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Irish Times
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Beijing Letter: China's war commemorations contrast with hesitant approach of Japan's
Beijing's Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the southwestern district of Fengtai is far from the city's main tourist attractions. But the museum was the centre of attention this week when it reopened after an extended closure, with almost twice its former display space and a new exhibition called For National Liberation and World Peace. It tells the story of the 14-year struggle, which began in 1931 when Japanese troops invaded and occupied northeast China and ended with Japan's formal surrender in September 1945. The exhibition is part of a programme of events, documentaries and short-form dramas that will culminate in a military parade on Tiananmen Square on September 3rd, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the war. READ MORE The exhibition uses thousands of artefacts and photographs, as well as video and virtual displays, to portray the war as a national effort that involved the entire Chinese people. But the role of the Chinese Communist Party is at the centre, as it is seen mobilising soldiers and civilians in a united front with the Nationalists, and guiding the war of resistance. The museum is next to Beijing's Marco Polo Bridge, where Japanese troops began their full-scale invasion of China on July 7th, 1937, with an attack on Chinese forces. China sees this battle not only as the start of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, but also of what it calls the World Anti-Fascist War, or the second World War. President Xi Jinping marked this week's anniversary with a visit to Yangquan in Shanxi province, the site of one of the war's big battles called the Hundred Regiments Campaign. The campaign was a huge sabotage operation led by the Communist Party's National Revolutionary Army against the Imperial Japanese Army and its Chinese collaborators, and it has long had a celebrated place in the party's wartime lore. 'The past should not be forgotten and should be a lesson for the future. Coming here is to receive spiritual baptism,' said Xi. The war between China and Japan cost 14 million lives between 1937 and 1945, and during its first few years neither the Soviet Union nor the western powers offered any assistance. China had a place at the Potsdam Conference at the end of the second World War, but Winston Churchill's dismissive view of this war as a sideshow in the Pacific theatre contributed to its neglect in later western accounts. Dedicated sections in museums like London's Imperial War Museum have increased western awareness of the Sino-Japanese war in recent years. Meanwhile, the Chinese have been engaged in a decades-long research effort that includes deep and intensive study of Japanese military and civilian decisions during the war and the world's leading institute devoted to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. Memorialising the war is part of a broader narrative of national rejuvenation, and the party is explicit in its view of museums as 'patriotic education bases' as well as sites of memory. This is especially evident at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, built around a mass grave where the skeletons of some of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians slaughtered by the Japanese lie half-buried. When the museum first opened in 1985, its focus was almost exclusively on the tragedy and the suffering of the massacre. Recent additions to the memorial hall concentrate on the Chinese victory over Japan and its importance in the creation of a new China under communism after 1949. China's confident programme of commemorations this year contrasts with the hesitant approach of Japan's prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba. He will make no official statement backed by his cabinet to mark the anniversary, but has instead asked a panel of experts to study the circumstances that led Japan to go to war against much of the rest of the world. In his statement on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in 1995, prime minister Tomiichi Murayama expressed 'deep remorse' and issued a 'heartfelt apology' for Japan's aggression. Junichiro Koizumi maintained a similar approach on the 60th anniversary in 2005 but Shinzo Abe changed the tone 10 years later. In his statement on the 70th anniversary, Abe used some of the same expressions of remorse as his predecessors, but he noted that more than 80 per cent of Japan's population was born after the war. 'We must not let our children, grandchildren and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologise,' he said. Under pressure from conservative elements in his Liberal Democratic Party, Ishiba has decided to follow Abe's guidance by saying nothing.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The spiritual economy: young Chinese turn to fortune tellers as anxiety about the future rises
