Shina (word)


Shina is a largely archaic name for China. Its use in Japanese originally had a neutral connotation, but the word came to be perceived as derogatory by Chinese people during the course of the First and Second Sino-Japanese Wars. As a result, it fell into disuse after World War II and is now viewed as offensive, with the standard Japanese name for China being replaced by.
During the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the word was used as a form of protest against the Chinese government but also as a xenophobic remark against mainland Chinese.

Origins and early usage

The Sanskrit word चीन, meaning "China", was transcribed into various forms including 支那, 芝那, 脂那 and 至那. Thus, the term Shina was initially created as a transliteration of, and this term was in turn brought to Japan with the spread of Chinese Buddhism. Some scholars believe that the Sanskrit, like Middle Persian and Latin Sina, is derived from the name of the state of Qin, which founded a dynasty that ruled China from 221 to 206 BC, and so Shina is a return of Qin to Chinese in a different form.
The Sanskrit term for China eventually spread into China, where its usage was closely related to Buddhism. A Tang dynasty poem titled Ti Fan Shu by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang uses the term in Chinese 支那 to refer to China, which is an early use of the word in China:

Early modern usage

The Latin term for China was Sinae, plural of Sina. When Arai Hakuseki, a Japanese scholar, interrogated the Italian missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti in 1708, he noticed that Sinae, the Latin plural word Sidotti used to refer to China, was similar to Shina, the Japanese pronunciation of 支那. Then he began to use this word for China regardless of dynasty. Since the Meiji Era, Shina had been widely used as the translation of the Western term "China". For instance, "sinology" was translated as "".
At first, it was widely accepted that the term Shina or Zhina had no political connotations in China. Before the Chinese Republican era, the term Shina was one of the names proposed as a "generalized, basically neutral Western-influenced equivalent for 'China. Chinese revolutionaries, such as Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and Liang Qichao, used the term extensively, and it was also used in literature as well as by ordinary Chinese. The term "transcended politics, as it were, by avoiding reference to a particular dynasty or having to call China the country of the Qing". With the overthrow of the Qing in 1911, however, most Chinese dropped Shina as foreign and demanded that Japan replace it with the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters used as the name of the new Republic of China, with the short form.
Nevertheless, the term continued to be more-or-less neutral. A Buddhist school called Zhīnà Nèixuéyuàn was established as late as in 1922 in Nanjing. In the meantime, Shina was used as commonly in Japanese as "China" in English. Derogatory nuances were expressed by adding extra adjectives, e.g. or using derogatory terms like.
Despite interchangeability of Chinese characters, Japan officially used the term from 1913 to 1930 in Japanese documents, while Zhōnghuá mínguó was used in Chinese ones. Shina kyōwakoku was the literal translation of the English "Republic of China" while was the Japanese pronunciation of the official Chinese characters of Zhōnghuá mínguó. The Republic of China unofficially pressed Japan to adopt the latter but was rejected.
Japan rejected the terms and its short form 中國 for four reasons:
  1. A term referring to China as the "Middle kingdom" or the "center of the world" was deemed arrogant
  2. Western countries used "China"
  3. Shina had been the common name in Japan for centuries
  4. Japan already has a Chūgoku region, in the west of its main island Honshu.
The name was officially adopted by Japan in 1930, but Shina was still commonly used by the Japanese throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Post-war derogatory connotations

