Indonesian Massacre of Ethnic Chinese Documentary, Reactions

Full Documentary with Chinese Subtitles on Sohu:

Comments from NetEase:

网易辽宁省营口市手机网友 ip：119.115.*.*:

The films nominated for Oscars always involve political messages. Leaving out this film, don’t don’t you think Argo was also like this? Also, without mentioning political incidents, do you think Chinese people in China are friendly towards other Chinese people? Self-deception can be found everywhere, and it is not a problem of national power, but of the collective loss of faith and the decline of people’s identification with our motherland that is the biggest problem.

网易浙江省温州市手机网友 ip：124.160.*.*:

Instead of Chinese making the film ourselves, we let an American do it.

网易吉林省松原市手机网友 ip：175.30.*.*:

Those are just overseas ethnic Chinese, not Chinese citizens, and thus they were already outside China’s scope of protection.

网易北京市手机网友 [hoverghost]: (responding to above)

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, they [overseas Chinese] did everything they could to donate money, with many people selling all their belongings, then returning to the country to join the war. They are our compatriots. They are Chinese descendants, who should not be excluded over something as small as nationality. Chinese people, unite together, we really shouldn’t sink to becoming slaves of [differentiating on the basis of geography]. Is mutual jealousy and hate that interesting? Let’s be more magnanimous, okay?

网易新加坡网友 [jeff994]: (responding to above)

Those people were still Chinese nationals during Republic of China era [1912-1949], then when the civil war happened, they were still overseas making a living. After the Civil War was over, the People’s Republic of China was founded. The mainland cast its lot with with the Soviet Union, and began continuously exporting communism abroad, with one of the channels being through overseas Chinese, exporting revolution. Later on, the mainland fell out with the Soviet Union. The mainland was very nervous, so it hastily requested an Indonesian-led non-aligned coalition. One of the conditions was noninterference in each others’ internal affairs. On this basis, the mainland abandoned all Chinese who had Chinese nationality in Southeast Asia, including the Chinese previously used to export revolution. What happened afterward was all a consequence of this mutual non-interference (Indonesia had the argument). Think, just how much responsibility is on the mainland?

网易江苏省苏州市太仓市手机网友(222.93.*.*): (responding to above)

These people were not willing to come back, so what can you do? As long as they were willing to give up their present identity [nationality], the ships were all arranged. In the end, only about 5,000 people were willing to come back and take refuge. On one hand, they had experienced such things so much before, and therefore treated it lightly [didn’t think it would be different from before]. On the other hand, they had long ago came to see themselves as having an Indonesian identity.

jeff994 [网易新加坡手机网友]： (responding to above)

Come out and take a look for yourself, and see what overseas Chinese say.

Comments from Sina:

手机用户[湖北武汉]:

At the time, before the massacre, our country was already ready to take the ethnic Chinese back to China, and at the same time the United States and Taiwan also promised to save the Chinese fleeing from Indonesia. Ultimately, the promise by the United States and Taiwan ended up being empty words, and only the few taken in by the mainland narrowly escaped the tragedy. When they’re all Chinese descendents, would the country not care about them? So [those that stayed and died] was only because it was their choice. They chose to place their trust in the wrong thing and ultimately hurt themselves. Don’t always say how our country is this or that [negatives], because when you really encounter a crisis, the one you can rely on is still your motherland.

清泉凉水[广西南宁]:

The issue of nationality is not important. A patriotic overseas Chinese who can’t speak a single phrase of Chinese is still much more lovable than a Chinese traitor who can speak proper putonghua [Mandarin]!

八哥牙露1658744310[广西百色]:

The 1999 massacre of ethnic Chinese was also hair-raising, but very few people domestically knew about it, and why is that? Why aren’t the Chinese people allowed to know this demon (Indonesia)?

绿林爷们儿[河北秦皇岛]:

It’s because the Chinese government does not recognize dual nationality, so in the massacre of ethnic Chinese last time, the Chinese government was unable to do anything more to help.

Note from Fauna: This news was also widely discussed on Sina Weibo the past few days, with many of the most-discussed microblog posts including extremely graphic images of beheaded, raped, and mutilated ethnic Chinese victims (click with discretion) from the more recent Indonesian anti-Chinese violence in 1998.