Pass my exams. Meet Mr Right. Get rich. Pinned to a board by the entrance of a dimly lit fortune telling bar in Fengtai, an urban district in the south of Beijing, handwritten notes reveal the inner worries of customers coming for cocktails with a side of spiritual salvation. One As All is one of several fortune telling bars to have opened in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities in recent years. Hidden on the 12th floor of a commercial building, the bar serves a wide range of drinks starting at an auspicious 88 yuan (£9) (eight is considered to be lucky number in China). As well as enjoying a sundowner with a view over Beijing's skyline, customers can consult the in-house fortune teller who specialises in qiuqian, known in English as Chinese lottery sticks, an ancient style of divination often found in Taoist temples. From a private side-room, the smell of incense burning in front of a genuine Taoist shrine wafts into the bar. Derrex Deng, a 20-year-old student-cum-savant interprets the lottery sticks for customers. Adorned with jade jewellery, his nails manicured with sparkly black and white cats, Deng is a decidedly Gen Z fortune teller. He first felt a mystical calling when he was three or four years old and started seeing spirits, he says. 'Everybody trusted me, because I was so correct in telling them the truth in a direct way'. To divine the future with qiuqian, customers pose a question before pulling a flat wooden stick from an intricately carved cylinder. Each stick is engraved with numerals and texts, which Deng interprets. His divination skills are as Gen Z as his fashion sense. Interpreting a stick drawn in response to a question about how to improve communications with an overseas relative, he suggests using more emojis in text messages. Worries about relationships and jobs are hardly unique to China. But as the country grapples with slowing economic growth, many young people are feeling particularly anxious about the future. So some are turning to xuanxue, or mysticism. Cece, an astrology app backed by Tencent, has been downloaded more than 100m times. The trend has been dubbed the 'spiritual economy'. 'The most obvious sign of economic downturn is that, a few years ago, it felt like hardly anyone believed in metaphysics or fortune telling. But in the past two years, such beliefs have clearly become more common,' wrote one Weibo user. 'Drinking and so-called mysticism have something in common, especially in the current environment, when everyone is under a lot of pressure,' says Ma Xu, 33, co-owner of One As All, which opened in April last year. 'They both give people an outlet for their emotions or a way to vent.' As a Taoist believer himself, Ma also wanted to accrue good karma for the afterlife by opening a bar that could lift people's spirits. An economic downturn might seem like an odd time to open a bar. But Ma disagrees. 'Now the economy is going down, people can't buy expensive things, such as travelling abroad. But they can come and drink a glass of wine and chat all night.' Plus, he says, as a Taoist he's not focused on making a lot of money. 'Before we used to go to temples to do qiuqian,' says Dong Boya, 29, who works in public relations. 'But this combination of drawing sticks and having a drink is interesting.' Dong and her friends have come to One As All armed with questions about how to find love and get rich. Neither is easy in Beijing, they say. 'The way to make money fast is by breaking the law. The best ways are already written in the criminal law. Or you need to know someone,' jokes Hu Jiahui, 30, who works in artificial intelligence. Qiuqian is one of several types of Chinese fortune telling to be enjoying a resurgence among young city-dwellers. While there is some interest in western-style divination such as tarot, it lacks the cultural resonance of Chinese traditions. 'Tarot comes from overseas, so I treat it with some suspicion,' says Ning Ning, 37. She prefers Taoist or Buddhist fortune telling. Yaling Jiang, a consumer trends analyst, says the interest in Chinese-style fortune telling can be connected to a rising sense of cultural confidence. In recent months, several Chinese brands or products have gone global, from Labubus to DeepSeek. Ne Zha 2, an animated film based on ancient mythology, broke worldwide records for its takings in the Chinese box office 'The young audience is starting to connect to traditional Chinese culture,' says Jiang. But mysticism occupies a sensitive place in Chinese society. The Communist party is officially atheist and has repeatedly cracked down on what it describes as superstitious beliefs. Last year, state media reported that nearly 300 people had been 'criminally dealt with' since 2018 for activities relating to spiritualism, with individuals sentenced to up to 17 years in prison. Still, many people maintain individual beliefs in Taoism, Buddhism and other types of spirituality, and praying to deities or ancestors for good luck and guidance is common. Ma, the co-owner of One As All, says that he's careful to stay on the right side of the 'clear red line' of government controls. The bar doesn't charge for qiuqian, and he also reminds customers not to be superstitious. 'There's big a difference between having a belief and being superstitious,' he says. In China's current economic predicament, more corporeal factors may create a space for fortune telling bars. Consumer confidence is at historic lows and the government is desperate to get people spending more, especially as the part of the economy that has traditionally propped up growth, exports, is under pressure from the US-China trade war. Any trend that gets people spending is likely to be welcomed by the authorities says Jiang. 'If the final outcome is that it drives consumption, I don't think it will cause any backlash'. Additional research by Lillian Yang
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The spiritual economy: young Chinese turn to fortune tellers as anxiety about the future rises
