You're lacking perspective. A better comparison would be if Japanese tourist had a giant orgy in Hawaii while we're remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor (if we still remember it). Or hundreds of Saudis had an orgy in NYC on 9/11. That would no doubt upset a few apple carts.
absolutely....but no one would get a life sentence for it. society would shun the behavior...they'd be ridiculed...they would be held accountable for crimes of prostitution...but no one would be put in prison for the rest of their natural life.
9/11, 3000 people killed. Assume instead, 369,000 killed. 80,000 women raped, multilated. On the anniversary of 9/11, those that were responsible came to NYC and have an orgy re-enactment of the event. Would that make you feel sick?
It is not only about prostitution. It is about corruption. Organizing 500 prostitutes is not a small incident. The police chief of Zhuhai city should be investigated. Without bribing the police, nobody dare to organize something like this. From this one incident, we can see how corrupted the city is.
A more appropriate comparison would be if 400 Japanese came to U.S. on the anniversary of Pearl harbor and hired 500 american prostitutes. We'd be pretty pissed off as well.
again...no doubt we'd be pissed off. but the rule of law is still in control. the constitution doesn't let us lock people up for life just because they really pissed us off.
I think most people would be in agreement about not locking them away. However, this is in China, not here. The far east is all about face. They dishonored their country and will be punished accordingly. We might not agree with it, but it's their bed. We also frown upon beheadings and hand choppings in the middle east, but it's their way of life. Now if a massive Saudi orgy did occur in NYC on 9/11, I will bet that we don't just ridicule them, but there would be an incredible amount of ass kicking going on. Human emotions sometimes trump rational judgement.
The comparison is close but not enough. The Japanese killed tens of millions of Chinese in WWII. They haven't even officially apologized till today. The Japanese people think their WWII invasion was an act of self defense preventing the white people from conquering Asia. They are the victims instead of the Chinese. Many Taiwanese like Lil agrees with the Japanese and even more. Right now, many Taiwanese high rank officials are celebrating the birthday of the Japanese emperor. They enjoy to be third class Japanese (First class: true Japanese, second class: people from Okinawa, third class:Taiwanese).
Enola Gay Protesters Disrupt Museum Event http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031217/ap_on_sc/air_and_space_museum_1 I don't mean to pile on the bashing, but some people are so shameless. It wouldn't have happened if they had stayed on their island and not thrown a sucker punch. Do the protesters think about all the servicemen who died at Pearl Harbor and the subsequent US war in the Pacific?
mleahy, techlabor, i think both of you have made the mistake of generalising responsibility of a select group of individuals in a previous generation onto a whole race, past and present. the people who died at hiroshima had little or nothing to do with pearl harbor, and the people responsible were mostly hanged (or died horribly in burning wreckages). the same for the people responsible for the nanjing massacre (mostly hanged or shot). and rightly so. most japanese today need to apologise to no one for nanking, because they simply weren't there. as for their biased presentation of history, well, who doesn't? my american history textbooks taught me far more about manifest destiny and the american dream far more than about sitting bull and the trail of tears, not to mention dresden and israel. just as my chinese history textbooks taught me far more about uniting all under heaven and preserving the hans from just about every other race, than the campaigns of annihilation china waged time and again against central asia and the horrendous atrocities chinese people and leaders (up to chairman mao and deng) have committed against themselves. history is by its very nature subjective in its presentation. always has been. always will be. before you point the finger, make sure you've got the right man! and even after you find sin, take a cue from an ancient wise man, and examine yourself before you cast a stone.
my last response to your inane comments got the thread shut down. this time, i'd like this thread to stay open and let the whole world see how wonderfully insightful your racist comments are.
This attitude sucks: 1) The fault is always with the other guy and not with ourself. 2) They did this and that ... they deserve what they got ... The Japanese were wrong for their part in WWII, whether it was Nanking or Pearl. The Chinese were wrong for their acts against other countries. American were wrong for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You can't say that those protesters are shameless, what have they done?
Lifetime imprisonment is proly a bit harsh, especially measured against our laws. However, just like mleahy999 said, one should take into account the context of the incident. Lil, i think it's rather naive to simply brush it off as "Poor Taste". Obviously, this is a sensitive subject for a lot of chinese people, so instead of simply bash everything chinese, maybe we can try to undersand the feeling of others.
mrpaige, I'm surprised you don't see the connection here. It isn't just about the Japanese invasion of China, the millions they killed and oppressed and whatnot. The Japanese occupiers were raping thousands of Chinese women and China is still upset about the rapes in particular, in addition to all the other stuff. Now, when you have a sex party on an anniversary of the occupation where Japanese men have sex with Chinese women it looks like they are celebrating the occupation by recreating the rapes. That's definitely a slap in the face to the country. Sex parties on July 4th or Dec 7th doesn't even come close to matching the offensiveness. I think a closer comparison would be to get 500 black women to dress up as maids and farm-hands to have a BDSM party with 400 white men in a plantation manor on the anniversary of the Confederacy's secession from the Union. On the subject of whether it was prostitution, I'd find it very hard to believe you got 500 women and 400 men -- where all the women were Chinese and all the men were Japanese travelling in -- wasn't a case of prostitution. What other incentive would 500 Chinese women have to have sex with 400 foreigners? Maybe it'd take a little something to get evidence to convict, but I think you'd have to do a lot of work to get people to believe it wasn't prostitution out of court.
I think a closer comparison would be to get 500 black women to dress up as maids and farm-hands to have a BDSM party with 400 white men in a plantation manor on the anniversary of the Confederacy's secession from the Union. Well personally, if that were to happen, I would think those specific people to be quite weird, but I wouldn't find it an affront to the country any more than hundreds of other things that go on in any given day in the U.S. Perhaps because that's an American vs. American thing (the Civil War), it makes it different than if it were foreigners, but I personally would still not get all worked up about it. But if they want to be offended by it, that's their right. I've got bigger things than perceived symbolic offenses to be outraged about. I can honestly say this would not be a big deal to me and wouldn't consider it a slap in the face to the country as a whole. Plus, did they actually advertise this party to the Japanese men as a chance to recreate the events of the past on a symbolic day? Or was it just a sex party that happened to coincide with that date? If the Japanese men weren't even aware of the connection, then there's no real attempt to show the specific disrespect that the Chinese seem so offended by. In your example, the attempt would be advertised as a specific recreation. It's not been made clear that was the attempt here (i.e. Was the trip advertised to these men as a 'Come rape the Chinese like your grandparents before you' trip?)
I'd find it very hard to believe you got 500 women and 400 men -- where all the women were Chinese and all the men were Japanese travelling in -- wasn't a case of prostitution. I don't know what kind of sex lives women in China have. In the United States, you probably could get 500 American women to come to a sex party without resorting to paying them. I know women personally who might be interested in such a party, especially if there were some perks added - free hotel, a chance to take a trip to a nice place they've not been, etc. There's no telling what you could tell a woman to get her interested in coming besides a direct offer of cash for sex. Sure, an immediate thought might be prostitution, but I'm not willing to say that with any certainty because I don't have all the facts from the principals involved.
