Shina (word)

''Shina'' is a largely archaic name for China. Its use in Japanese originally had a neutral connotation, but the word came to be perceived as derogatory by Chinese people during the course of the First and Second Sino-Japanese Wars. As a result, it fell into disuse after World War II and is now viewed as offensive, with the standard Japanese name for China being replaced by .

During the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the word was used as a form of protest against the Chinese government but also as a xenophobic remark against mainland Chinese.

Origins and early usage

The Sanskrit word (), meaning "China", was transcribed into various forms including (), (), () and (). Thus, the term ''Shina'' was initially created as a transliteration of , and this term was in turn brought to Japan with the spread of Chinese Buddhism. Some scholars believe that the Sanskrit , like Middle Persian and Latin , is derived from the name of the state of Qin, which founded a dynasty (, Old Chinese: ) that ruled China from 221 to 206 BC, and so ''Shina'' is a return of ''Qin'' to Chinese in a different form.

The Sanskrit term for China eventually spread into China, where its usage was closely related to Buddhism. A Tang dynasty (618–907) poem titled ''Ti Fan Shu'' (, literally "topic of a Sanskrit book") by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang uses the term in Chinese () to refer to China, which is an early use of the word in China:

Early modern usage

The Latin term for China was , plural of . When Arai Hakuseki, a Japanese scholar, interrogated the Italian missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti in 1708, he noticed that , the Latin plural word Sidotti used to refer to China, was similar to ''Shina'', the Japanese pronunciation of . Then he began to use this word for China regardless of dynasty. Since the Meiji Era, ''Shina'' had been widely used as the translation of the Western term "China". For instance, " sinology" was translated as "" ().

At first, it was widely accepted that the term ''Shina'' or ''Zhina'' had no political connotations in China. Before the Chinese Republican era, the term ''Shina'' was one of the names proposed as a "generalized, basically neutral Western-influenced equivalent for 'China. Chinese revolutionaries, such as Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and Liang Qichao, used the term extensively, and it was also used in literature as well as by ordinary Chinese. The term "transcended politics, as it were, by avoiding reference to a particular dynasty or having to call China the country of the Qing". With the overthrow of the Qing in 1911, however, most Chinese dropped ''Shina'' as foreign and demanded that Japan replace it with the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters used as the name of the new Republic of China , with the short form .

Nevertheless, the term continued to be more-or-less neutral. A Buddhist school called () was established as late as in 1922 in Nanjing. In the meantime, ''Shina'' was used as commonly in Japanese as "China" in English. Derogatory nuances were expressed by adding extra adjectives, e.g. or using derogatory terms like , originating from a corruption of the Taiwanese Hokkien pronunciation of , used to refer to any " chinaman" or "chink".

Despite interchangeability of Chinese characters, Japan officially used the term from 1913 to 1930 in Japanese documents, while () was used in Chinese ones. was the literal translation of the English "Republic of China" while was the Japanese pronunciation of the official Chinese characters of . The Republic of China unofficially pressed Japan to adopt the latter but was rejected.

Japan rejected the terms and its short form () for four reasons:
# A term referring to China as the "Middle kingdom" or the "center of the world" was deemed arrogant
# Western countries used "China"
# ''Shina'' had been the common name in Japan for centuries
# Japan already has a Chūgoku region, in the west of its main island Honshu. The name was officially adopted by Japan in 1930, but ''Shina'' was still commonly used by the Japanese throughout the 1930s and 1940s.Joshua A. Fogel
"New Thoughts on an Old Controversy: Shina as a Toponym for China"
Sino-Platonic Papers, 229 (August 2012)]

Post-war derogatory connotations

The Second Sino-Japanese War fixed the impression of the term ''Shina'' as offensive among Zhonghua Minzu, Chinese people. In 1946, the Republic of China demanded that Japan cease using ''Shina''.

In China, the term ''Shina'' has become linked with the Japanese invasion and Japanese war crimes, and has been considered an offensive ethnic slur ever since. The Japanese for exclusive use as a racist term, since the character (Japanese ; Chinese ) means 'branch' which could be interpreted to suggest that the Chinese are subservient to the Japanese, the characters were originally chosen simply for their sound values, not their meanings.

In modern Japan, the term refers to the Republic of China, while refers to the People's Republic of China; the terms use the same Chinese characters (with Japanese ''shinjitai'' simplifications) used officially in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. Likewise, in most cases, words previously containing ''Shina'' have been altered; for example, the term for sinology was changed from to or , and the name for the Second Sino-Japanese War has changed from terms such as and to .

Writing ''Shina'' in Japanese is considered socially unacceptable and subject to '' kotobagari'', especially the kanji form; if ''Shina'' is used, it is now generally written in katakana () rather than with the kanji (), which in Japanese serves as a way to spell offensive words ( English "f*ck"). As such, the term has survived in a few non-political compound words in Japanese, and even (rarely) in Chinese. For example, the South and East China Seas are called and , respectively, in Japanese (prior to World War II, the names were written as and ). ''Shinachiku'' ( or simply ), a ramen topping made from dried bamboo, also derives from the term ''Shina'', but in recent years the word has replaced this as a more politically correct name. Some terms that translate to words containing the "Sino-" prefix in English retain ''Shina'' within them, for example (Sino-Tibetan languages) and (''Sinanthropus pekinensis'', also known as Peking Man). Meanwhile, one of the Chinese names for Indochina is ().

