Yes, I’m aware that the title of this post is somewhat retro, and would be happy to change it if someone can convince me that this post on the Huanqiu BBS isn’t just a bit redolent of an earlier era. Entitled 还有民族尊严吗？每年1万中国女孩嫁到日本 [“Do they still have racial pride? Every year 10,000 Chinese girls are married off to Japan”), the story describes the patter of migration, one instance of which whereby 35 girls from rural Heilongjiang province meet up with Japanese businessmen for purposes of marriage.
One BBS commentator excoriates the girls, telling them they need to get to the Anti-Japanese history museums in Dongbei (the Northeast/Manchuria) in order to “restore their memory of the Chinese characters for ‘Japanese devil’.” What might be more helpful is for the PRC to have a more open debate about the problem of girls in the countryside and how that relates to national power. (After all, even bride-exporting countries like Cambodia, with just a fraction of China’s might, have recently banned outmarriage to Korean bachelors.) Or we could just forget it and fantasize about how a Beijing University professor projects train service to Taiwan within 20 years. Visions of the future, shadows of the past: hopefully this thread will bear some productive fruit.
Adam Cathcart 