Pass my exams. Meet Mr Right. Get rich. Pinned to a board by the entrance of a dimly lit fortune telling bar in Fengtai, an urban district in the south of Beijing, handwritten notes reveal the inner worries of customers coming for cocktails with a side of spiritual salvation. One As All is one of several fortune telling bars to have opened in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities in recent years. Hidden on the 12th floor of a commercial building, the bar serves a wide range of drinks starting at an auspicious 88 yuan (£9) (eight is considered to be lucky number in China). As well as enjoying a sundowner with a view over Beijing's skyline, customers can consult the in-house fortune teller who specialises in qiuqian, known in English as Chinese lottery sticks, an ancient style of divination often found in Taoist temples. From a private side-room, the smell of incense burning in front of a genuine Taoist shrine wafts into the bar. Derrex Deng, a 20-year-old student-cum-savant interprets the lottery sticks for customers. Adorned with jade jewellery, his nails manicured with sparkly black and white cats, Deng is a decidedly Gen Z fortune teller. He first felt a mystical calling when he was three or four years old and started seeing spirits, he says. 'Everybody trusted me, because I was so correct in telling them the truth in a direct way'. To divine the future with qiuqian, customers pose a question before pulling a flat wooden stick from an intricately carved cylinder. Each stick is engraved with numerals and texts, which Deng interprets. His divination skills are as Gen Z as his fashion sense. Interpreting a stick drawn in response to a question about how to improve communications with an overseas relative, he suggests using more emojis in text messages. Worries about relationships and jobs are hardly unique to China. But as the country grapples with slowing economic growth, many young people are feeling particularly anxious about the future. So some are turning to xuanxue, or mysticism. Cece, an astrology app backed by Tencent, has been downloaded more than 100m times. The trend has been dubbed the 'spiritual economy'. 'The most obvious sign of economic downturn is that, a few years ago, it felt like hardly anyone believed in metaphysics or fortune telling. But in the past two years, such beliefs have clearly become more common,' wrote one Weibo user. 'Drinking and so-called mysticism have something in common, especially in the current environment, when everyone is under a lot of pressure,' says Ma Xu, 33, co-owner of One As All, which opened in April last year. 'They both give people an outlet for their emotions or a way to vent.' As a Taoist believer himself, Ma also wanted to accrue good karma for the afterlife by opening a bar that could lift people's spirits. An economic downturn might seem like an odd time to open a bar. But Ma disagrees. 'Now the economy is going down, people can't buy expensive things, such as travelling abroad. But they can come and drink a glass of wine and chat all night.' Plus, he says, as a Taoist he's not focused on making a lot of money. 'Before we used to go to temples to do qiuqian,' says Dong Boya, 29, who works in public relations. 'But this combination of drawing sticks and having a drink is interesting.' Dong and her friends have come to One As All armed with questions about how to find love and get rich. Neither is easy in Beijing, they say. 'The way to make money fast is by breaking the law. The best ways are already written in the criminal law. Or you need to know someone,' jokes Hu Jiahui, 30, who works in artificial intelligence. Qiuqian is one of several types of Chinese fortune telling to be enjoying a resurgence among young city-dwellers. While there is some interest in western-style divination such as tarot, it lacks the cultural resonance of Chinese traditions. 'Tarot comes from overseas, so I treat it with some suspicion,' says Ning Ning, 37. She prefers Taoist or Buddhist fortune telling. Yaling Jiang, a consumer trends analyst, says the interest in Chinese-style fortune telling can be connected to a rising sense of cultural confidence. In recent months, several Chinese brands or products have gone global, from Labubus to DeepSeek. Ne Zha 2, an animated film based on ancient mythology, broke worldwide records for its takings in the Chinese box office 'The young audience is starting to connect to traditional Chinese culture,' says Jiang. But mysticism occupies a sensitive place in Chinese society. The Communist party is officially atheist and has repeatedly cracked down on what it describes as superstitious beliefs. Last year, state media reported that nearly 300 people had been 'criminally dealt with' since 2018 for activities relating to spiritualism, with individuals sentenced to up to 17 years in prison. Still, many people maintain individual beliefs in Taoism, Buddhism and other types of spirituality, and praying to deities or ancestors for good luck and guidance is common. Ma, the co-owner of One As All, says that he's careful to stay on the right side of the 'clear red line' of government controls. The bar doesn't charge for qiuqian, and he also reminds customers not to be superstitious. 'There's big a difference between having a belief and being superstitious,' he says. In China's current economic predicament, more corporeal factors may create a space for fortune telling bars. Consumer confidence is at historic lows and the government is desperate to get people spending more, especially as the part of the economy that has traditionally propped up growth, exports, is under pressure from the US-China trade war. Any trend that gets people spending is likely to be welcomed by the authorities says Jiang. 'If the final outcome is that it drives consumption, I don't think it will cause any backlash'. Additional research by Lillian Yang