The Second Sino-Japanese War fixed the impression of the term Shina as offensive among Chinese people. In 1946, the Republic of China demanded that Japan cease using Shina.
In China, the term Shina has become linked with the Japanese invasion and Japanese war crimes, and has been considered an offensive ethnic slur ever since.
In modern Japan, the term refers to the Republic of China, while refers to the People's Republic of China; the terms use the same Chinese characters used officially in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. Likewise, in most cases, words previously containing Shina have been altered; for example, the term for sinology was changed from to or, and the name for the Second Sino-Japanese War has changed from terms such as and to.
Writing Shina in Japanese is considered socially unacceptable and subject to kotobagari, especially the kanji form; if Shina is used, it is now generally written in katakana rather than with the kanji, which in Japanese serves as a way to spell offensive words. As such, the term has survived in a few non-political compound words in Japanese, and even in Chinese. For example, the South and East China Seas are called and, respectively, in Japanese. Shinachiku, a ramen topping made from dried bamboo, also derives from the term Shina, but in recent years the word has replaced this as a more politically correct name. Some terms that translate to words containing the "Sino-" prefix in English retain Shina within them, for example シナ・チベット語族 and シナントロプス・ペキネンシス. Meanwhile, one of the Chinese names for Indochina is yìndù zhīnà.
Even so, it is still sometimes seen in written forms such as Shina soba, an alternative name for ramen, a dish which originates from China. Many Japanese are not fully aware of Chinese feelings towards the term, and generally find Shina merely old-fashioned and associated with the early and mid-20th century, rather than derogatory and racist. This difference in conception can lead to misunderstandings. The term is a slur when used toward Ryukyuans by mainland Japanese people.
Sinologist Joshua A. Fogel mentioned that, "Surveying the present scene indicates much less sensitivity on the part of Chinese to the term Shina and growing ignorance of it in Japan". He also criticized Shintaro Ishihara, a right-wing nationalist politician who went out of his way to use the expression and called him a "troublemaker". He elaborated further:

Current usage

In Japan

Japanese Canadian historian Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi mentioned that there are two classes of postwar Japanese that have continued to use derogatory terms like Shina: poorly educated and/or elderly persons who grew up with the term go on using these from force of habit.
Some right-wing Japanese appeal to etymology in trying to ascribe respectability to the continued use of Shina, since the term Shina has non-pejorative etymological origins. Wakabayashi disagreed: "The term Jap also has non-pejorative etymological origins, since it derives from Zippangu in Marco Polo's Travels... If the Chinese today say they are hurt by the terms Shina or Shinajin, then common courtesy enjoins the Japanese to stop using these terms, whatever the etymology or historical usage might be."

In Hong Kong

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese government classified Hong Kong residents as Shinajin, as the term was used to refer to all who were ethnically Chinese. Hongkongers that were considered useful to the Japanese government, as well as prominent local figures such as bankers and lawyers, were recorded in a census document called the "Hong Kong Shinajin Magnate Survey". In 2016, a Hong Kong reporter was called by Japanese nationalist politician Shintaro Ishihara.
In Hong Kong, the Cantonese pronunciation of Shina is used in a derogative sense under the backdrop of ongoing tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China, even in official capacity, for example by Hong Kong localist politicians Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus Leung during their controversial oath swearing as elected members of the Hong Kong legislature.
On 15 September 2012, a Hong Kong online community organized a protest against mainlanders and parallel traders. During the protest, some demonstrators chanted "Cheena people get out!" On 24 September 2013, the Hong Kong political group Hongkongers Priority breached the front entrance of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building, the first such incident since the handover of Hong Kong. Billy Chiu, the leader of Hongkongers Priority, later announced on social media that Hongkongers Priority had successfully broken into the "Cheena Army Garrison". In October 2015, an HKGolden netizen remade the South Korean song "Gangnam Style", with lyrics calling mainland Chinese "locusts" and "Cheena people", titled "Disgusting Cheena Style".
Inside Hong Kong university campuses, mainland Chinese students were referred to as "Cheena dogs" and "yellow thugs" by local students. On 18 September 2019, the 88th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of northeast China, a celebration poster was put up on the Democracy Wall of the University of Hong Kong, glorifying the Japanese invasion while advocating for democracy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong journalist Audrey Li noted the xenophobic undertone of the widespread right-wing nativism movement, in which the immigrant population and tourists are used as scapegoats for social inequality and institutional failure.
Scholars have noted that negative attitudes toward mainland Chinese, including expressions that may constitute hate speech or discrimination, have emerged within certain segments of Hong Kong society. Wong argues that such attitudes are partly shaped by a perceived sense of cultural and economic distinction, which he links to Hong Kong’s historical development and its experience during the Cold War, as well as lingering nostalgia toward the period of British colonial rule. During periods of heightened political tension, frustration with the Chinese central government has at times been redirected toward ordinary mainland Chinese individuals, contributing to social hostility at the interpersonal level. With the growth of tribalism and competing forms of nationalism in both Hong Kong and mainland China, several scholars argue that mutual suspicion and xenophobia have been reinforced on both sides, contributing to a cycle of reciprocal hostility. Some critics of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement contend that instances of ethnic hostility among a minority of its supporters have received comparatively limited media attention, arguing that coverage often emphasizes a binary narrative of democracy versus authoritarianism.