BEIJING (Kyodo) -- A number of Chinese journalists saw their long-held negative views about Japan and its people change completely after traveling to northeastern Japan to cover the aftermath of the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster, according to their reports to a recent symposium with university students in Beijing.

Impressed by the orderly and patient behavior of disaster victims and the relatively high transparency of information released, they said they developed a feeling of respect toward the Japanese.

Their reports were so full of positive aspects that some of the about 200 students in the audience questioned whether the journalists had come across anything negative while in Japan.

"The ability of the government to handle relief operations was not as high as that of the Chinese government," said Zhang Hongwei, 44, a reporter from the Chinese Business View newspaper based in Shaanxi Province.

Other than that, however, the journalists only cited favorable aspects about Japan.

Chen Jie, 38, a cameraman from Beijing News, was one of them. While admitting that he had felt resentment and mistrust toward the Japanese for a long time, he said, "The prejudice that I felt gradually disappeared while I was there, trying to cover the disaster damage."

"In the 14 days I spent on the assignment, I learned much more than I would have done by if I had read books for 10 years," he added.

Chen flew to Sendai on March 14 and covered disaster-hit areas including Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture and Fukushima in Fukushima Prefecture.

The strongest impression he received about the Japanese was "the cool and collected" manner demonstrated by the people in devastated areas, including the direct victims of the disaster.

He was moved, he said, when he saw people patiently queue up in front of shops following disruption to merchandize distribution. He also noted that shop owners had not taken advantage of the confusion to indulge in price gouging and that even family members of those who had died tried to restrain themselves from crying openly during burial rituals.

"I was surprised that I was given priority treatment at a gas station as I had an emergency press pass," he said, showing slide photos of a large number of people waiting for their turn to fill their vehicles.

The Chinese Business View's Zhang, who visited sites in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, said he had also been "an anti-Japan person" but that through his assignment he had realized that "the Japanese deserve respect."

Chen and Zhang were among more than 150 Chinese journalists sent to cover the Japanese disaster. The unusually large number appears to have been partly because it was a natural disaster, not a political matter.

Qin Xuan, a reporter from the Southern Weekly magazine based in Guangdong Province, told Kyodo News, "It must have been the first time that so many journalists flew out to cover an overseas incident."

The magazine carried a special feature on the Japanese disaster with a headline saying "The nation of patience," mirroring straightforwardly the impression its reporters got at the stricken areas.

The story touched on how Self-Defense Forces members gave a salute to dead people before burying them, providing a new image of SDF members, whom ordinary Chinese still tend to view in ways colored by memories of the wartime Imperial Japanese Army.

Feeling that his own understanding of Japan was "superficial," Chen said that after coming home he had begun reading history books about Japan, such as about the 17th-19th century Tokugawa Shogunate era.

(Mainichi Japan) April 29, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/201104...0dm008000c.html

I don't know....I feel that they're liking the WRONG things about the Japanese, somehow. To me, this deference for order is a double-edged sword - it means great personal discipline and a stoic outlook in times of distress, but it could mean that the people are willing to accept mutely hardships that are unnecessary, and unwilling to speak up against those in power who take advantage of them.

What I appreciate in the Japanese is their sense of fairness and respect towards others, a deeper appreciation for culture and a down-to-earth outlook. And yes, their aesthetics and refined manners, at least the normal Japanese, not the Rightwingers.

Wow, i almost had a Japanese boyfriend!

WW2, of course, is another issue.

In the US even the police was looting after Katrina:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmQW6xLECUU

it took the chinese this long to sympathize. even then, they still hold a slight grudge? seems that is the chinese mentality, hate all the people of one country just because of government clash in the war era, which the chinese aren't so innocent either. seriously, if they hold on to this attitude, don't be complaining when other people hate on chinese just because that person is chinese. and the japanese is not the only people they hate. revolving from within their own borders onto ethnic minorities. don't get me wrong, I like chinese. now more about the op... good to hear they're building friendly relations and helping the fellow neighbors in time of need.

wtf...does that mean u're a girl?

That's quite random.

