China: Carrefour under boycott threat

Carrefour has been rolled into a campaign mixed up with both boycott and anti-boycott.

Recently, a widely circulated message writes

我们希望您至少在5月1日这一天抵制家乐福,让5月1日家乐福空荡荡的卖场向西方传达一个信息:中国 不可辱!中国人民不可欺!
抵制家乐福的活动将在全国各地展开,期待您的参与!谢谢您。

We hope you are able to boycott Carrefour at least on 1 May, to deliver, by the empty Carrefour that day, one message to the western world: Chinese shouldn’t be humiliated! Chinese people shouldn’t be insulted!
The boycott against Carrefour is going to spreading all over the country, and we anticipate your presence! Thank you.

boycott logo
The logo of boycott

Carrefour, the French retail giant, is the newest target on the list of what cyber-nationalists in China hate and aim at. Cell phone text messages calling on boycotts are popping up, over 5000 net cafes in China, as Daqi.com summed up, have been rife with posts against Carrefour, and quite a few radical netizens have already made the slogans into practice.

The boycott is supposed to be caused by the recent grief and violence the Olympic torch relay suffered from in France and the saying that a big shareholder of Carrefour, LVMH group, has donated money to the Dalai Lama.

The original text of the widely circulated appeal also explains the cause of the campaign,

刚刚结束的法国PARIS站OLYMPIC圣火传递,并不象大多数国人所知道的那样平静。在中国人把象征友谊与和平的OLYMPIC圣火传进法国时,我们看到法国人和 法国go-vern-ment都做了什么:
1.圣火传递前,法国当地电视台号召市民上街抗议示威,说:“不要让中国的旗子飘的到处都是”。
2.圣火传递中,火炬在Z D势力及其支持者的暴力阻挠下,被迫四次熄灭;
3.负责安保的法国pol.ice任由Z D分子在其眼皮底下抢夺火炬,殴打中国残疾火炬手,却袖手旁观;
4.火炬所到之处,法国人成群结队地举着Z D分子的旗子,叫嚣“XZ独立”、“中国羞耻”等口号,向中国示威;
5.成群的法国青年甚至抢夺中国留学生手中的五星红旗,当众撕碎,并殴打中国留学生;
6.法国巴黎市go-vern-ment在圣火经过市政厅时,悬挂出支持XZ独立的横幅和标语,全体市议员胸前佩带支持XZ独立的标章,使得原定于在市政厅前举行的庆祝仪式不得不取消;
7.法国的主流媒体在圣火传递结束后,以这样的标题进行了回顾:“火炬在巴黎惨败”法国《费加罗报》,“给中国一记耳光”法国《解放报》。

The Olympic torch relay that just ended in Paris is not as peaceful as most of Chinese know about. Let’s see what French and its government have done when Chinese carried the torch, a symbol of peace and friendship into their territory.
1. Before the relay, a French TV station called on people to protest on street for the reason that they “don’t want Chinese flags flaunting all over”.
2. The torch was forced to extinguish for 4 times under the violent disruptions of Tibet separatists.
3. The French police in charge of security simply stood by to see the separatists snatching the torch, and striking the disabled torch carrier.
4. At where the torch went by, hordes of French waved the flag of separatists, clamoring “Free Tibet’, “Shame on China” to protest against China.
5. Groups of young men even scrambled the Chinese students’ Five-star flags and tore them up, two sides in conflict.
6. When the sacred fire passed by the City Hall of Paris, the banners and slogans of pro-Tibet independence were hung out and all the alderman put on the pro-separatism badges, a behavior that made the planned ceremony there cancelled.
7. The major media in France reviewed the torch relay with such headlines— Fiasco in Paris(Figaro) and A Slap on China

And it’s not unusual to see such comments tightly following up the petition.

完全抵制家乐福。
Completely boycott Carrefour.
坚决抵制
Resolutely boycott!

Furthermore, QQ groups all over China were set up to recruit boycott activists. A list shows that places including Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, more than 20 areas totally, have joined this cyber campaign, during which netizens can communicate by the IM tool to make the whole protest more organizational.

Kunming protest

In fact at Kunming, a city in southern China, netizens have extended their slogans to the reality

by protesting in front of the local Carrefour. The banner reads:
支持奥运,反对藏独,抵制法货,抵制家乐福

Support Olympic, oppose Tibet-independence; boycott French products and Carrefour!

The following pictures show the protest in the city of Wuhan. Notice that the banner has exactly the same word as that in Kunming.

wuhan

wuhan2

In Beijing, a girl held up a self-made sign to show her anger with the brutal treat Jin Jing, the disabled torch carrier received in France.

Beijing girl1

Beijing firl2
The girl in Beijing protested alone outside Carrefour. She was then persuaded away by a police.

A netizen commented:

顶礼!

Salute to her!

A-dish-of-cuisine said:

这帖子不顶我就不是中国人
mm,你是我们中国人的榜样!
比那些漠然无视的人狠狠一巴掌!

