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It’s a dismaying yet recurring phenomenon that takes place in disparate Asian countries: young people, not known for sympathizing with far-right groups, playing with Nazi imagery in highly public settings.
https://qz.com/928440/asias-disturbing-embrace-of-nazi-chic-is-prompting-a-nonprofit-to-teach-holocaust-history
It’s a dismaying yet recurring phenomenon that takes place in disparate Asian countries: young people, not known for sympathizing with far-right groups, playing with Nazi imagery in highly public settings.
Examples abound. Last December a school in Taiwan staged a Hitler-themed parade for its anniversary celebration, leading to the principal’s resignation. A few weeks earlier, Sony Music apologized after one of its girl bands performed in Nazi-looking outfits. Two years before that a girl group in South Korea showed up in similar fashion. Thailand, India, and Indonesia have had their share of Nazi-themed bars, parades, and performances. The list is long and repetitive—and disconcerting.
It isn’t just the region’s youngsters who fail to appreciate the Holocaust’s gravity. In Hong Kong last month, after a court verdict condemned seven policemen to jail terms for beating a pro-democracy protester in 2014, their colleagues staged a demonstration during which one of them said that they were being “persecuted like the Jews in Germany,” to other demonstrators’ cheers. The German and Israeli diplomatic missions condemned the comparison, and a half-hearted apology ensued.
A mission to educate
For the past six years, the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre, the only organization of its kind in Asia, has used education to counter the recurring use of “Nazi chic.” “The optimist in me wants to think that this happens just out of ignorance, and that the comparison with something more familiar helps,” says co-founder April Kaminsky. With that in mind the center also teaches about regional tragedies like the Nanjing Massacre in China during World War II and the “killing fields” in Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot. “That makes the topic quite relevant to the region.”
snip
https://qz.com/928440/asias-disturbing-embrace-of-nazi-chic-is-prompting-a-nonprofit-to-teach-holocaust-history
It’s a dismaying yet recurring phenomenon that takes place in disparate Asian countries: young people, not known for sympathizing with far-right groups, playing with Nazi imagery in highly public settings.
Examples abound. Last December a school in Taiwan staged a Hitler-themed parade for its anniversary celebration, leading to the principal’s resignation. A few weeks earlier, Sony Music apologized after one of its girl bands performed in Nazi-looking outfits. Two years before that a girl group in South Korea showed up in similar fashion. Thailand, India, and Indonesia have had their share of Nazi-themed bars, parades, and performances. The list is long and repetitive—and disconcerting.
It isn’t just the region’s youngsters who fail to appreciate the Holocaust’s gravity. In Hong Kong last month, after a court verdict condemned seven policemen to jail terms for beating a pro-democracy protester in 2014, their colleagues staged a demonstration during which one of them said that they were being “persecuted like the Jews in Germany,” to other demonstrators’ cheers. The German and Israeli diplomatic missions condemned the comparison, and a half-hearted apology ensued.
A mission to educate
For the past six years, the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre, the only organization of its kind in Asia, has used education to counter the recurring use of “Nazi chic.” “The optimist in me wants to think that this happens just out of ignorance, and that the comparison with something more familiar helps,” says co-founder April Kaminsky. With that in mind the center also teaches about regional tragedies like the Nanjing Massacre in China during World War II and the “killing fields” in Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot. “That makes the topic quite relevant to the region.”
snip
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