China pop star apologizes for Japan flag look-alike outfit

Asian Economic News, Dec 17, 2001

HONG KONG, Dec. 11 Kyodo

A Chinese television pop star and singer has apologized to her fellow countrymen for appearing in an outfit that resembled the Japanese wartime military flag, a state-controlled newspaper reported Tuesday.

Zhao Wei, 25, has been lashed out at by many Chinese readers since earlier this month for posing for a magazine photo in a dress that looks like the Japanese military's rising sun flag.

Zhao admitted that her ignorance of Chinese history hurt the feelings of many Chinese and said she is sorry for any distress caused, particularly to the survivors of Japan's 1931-1945 invasion, according to the China Daily's Hong Kong edition.

''I will watch my behavior as a public figure and be responsible to society,'' the actress was quoted as saying by the English-language newspaper.

Zhao's picture, which was published in the September issue of the Chinese magazine Fashion, invited a storm of criticism and complaints on Chinese Web sites after a newspaper in the southern Hunan Province hit out at the photo Dec. 3.

Zhao, who is popular in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and some Asian countries, first won her fame by playing the part of a Qing Dynasty princess in a television drama.

Zou Xue, chief designer of Fashion magazine, also made an apology and announced her decision to resign, the China Daily reported.

The magazine said that Zhao's photo, which was taken in a New York street, was not meant to advocate Japanese militarism.

It also quoted Richie Rich, the American designer of the outfit, as saying that such a negative impact to Chinese readers was not expected, the China Daily said.

The news report said a Chinese popular news Web site, Sina.com, received in the past week more than 6,000 messages, mostly venting anger, while a survey on another Web site, sohu.com, found 61.2% of more than 217,000 respondents believe Zhao's image was seriously damaged in the case.

Last year, Zhao was involved in another controversy in which Japanese-owned Canon (Hong Kong) Co. apologized and retracted a compact disk containing information about her that implied Taiwan and Hong Kong are not part of China.

Information on the CD, which came free with Canon laser printers that she was endorsing, described various ''countries'' the Chinese actress had visited, and it named China, Hong Kong and Taiwan individually. The apology followed a lawsuit against the company over the CDs.