What is a bonsai cat?

Tao Mao: Another Bankruptcy of Anti-Japanese Rumor

Abstract: Since about 2003, news of Japanese making "potted cats" appeared on China's website, which was followed by angry denunciations from the majority of angry youths. Recently, the news of this bonsai cat appeared on the website again. Yesterday, some netizens reprinted a post denouncing the Japanese as bonsai cats. I thought the anti-Japanese rumor about this potted cat had been exposed and criticized on the Internet. I checked the website and found that no one systematically exposed and criticized this anti-Japanese rumor. Therefore, I will take some time to introduce the story of potted cats to the anti-Japanese angry youths, and please don't pass it on to the angry youths.

First, the bonsai cats circulating on the website of China

Recently, an article about bonsai cats widely circulated on China's website is an anonymous article entitled "Abnormal Japanese Culture: bonsai cats" (also called "Seeing the cruelty of Japanese animals through bonsai cats"). The article begins with this:

"Even though Japan is the first in Asia and has made recent progress, a certain part of its culture still makes people ... this popularity really hurts me! I thought it was a joke, but recent data confirmed that these phenomena do exist in Japan. Posting a popular message about Japanese pets, my heart was scared and twitched with pain. My eyes are as sad and helpless as its eyes. Obviously, a kitten, a few months old, has been in a small bottle for a month. The rapidly growing body fills the square bottle. Its two front paws pressed tightly against the glass, and one eye pressed against the glass, shriveled and painfully closed. This is new york's so-called oriental miniature bonsai art. A few months old kitten's anus is glued with good glue, and then a thin tube is placed in front to instill nutrition into the immobile kitten. Today, with the development of science, countless evils and vitality have been created. They feed their kittens with a chemical that promotes bone softening. Kittens in square bottles can't move or scratch, and their love of cleanliness makes them unable to clean themselves. In this way, day by day passed, and a month later, the kitten's body shape began to match the shape of the square bottle. After a while, the kitten became square and became a complete bonsai in the bottle. The Japanese who created this kind of "art" called it a "bonsai cat", but this cat's coat color is no longer as bright and smooth as satin, but exudes the common messy and hazy feeling in rainy season; In big eyes, there is no glory, no spirit, no aura of all life worth shining. Its eyes are big and lifeless, and the original pale sadness is gone. Instead, it is a kind of indifference, a petrified coldness, and life is solidified into a phenomenon in the defects of human nature, forming a weathered ornament placed on the table at any time and place. Life becomes empty, and an angry soul is imprisoned in a square bottle. " Note 1

This article then recalls the brutal acts of Japanese fascists who killed Japanese women in the war of aggression against China, and then naturally provoked anti-Japanese sentiment. Most of the posts that replied to this article either condemned the Japanese for inhumanity or killed them.

Second, the cause of the bonsai cat incident

65438In mid-February 2000, a website named Taomao appeared in the United States (www.bonsaikitten.com). This website is located in the network system of MIT, claiming that it can make potted cats for sale. Within a week, the website received many emails from Americans, opposing and condemning the bonsai cat behavior of the website. Within a month, animal protection organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the American Society for the Protection of Homeless Animals publicly opposed the website and condemned the cruelty to animals. Angry American netizens also sent a letter to MIT, demanding that the website be closed and relevant students be expelled. Law enforcement officers of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals even came to MIT with pistols to investigate the matter. On February 22, 2000, 65438+, under various pressures, MIT was forced to stop providing network systems to this website. At the same time, newspapers and websites in the United States and western countries widely reported this incident. In February, 20001year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States issued a search warrant to MIT and began to directly investigate this incident. The bonsai cat website then turned to the commercial network system. In the spring of 200 1 2000, the American public's opposition to this website reached its climax, and serialized emails were flying all over the sky. However, the results of the FBI investigation have not yet been announced. The American media believe that the American government has not found illegal facts such as animal cruelty on this website, so it will go away. As a result, the bonsai cat incident slowly sank in the United States. Unexpectedly, three years later, this story, which had been silent for many years, was picked up by the anti-Japanese cynics in China.

2 bonsai cats: another bankruptcy of anti-Japanese rumors (reposted). I just said it was a rumor, but it wasn't.

Third, is the production of potted cats true or false?

