Chinese fans have used the “ironic” lyrics of the official Hangzhou Asian Games theme song to call for Japan to be boycotted from the event amid the row over the release of nuclear-contaminated Fukushima waste water.
The music video for the official song of the 19th Asiad was released on Thursday – 30 days before the start of the showpiece event, and on the same day Japan started to release the treated radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean.
Discharging the waste water, which was contaminated by the meltdown of plant reactors in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, will take between 30 and 40 years, and was called “extremely selfish and irresponsible” by China, and was also criticised by local fishermen on Thursday.
It all served to undercut the message of the Asian Games theme song, titled “The Love We Share” and performed by Sun Nan, which has been described by state media as “a musical ode to unity”.
“With the theme of an ‘Asian community with a shared future,’ the video presents iconic landmarks and awe-inspiring landscapes from across Asia, as well as people of different colour and ethnicity coming together to celebrate as ‘one Asian family’,” CGTN said in the description of its YouTube post of the official video.
“Turn on and share, cheer for the athletes,” fellow state media outlet CCTV wrote in a video post on the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, which had racked up more than 600,000 views in five hours.
With its chorus featuring the lyrics “Together we breathe and feel, together we dream, together we love, together we share”, there were many positive comments, calling for fans to support China at the Asian Games, which take place between September 23 and October 8.
“What a powerful song, come on China,” one fan wrote, while another said “this is too nice to hear”.
But many took issue with the opening lines of the song, where Sun sings: “Sharing the same sea and sky, facing the same sunrise and stars, we hold onto the same hope, to achieve a common dream,” while images of dolphins swimming in the ocean were on screen in the video.
“The first sentence is just … oh,” a user wrote in the comments under CCTV’s video post on Weibo. “It sounds better than I expected, but the lyrics are a bit ironic,” one user weighed in.
“The first line of the lyrics is the ‘same sea and starry sky’, it’s too ironic to release it today,” said another.
Another comment read: “Nice to hear! I just listened to the irony today … the Japanese government garbage.”
“Same sea and sky, but polluted,” was another response.
Other Weibo users took the chance to call for Japan to be banned from the Asian Games after the release of the waste water.
“Boycott Japan,” said one. “Don’t let them compete.”
“I don’t want to share the same breath and dream with Japan,” wrote another, while one user said “Get the Japanese team away! They don’t deserve to appear in the sacred sports arena.”
“Chinese athletes are great, and international athletes are also welcome to come to China to compete. Although sports have no borders, I suggest Japanese athletes give priority to solving their own sewage,” another user said.
“It is strongly recommended that Japanese players do not come to the competition,” read one comment.
The sentiment was shared by many others. “Should have some backbone, don’t let Japanese athletes come,” a user wrote in the comments on Weibo.
The lyrics to the song continue: “It’s the home we love, from our hearts love grows, near or far we’re together. A million voices full of pride, sing it loud and clear, we are all here in Asia.”
“Sewage is discharged every day, are we still jubilant?” a commenter wrote, however.
“Can little Japan be removed from Asia?” said another, while someone suggested that Games organisers should “serve Japanese athletes with seafood from Fukushima to ease homesickness”.
“It is recommended that Japanese people drink up the nuclear-contaminated water at home before coming back,” another comment read.
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