I were not a Chinese if I didn’t bump up this post
Girl, you are the Chinese idol!
A tough slap over those indifferent people.
Anti-boycott is also on fire

This time the rivaling voice doesn’t fade as years ago when the appeal of boycotting Japan products was at climax. Even on Tianya.com, a well-known marketplace of bold clamors and patriotism, the petitions of anti-boycott don’t shy away.

In Tianya, netizen Lepel said in his post “you are so unwise to boycott Carrefour, or, you think us too unwise”,

看到很多人在发起和组织抵制法国零售业巨头家乐福的活动,感觉实在可笑,同时也深为国人的愚昧而痛心。就象之前的抵制日货、抵制美货,或更久远的抵制洋货 运动一样愚昧。难道,非要把中国孤立于这个世界才好?难道,非要再搞一次“闭关锁国”才罢?想象当初的反日活动,作为一个老百姓,我们得到了什么好处?而 政府在双方关系缓和后,却又开始“镇压”有些失控的反日活动。……..这 样的教训还不够,现在又要反法,好了,你抵制了一个家乐福,便宜的只是其他超市,老百姓得到的只是要多跑一些路、多花一些钱去买日用品,还会得到什么?等 有朝一日,法国换了总统或对华政策,到时候又回到“中法友谊万古长存”的路子上来是早晚的事,到了那时候在看看今天大家的举动难道不觉得可笑吗?

I feel it so ridiculous when hearing that so many people are organizing a boycott against Carrefour. I bear great sorrow for their blindness, which is as much stupid as the boycotts against Japanese, American and all western products long time ago. Do you have to isolate China from the world again? Reviewing the anti-Japan activity years ago, I wonder what we commons have really got the campaign. When the tension between the governments came to ease, the anti-Japan action that slightly crossed the line got a crackdown….and we have not yet learnt a lesson from that, and now we are going to have anti-France.
Fine, with the boycott, you would simply favor advantage to all other supermarkets and let people go further and spend more for daily shopping. Anything else?
Someday in the future when a new French president comes into power or the policy gets changed, everything will just go back to “Long live China-France friendship”, sooner or later. At that time, won’t it be laughable to look back at what we are doing now?

在爽与不爽中徘徊 analyzed that it will be the Chinese people that really suffer from the boycott, if it comes true.

抵制家乐福?拜托 实际上你抵制的是那些中国的生产厂家 家乐福的中国员工 还有什么 还有我们自己国家 因为家乐福在对中国政府上税!!!你能抵制到巴黎市长么?扯淡吧

Boycott Carrefour? Come on! You are actually boycotting the Chinese manufactures, Chinese workmen there and the country of our own, because Carrefour pays tax to our government!!! Are you able to boycott Paris mayor? BS.

HAINAN-COCONUT-WIND(海南椰风)ridicules,

我干嘛要抵制,我朝都没有号召,没准过段日子又在大谈中法友好呢!以前和越南又是打战又是谴责的,现在不还是亲切友好的会谈,不还是中越人民友谊嘛!死的那些战士,谁他妈管他们!cao!

Why should I boycott? Our dynasty (allusion to the ruling party-translator) has not yet called on, and perhaps soon they will talk greatly on the China-France friendship.
In history, it used to fight hard with Vietnam, but what about now? Friendly conversation and fellowship between us two peoples! Who care about those soldiers died there? F…

柳州刺史 recalled what he was doing ten years ago,

10年前,中国大使馆被霉菌炸了,我比现在的粪粪还粪粪,回想一下,真想抽自己嘴巴

Ten years ago when the Chinese embassy was bombed by U.S army I was even more indignant that the “patriotic young men” today. Thinking over that I really wish to slap myself.

东边日出西边女 might be facing an embarrassment,

 我们这个中小城市政府目前正在加大力度引进家乐福.各的小官员忙得不亦乐乎.
我该怎么办,抵制?和我D政府不是一条心了.

Our city is taking pain to introduce the Carrefour in, every official extremely busy on that plan. What should I do? Boycott? Then I will be clashing with our party and country.

城南笑笑 grumbled

反日反法发德反韩反台反意反澳反越反英反美•••反全世界••反整个宇宙。就是不反独裁和腐败。悲哀的人

Anti-Japan anti-France anti-German anti-Korea anti-Taiwan anti-Italy anti-Australia anti-Vietnam anti-Britain anti-U.S…anti-world…anti-universe.
But NO anti-autarchy and corruption. So tragic men.

And Adaste concluded,

这就叫政府挖坑,热血青年栽树

This is called “the government digs holes, and zealous youngsters plant trees”.

Finally, an analogy might reveal how a lot of people view this patriotic action.
Magicsilence said,

粪青乃我党的安全套,高潮之后即弃之

The patriotic youngsters are the condom of the party— discarded right after orgasm.

The points of the two camps diverge sharply. Rumors have been heard that Carrefour is going to make considerable discounts on 1 May to counteract the planned boycott. And it has announced that it will always be the friend of Chinese. But even not so, the chances of a successful boycott campaign is doubted, as the predominant public opinion years ago for a boycott over Japan didn’t make a good shot, while today the each side is equally strong.

