On July 4, a Chinese gamer was locked away in a virtual prison. His crime? Refusing to give up the user name Kill The Little Japanese.
The incident, which sparked a nationalist uproar on the Internet, took place in Fantasy Westward Journey, a popular online game operated by Netease.com, one of China’s biggest Internet companies. The game is a riff on a classic Chinese story that details the adventures of a Chinese monk who traveled to India in search of Buddhist scriptures.
In a market where multiplayer online games are wildly popular, Fantasy Westward Journey attracted nearly 1.3 million concurrent users during the first quarter and was credited with pushing Netease’s gaming revenue up 72% over the previous year. But company officials ran into trouble when they sought to enforce a rule that prevents users from choosing politically sensitive names.
After jailing the player, Netease officials announced plans to disband the Anti-Japanese Union, an online group the player created.
Around that same time, rumors began to circulate that Netease had been acquired by a Japanese company. The rumors claimed the Japanese company had made changes to the game, turning traditional Chinese stone lions into pigs and adding an image of the Japan’s Rising Sun flag to a virtual building in the game.
It’s not clear if the rumors started after Kill The Little Japanese was jailed or whether officials sought to remove him from the game because of the rumors. A Netease spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.
Either way, the timing could not have been more sensitive. July 7 marks the anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, a 1937 battle considered the start of the Japanese invasion of China. The resulting war raged for eight years, leaving millions of Chinese soldiers and civilians dead.
Sixty-nine years later, the wounds China suffered at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army remain raw.
Simmering Chinese anger toward Japan was clear to see in Fantasy Westward Journey on July 7, when gamers gathered online to protest the apparent depiction of the Rising Sun flag in the game. The incident was picked up by Chinese discussion forums, bloggers and the Web site of the Beijing Evening News newspaper, which reported the story that same day.
In response, Netease issued a series of statements on the Fantasy Westward Journey customer service Web site addressing recent events. “We’d like to talk with you about these incidents,” the company said.
Netease said the alleged depiction of the Rising Flag was in fact a representation of wall paintings used in Chinese government offices during the Tang dynasty. To bolster its case, the company posted links to photographs of similar paintings.
Netease also denied claims the company had been acquired by a Japanese company, and posted a screenshot to show that the design of the stone lions had never changed. “This is a cartoon-style game and some images may have exaggerated shapes, that doesn’t mean their meaning has changed,” the message said.
At the same time, Netease expressed sympathy with the views of its users, saying it had not forgotten Japan’s treatment of China during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Nanking Massacre. “Patriotism is the soul of our people, and it is our national spirit,” it said.