Did the host of the bonsai cat website make bonsai cats in a cruel way, as the website said? According to an online interview with the host of the bonsai cat website by the American media, the bonsai cat website is a prank, which aims to laugh at hypocrites who regard nature as a commodity. The host said in an interview with USA-Today, "The main purpose of this website is to punish hypocrites and grumpy people by angering them; At the same time, let those who can understand this behavior laugh. Both our goals have been achieved, and they are far beyond our imagination. To be honest, we didn't expect animal protection organizations to object to this website. We thought that most netizens knew that we were joking. " He believes that the behavior of animal protection organizations is wrong and does not intend to cancel this bonsai cat website. Note 2 It is reported that although the website says that bonsai cats are for sale, the website does not provide details such as price, payment method, payee and company address. And the phone number provided on the website is also fake. The host of the website also told reporters that the so-called photo of a cat curled up in a bottle took advantage of poor eyesight. It turned out that the cat was not forced into the bottle, but it could actually get in and out of the bottle by itself. Note 3 Even so, some animal protection organizations are stubborn, thinking that even though there is no animal cruelty in the bonsai cat website itself, this website promotes animal cruelty, so it still pursues the bonsai cat website.

4. Is the bonsai cat related to the Japanese?

It's not the fault of China cynics to associate bonsai cats with the Japanese. This statement probably comes from the 200 1 global boycott of bonsai cats. The English email said, "In new york, there is a Japanese who sells bonsai cats ...". According to my estimation, this email connects bonsai cats with Japanese people, probably because the American author of that email thinks that Japan is a country of bonsai. But as far as the public information is concerned, the American bonsai cat incident has nothing to do with the Japanese. The most frustrating thing for cynics is that this bonsai cat incident is not only related to the Japanese, but also directly related to China people. According to a number of American media reports, one or several graduate students of MIT launched a bonsai cat website. When the American media asked for an interview, a student agreed to an anonymous online interview. He used a pseudonym of China: dr. zhang. Note 4

5. Chinese and American netizens have different reactions to the bonsai cat incident.

In the spring of 200 1 year, the bonsai cat incident became a big news in the United States. The theme of the debate was animal protection at first, and later it evolved into freedom of speech. A faction opposed to the bonsai cat website, led by the American animal protection organization, believes that the bonsai cat website publicly publicizes animal cruelty and demands that the government shut it down. For the sake of safeguarding the freedom of speech guaranteed by the US Constitution, people who support the bonsai cat website think that the bonsai cat website only publishes pranks and cannot be punished by words, so they resolutely oppose the closure of the bonsai cat website. So far, those who support freedom of speech have won: the bonsai cat website is still operating. A funny prank triggered such an online discussion about right and wrong, which was unexpected by dr. zhang, the founder of the bonsai cat website. As the initiator of this prank website, they must have giggled and said nothing when they watched the two factions fight for the principles of the US Constitution.

It is worth pointing out that no matter how American netizens criticize the bonsai cat website, they rarely turn this incident into a racial hatred incident. None of the replies I have seen from American netizens have made cruel remarks about Japanese and China people. But when the bonsai cat incident spread to China, it became a national hatred incident. In the replies to related posts, most netizens in China condemned the brutality and cruelty of the Japanese nation, and criticized this incident out of nothing with the crime of Japanese fascist soldiers slaughtering the Japanese people 60 or 70 years ago, which became a huge wave in the magnificent anti-torrent.

If "dr. zhang", the founder of the bonsai cat website, knows that his pranks have not only caused an uproar in the United States, but also become anti-Japanese props in China, I wonder if he is crying or laughing. A prank initiated by an American student was regarded as an anti-Japanese shell by China cynics. Anti-Japanese red-eyed cynics, you should think about it. Why did you fall for it many times? Why did you believe those anti-Japanese rumors many times?

Note 1: See through the cruelty of the Japanese from the "potted cat"! /post/2560 _ 36 1666 1 _ 36 1666 1 _ 1 . htm

Note 2: "Bonsai kitten site brings animal rights roar" (February 8, 2003),/tech/news/20065438+0-02-20-ebrief.htm.

Note 3: "Created at MIT, a bonsai kitten website stirs up the passivity of animal lovers" (200 1-2-2 1),/free/2001021022/kloc.

Note 4 is the same as note 2.