu, you still imitate a kimono photo when you take photos. This is because, not to mention cherry blossom viewing, even cherry blossom viewing has only been brought up by short-distance tourism over the years, and people do not know how to take photos, and buy props and makeup by imitating other photos that look beautiful and meaningful.
For example, oil-paper umbrellas were still popular in the early years, and many have changed to lace umbrellas used in this event over the years, and there are many fusion marks of other popular culture on the clothing.
△ Comparison of kimono and Hanfu photos
Wearing clothing that better matches the check-in situation can also give tourists a sense of travel value. Cherry blossoms and kimonos, Forbidden City and harem costumes, Ming Tombs and imperial costumes, Hengdian and film and television costumes, ethnic minority scenic spots and ethnic costumes, etc... They are all through "fancy dress" to briefly obtain imaginary characters, and then take photos, and then use these makeup in daily scarcity in exchange for some advantages in social media and life conversation.
It is difficult for us to analyze the motives behind these acts in too much depth, and wear feudal dynasty clothes to the Forbidden City, is it considered its restoration? Is it that the Han people wear non-ethnic costumes to take wedding photos, are they going to be traitors? ...... These sound absurd, but no one can deny the existence of people with such psychology, but the part we can observe is difficult to use as a basis for analysis, and then choose to intervene or even "call the police". Among them, more people are just passing by in a hurry like the person who "called the police" in this incident.
At the very least, if the incident turns out Chinese there is some "legitimacy" in the eyes of some people who wear kimono to see cherry blossoms in Japan, or only Japanese people in China, this motive may be more worthy of conspiracy theories.
3
History, where is the bottom line between China and Japan?
Although cherry blossoms and kimonos are symbols of Japanese culture, they are also a projection of many people's attitudes towards culture.
Some people like to use ancient Chinese characters to prove their ownership of contemporary Japanese culture, even if the relationship between the two sides is negligible, they have to rely on their own likes to make a strong argument; There are also people who demand the expulsion of Japanese culture because of their lack of connection with China, even if they do not hesitate to draw out historical blood and tears to make an exclamation point.
Although these two sides can almost bite each other, they have a common feature, they judge that the code of conduct of contemporary Chinese comes from ancient China, as if ancient China did not, then in 2023 we will lose the legitimacy of our actions on these things. Good guys, you guys are simply the Chinese civilization version of the "three laws of science and technology"!
However, although the cherry blossom varieties are Japanese, the cherry blossom viewing economy is Nanjing's; Although Jiming Temple is newly built, its cultural heritage can continue to be written and even rewritten; Although the name "Sakura Front" is Japanese, you can do your own research on flowering forecasting... Many times, a drop of soy sauce will not burn the whole dress, but you can't leave it alone.
In fact, as early as 2012, Nanjing "broke off diplomatic relations" with the sister city of Nagoya because the mayor of Nagoya denied the authenticity of the Nanjing Massacre in front of the visiting Nanjing delegation. Japan is the country with the largest number of Chinese cities, followed by the United States, both with more than 200 pairs, but it is also the two countries that many netizens hate the most. This is not the only case of sister cities hurting feelings, but it seems that only Nanjing and Nagoya have "severed diplomatic relations".
Even so, Nanjing did not pull out the cherry blossoms in the city, but replanted a lot later, and made a big deal of appreciation of the cherry blossom cultural tourism brand. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built and expanded during the period when the two cities were married, and Nanjing has always accepted projects and funds invested by Japan, unlike some netizens who think that Nanjing is a city that needs to be "avoided" or always hates Japan.
Obviously, Sino-Japanese friendship does not mean abandoning principles, forgetting history, and ceding interests. The kind of person who does not count any accounts when he is good and tries desperately to turn over old accounts when he is bad, is a naïve elementary school chicken; The kind of people who go home and smash their own things when they are angry outside, and who think they are the hegemon of the world when they are touted are incompetent domestic violence men. The only use of both is to be incited online.