Signs of Humiliation, Flames of Revolution: Dogs and Chinese Are Not Allowed In and the Fault Lines of the Postwar Psyche (1900s-1970s)

Signs of Humiliation, Flames of Revolution: Dogs and Chinese Are Not Allowed In and the Fault Lines of the Postwar Psyche (1900s-1970s)

A legendary sign in Shanghai's Bund Park at the beginning of the 20th century has been passed down as a symbol of national humiliation in China's modern history. The sign read, "Dogs and Chinese are not allowed to enter. This phrase has been passed around as the English expression "Dogs and Chinese not allowed," a symbol of the most blatant discrimination of colonialism, in which the Chinese were treated in the same way as dogs. In fact, although there is no evidence that the exact phrase was written on the sign, it is believed that the rule that Chinese were not allowed in the foreigners-only park at that time did exist, and that it became a condensed memory among the public.

For the Chinese, the story of the billboard was not just an episode, but a painful historical point in which their self-respect as a people was trampled upon. The anger and humiliation of the Chinese people was later transformed into the driving force behind the communist revolution that engulfed all of China. The Chinese Revolution is often described as having been accomplished by the power of Mao Zedong as an individual, but in the words of those close to the scene, it was "the passion of the people as a whole" and "a kind of faith akin to a religion. It was the result of the people's determination to "take back their country" one by one.

In contrast, Japan's postwar period is quite different. After the defeat, under the leadership of GHQ, the Constitution was revised, the electoral system was reformed, and the democratic framework was rapidly put in place. However, for many Japanese, these changes were not accompanied by a sense that they had "won" the war for themselves. One writer says that a sign saying "Dogs and Japanese are not allowed in Hibiya Park" was never erected in Hibiya Park, and he attributes this to the fact that the Japanese people were not so deeply humiliated. This is why the Japanese did not have the anger of the Chinese, and why social changes such as revolutions could not erupt from their souls.

The reporter recalls this as he listens back to the tape recording. Whereas the Chinese looked up under that sign and went ahead with the revolution to regain their pride, the Japanese somehow received democracy and eventually moved into a society where refrigerators and televisions were the symbols of happiness. The writer tells the story over ice at a jazz cafe in Ginza. The Chinese have regained their pride. We seem to have had a revolution, but we did nothing. It was both a self-mockery and a kind of warning bell.

On the other hand, says a trader who spans the globe, "The Chinese people have regained their pride. He says he secretly felt a sense of defeat when he came across young Chinese in the Shanghai marketplace, proudly displaying their country's products. They haven't forgotten that sign," he said. That's why they can burn so much. Japan was a commercial success. But it was not a recovery of the soul. Pride in business is necessary, but pride itself does not show up in numbers," he said, setting down his glass.

Thus, the phrase "dogs and Chinese are not allowed to enter" is not merely a discriminatory expression from the past, but the starting point of China's modern revolutionary spirit, which still lives deep in the national consciousness today. It is also a mirror that reveals the spiritual contrast with Japan's postwar period. Freedom given and dignity taken back. We need to look again at the difference between the two. This sign is a silent question for our time, when we tend to forget our history.