(Note: Pictures copied from Mop.com. Quoted opinions without given links are comments on threads in Tianya.cn that discuss the boycott. Thanks to the net forums.)

78 comments

  • jane

    Boyccotting Carrefour is an attitude.No matter what method we adopt,it show our determination on this event.
    Well,it is unwise but we should surport it!

  • 很多外国人不明白中国的事情,不了解中国的人民,这一点我们不能迁强,但在这里看到一些中国人用中文亵渎着自己的祖国和人民我真的很难理解。
    为什么中国人一爱国就非要是受到共产党的指引吗?爱国是一个人的本能,只是有些人丧失了而已。
    抵制家乐福是事出有因,我们又有什么错?中国的超市很多,家乐福支撑不了全中国的企业。
    And here I have some questions to ask the Western friends. Before you showing your excellent opinions on China’s human rights, how many of you have been to China? how many of have even read a singal book about China? We sincerely want to be friend with you, but only one side effort is not enough, we need bilateral understanding. We seldom talk about your life style, that’s not because you don’t have problems in your society or we don’t care for this. That only because we believe you have your choice. We respect you choice, so you had better respect ours. If you really care for our life and worry that we are living in a bad situation. Now I shall tell you the truth: we are leading a very happy life here, don’t worry! Just enjoy you own life and let’s be friends! We really appreciate your scilence or reasonable advice!

  • www

    some French should be shamed on their ignorance

  • Angela yu

    Maybe it’s right that we boycott agianst Carrefour is ridiculous,maybe that it is true we will push our industry into a tight corner,but you know ,We love our country so much ,how could we do? Well, indeed we are all angry person, and you have no right to insult our loves ,and there is no circumstance that you could boycott our government and betray our country!
    Definitely,It’s not a good way to boycott Carrefour for there are too many Chinese work for it and that will make our life harder,but this is we Chinese will,we want to boycott it ,and we glad to accept the concequence ,and you know ,our government also often “boycott” the western products by adding Tax. you know ,it’s a common phenomenone,our government anti-Japan or anti-German which is so called finance conflict.So, Why we can’t boycott it? Maybe one day the tension between two country will come to ease and we won’t be allowed to boycott the products ,and so what?That is our way to express our angry and sorry for what the Frenchmen have done to us!That is not the point what the government will do ,but us! We boycott Carrefour and You say there isn’t anything about the France,but the fact is they also care and fear about the boycott.you will see the French president will change his attitude to China ,and absolutely we will recover our relationship ,but what is the point ,in your words ,Chinese humman right is the Frenchmen’s business snd what they will have got by doing this.

  • joan

    I agree to boycott it ,although there are many people against that.But I will boycott it .Because this is the only thing we can do to say NO to the Western countries Maybe it’s right that we boycott agianst Carrefour is ridiculous,maybe that it is true we will push our industry into a tight corner,but you know ,We love our country so much ,how could we do? Well, indeed we are all angry person, and you have no right to insult our loves ,and there is no circumstance that you could boycott our government and betray our country!
    Definitely,It’s not a good way to boycott Carrefour for there are too many Chinese work for it and that will make our life harder,but this is we Chinese will,we want to boycott it ,and we glad to accept the concequence ,and you know ,our government also often “boycott” the western products by adding Tax. you know ,it’s a common phenomenone,our government anti-Japan or anti-German which is so called finance conflict.So, Why we can’t boycott it? Maybe one day the tension between two country will come to ease and we won’t be allowed to boycott the products ,and so what?That is our way to express our angry and sorry for what the Frenchmen have done to us!That is not the point what the government will do ,but us! We boycott Carrefour and You say there isn’t anything about the France,but the fact is they also care and fear about the boycott.you will see the French president will change his attitude to China ,and absolutely we will recover our relationship ,but what is the point ,in your words ,Chinese humman right is the Frenchmen’s business snd what they will have got by doing this.

  • 与你无关

    西方的朋友们啊,如果我们支持你们的一个州,一个岛独立,你们会怎么做,你们有没有想过你们会怎么做,你们从来都是五十步笑百步,如果我们支持黑人独立,你们会怎么做,你们要怎么做!!!!!!!记住,你们一定要尊重他们的人权啊!不可大骂,更不能镇压哦!!!!你们很注重人权的!!!!!!我们都知道这一点的

  • 与你无关

    Oh!my dear friend ,if there is a island want to be independent from your country ,what will you do !It’s kind of protest ,not terrorism ,likes Tibetan’s protest what you called.Your humman right is higher than our country so you I am sure you will admit they have their own country ! Is it right ,For gods sake!

  • 与hatred无关

    Oh my dear!I was quite sure you will admit that Corsica is independent from France !For God’s Sake

  • Le

    I never like French, most of them are arrogant and racists!

    Now I know why U.S.A got the twin towers treament in 9/11

  • Free Corsica

    Free Corsica..Free Hawii…Free Scotland…Free Quebec…Free Chechenia…free the world ethenic groups. And after that, China will follow your western democrapy and set the Tibet free.
    Oh…don’t forget to return the America and Australia to natives

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