I guess decades of lopsided education have blurred the line between human decency and unbounded heroism. For most people, if they can refrain from committing evil when evil is all around them, that's good enough for them. Lu Chuan's dramatization of the rape of Nanking, called City of Life and Death, is a case in point. While he did portray Chinese resistance and heroism in maintaining a refugee camp, many viewers were dismayed that he showed Chinese soldiers and civilians facing the massacre without putting up a fight. Moreover, they were angry that one Japanese soldier was depicted as having a modicum of human compassion, which eventually resulted in his redemption.

By the same logic, Schindler's List would have been a glorification of Nazism because Schindler was a German and a Nazi member and it was he who saved so many Jews. That would have turned Spielberg into a Nazi whitewasher in the least. Maybe he is the son of a Nazi officer who fled Germany and camouflaged himself as a Jew. (Seriously, this is the line of thinking of quite a few youths here.)

I'm not saying Lu's film is perfect. It has many faults. But the graphic depiction of violence against Chinese people is a strong indictment of Japanese militarism. Lu also let the Chinese characters share much of the rescue efforts originally conducted by a small group of Western expatriates. But in the eyes of the nationalist "purists" that's not good enough. They probably want a cartoonish version of the Japanese soldiers, the kind popular in 1950s war movies. But wouldn't it be more insulting if hundreds of thousands of Chinese were brutally slaughtered by an army of buffoons?

Western observers may say this wave of ultra-nationalism has been stoked by the Chinese government but that is to disregard history. In the early 20th century, Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American actress, suffered a similar backlash whenever she portrayed a morally unsavory role. She had only a supporting role in the 1932 Hollywood romance adventure Shanghai Express and her occupation as a prostitute was only hinted at. Yet, there was still a boycott of the film in cosmopolitan Shanghai. There were no such problems in Germany, where Marlene Dietrich, who played the lead with a shady past, hailed from. And Dietrich was a much bigger name in Germany than was Wong in China.

Chinese people suffered a great deal of humiliation when their door was forced open by foreign invaders and they lost many wars at their hands. But the stigma of shame is not restricted to history. For the present generation, it's more from a skewed perception of history. We have never learned to look at foreigners, especially Westerners, as equals. We either pride ourselves on a superiority complex or banish ourselves into an inferiority complex, which are simply two sides of the same coin. Last year when some were calling for a boycott of a French retailer, Chinese visitors were spending a king's ransom in snapping up French wines at a Paris airport. Even if a Chinese brand had the same quality as its French counterpart and was cheaper, rest assured that most Chinese would go for the French brand without even pausing to think about supporting a domestic industry. Loving China is all rhetoric; worshipping all things foreign is all action.

Besides, if every trivial gesture is deemed offensive and loudly protested, what can you do about something really offensive, such as a Japanese leader visiting the Yasukuni Shrine? Your protests would most likely be brushed aside as crying wolf.

So, why are they picking on Zhang Ziyi? Because she is popular overseas and she is dating a foreign guy. Put any of her critics in her position, and they would do the same thing. But if Anna May Wong is any indication - Wong later started taking on roles of anti-Japanese heroines when even Madame Chiang, China's first lady, conspicuously avoided her on her American tour - Zhang would do well to scrutinize her offers more carefully. I suggest she try the Chinese equivalents of Mother Teresa or Joan of Arc. Maybe she can pretend to date a nationalistic youth. That would quell the flames of ignominy.

我要看更多专栏文章

 相关阅读：

Why is China angry?

Tibet, warts and all

Behind closed doors

Time-warped