I really hope one day, China/Japan/Korea can unite and be as one.
Well I don't mean the countries joining as one country, I mean as unite together
instead of looking at the past, I know we should not forget but we can forgive.
Look forward to the future and work together to make a better asia.

You can see thats the problem, they even admitted that they report things in a biased way, only report or create positve news about Japan in this disater.

In China, there are such kind of person which we often called as "democrazy retards" or "democrazy goon" ("民主逗士").

Many suspects that they are simply on payroll of foreign agency, like the news reporter here, two cantonese wankers from the most right-wing paper in China, South weekend or something.

Of cause these democrazy goons will praise whatever any "free" country did, desipite whether it is flower or $hit, thats why most people in China mock these kinds of news reporters as "democrazy zealots" or retards.

Due to the degree of retardness shown by these news reporters, actually democrazy movement in China find a smaller and smaller market laterly.

For instance, most of the people in China thinks its nothing special for japanese or any other non-black states to demonstrate this kind of orders after a natural disater, yet these democrazy fanboys praise as if this is some unique japanese or democrazy thing, especially considering the fact the japanese simply get used to earth quakes etc (100 times/per year, sure like happened in a daily basis).

And most people in China think the japanese government are simply incompentant in handling the disater, and japanese people,in general, performed poorly in helping others, yet they still dig the tiny bit of things to show as if they performed well (50 voluteers and only 49 old men and one girl? all experters flee away?) army refused to take orders? they are basically a joke, and you should admit that).

To see a more representive opinions in China, regarding Japan's pathetic performance in this man-made disaster, you can check these popular BBS in China, like Tianya, sina, etcs.

You know, there is nothing about hate (most Chinese perfer to settle the scores with japanese once and for all by their own hands, instead of the hands of God, so they actually dont want to see japan sunk by this disaster) or something in judging the performance of the japanese there, actually in general most Chinese hold the same kind of views there, like many west reporters, or even japanese's own reporters/politicans have regarding japanese's very poor performance here.

^stop trolling. my guess is that u're a japanese-obsessed white man that's sorely jealous of the improvement in the japan-china relations atmosphere. lol it's ok to be angry, but why don't u take it somewhere else?

Its alot more complicated than that. Theres the issue of historical revisionism in Japanese school books, official denial of any war crimes, etc. Korea, Allied prisoners still have similar issue with that as well.
Its mainly with old Japanese right wingers who stir these problems up. Most Japanese of the younger generation are looked positively.

Actually reading from various posts articles over last year or so most Chinese look more favoriably towards Japan than they do with Korea.

so true. seriously, it's a western wet dream fantasy that chinese hate japanese because they are still stuck in the ww2 mentality and don't want asians to unite in friendship.

I hope one day this will come to fruition.

Agreed. Bet you wouldn't think I would after last week. lol.

it will come. just have to be patient and take care not to anger america too much or give them any excuses to start war.

This is a ridiculous statement. Asians won't unite because Asians don't like each other NOT because of the west.

There is a greater respect towards Japanese citizenry for their orderly response. But then again, the Chinese have respected the Japanese for many things, it does not necessarily mean that old hatreds have died. You can respect and hate a person at the same time.

^ Yeah, we need more direct cultural exchanges like large scale home-stay and summer exchange programs.

Either that or I'm gay as a handbag full of rainbows....



Not really...it was a very cute guy I knew in college, in a different faculty, and while I was poring over some books in my corner of the library one day, he came to look at the same shelves. He sat opposite me on the floor and started chatting, but I realized he really wanted to talk about his experience as an exchange student in Beijing. He was distressed that he was hated by the Chinese students, and wanted to understand why, as he is innocent of WW2, guilty by being a descendant. However, since I don't feel the same way, I couldn't answer him. We just sat there in silence for a very long time.

I found out that he liked me, but I think it would be too complicated for the Japanese and Chinese to date, much more than for any other groups, because of the historic baggage.

I found out later that he did a post-graduate research with another Chinese guy, so maybe he found some Chinese students he could relate to who became his good friends, and I was glad. Every time WW2 bitterness is brought up, I always think of him, and it makes me more balanced and less emotional about the war crimes committed by the WW2 Japanese. I wish I could let him know that he did a lot of good for me and for the other Chinese students he made contact with.