Even so, it is still sometimes seen in written forms such as , an alternative name for ramen, a dish which originates from China. Many Japanese are not fully aware of Chinese feelings towards the term, and generally find ''Shina'' merely old-fashioned and associated with the early and mid-20th century, rather than derogatory and racist. This difference in conception can lead to misunderstandings. The term is a slur when used toward Ryukyuans by mainland Japanese people.

Sinologist Joshua A. Fogel mentioned that, "Surveying the present scene indicates much less sensitivity on the part of Chinese to the term ''Shina'' and growing ignorance of it in Japan". He also criticized Shintaro Ishihara, a right-wing nationalist politician who went out of his way to use the expression () and called him a "troublemaker". He elaborated further:

Current usage

In Japan

Japanese Canadian historian Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi mentioned that there are two classes of postwar Japanese that have continued to use derogatory terms like ''Shina'': poorly educated and/or elderly persons who grew up with the term go on using these from force of habit.Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, "The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture" (2007), Berghahn Books, pp. 395-398

Some right-wing Japanese appeal to etymology in trying to ascribe respectability to the continued use of Shina, since the term Shina has non-pejorative etymological origins. Wakabayashi disagreed: "The term Jap also has non-pejorative etymological origins, since it derives from Zippangu () in Marco Polo's ''Travels''... If the Chinese today say they are hurt by the terms Shina or Shinajin, then common courtesy enjoins the Japanese to stop using these terms, whatever the etymology or historical usage might be."

In Hong Kong

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese government classified Hong Kong residents as ''Shinajin'' (), as the term was used to refer to all who were ethnically Chinese. Hongkongers that were considered useful to the Japanese government, as well as prominent local figures such as bankers and lawyers, were recorded in a census document called the "Hong Kong Shinajin Magnate Survey" (). In 2016, a Hong Kong reporter was called by Japanese nationalist politician Shintaro Ishihara.

In Hong Kong, "''Cheena''", the Cantonese pronunciation of "''Shina''", is used in a derogative sense under the backdrop of ongoing tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China, even in official capacity, for example by Hong Kong localist politicians Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus Leung during their controversial oath swearing as elected members of the Hong Kong legislature.

On 15 September 2012, a Hong Kong online community organized a protest against mainlanders and parallel traders. During the protest, some demonstrators chanted "''Cheena'' people get out!" On 24 September 2013, the Hong Kong political group Hongkongers Priority breached the front entrance of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building, the first such incident since the handover of Hong Kong. Billy Chiu, the leader of Hongkongers Priority, later announced on social media that Hongkongers Priority had successfully broken into the "''Cheena'' Army Garrison". In October 2015, an HKGolden netizen remade the South Korean song "Gangnam Style", with lyrics calling mainland Chinese "locusts" and "''Cheena'' people", titled "Disgusting ''Cheena'' Style" ( zh, t=核突支那Style).

Inside Hong Kong university campuses, mainland Chinese students were referred to as "''Cheena'' dogs" and "yellow thugs" by local students. On 18 September 2019, the 88th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of northeast China, a celebration poster was put up on the Democracy Wall of the University of Hong Kong, glorifying the Japanese invasion while advocating for democracy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong journalist Audrey Li noted the xenophobic undertone of the widespread right-wing nativism movement, in which the immigrant population and tourists are used as scapegoats for social inequality and institutional failure.

In Hong Kong, some people consider hate speech and even discrimination toward mainland Chinese morally justified by a superiority complex influenced by Hong Kong's economic and cultural prominence during the Cold War, and nostalgia toward British rule. Some protesters choose to express their frustrations on ordinary mainlanders instead of the Chinese government. With rising tribalism and nationalism in Hong Kong and China, xenophobia between Hong Kongers and mainlanders is reinforced and reciprocated. Some critics of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement argue that the prevalence of ethnic hatred and xenophobia amongst its supporters is mostly ignored by the media, which often frames the situation as simply a fight between democracy and authoritarianism.

See also

* Names of China
* Chinaman
* Chink
* Chinky
* ''Locust''
* Wokou
* Xiao Riben
* Ethnic issues in Japan

References

Further reading

* Joshua A. Fogel, "The Sino-Japanese Controversy over Shina as a Toponym for China," in ''The Cultural Dimension of Sino-Japanese Relations: Essays on the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'', ed. Joshua A. Fogel (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1995), 66–76.
* Lydia He Liu. ''The Clash of Empires: The Invention of China in Modern World Making.'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). ), esp. pp. 76–79.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shina (word)
Political terminology
Racism in Japan
Names of China
Anti-Chinese slurs
Ethnic and religious slurs