Writer and Internet celebrity Lucifer Chu (朱學恒) returned to Taiwan from China late on Thursday night after he was briefly detained and questioned by police in Shanghai on Wednesday for wearing a T-shirt with the words “Otaku Resistance Army” (阿宅反抗軍).
“I didn’t know that there was an unwritten rule at the Shanghai Expo about wearing T-shirts with Chinese characters — especially characters they consider a little sensitive,” Chu told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
“I was taken to a command post for a security check. I was kept there for about 30 to 40 minutes while they tried to figure out what the writing on my T-shirt meant ... They thought the writing was a little sensitive so they gave me another T-shirt and asked me to change, before allowing me into the Expo,” he said.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“Otaku” is a Japanese term that can be loosely translated as “geek” and is generally used in Taiwan to describe Internet addicts and people who prefer to stay home rather than go out.
The Otaku Resistance Army is an Otaku club in Taiwan of which Chu is the main organizer.
Chu said when he was taken to the security post, a police officer asked him to explain what “otaku” meant.
After Chu explained, the officer said he could understand, but still asked him to change his top because the words could be considered “sensitive.”
“I think the Shanghai World Expo organizers should make it clear what is and what isn’t sensitive, so that people won’t get into trouble for wearing clothes that don’t really carry any sensitive message,” he said,
He also reminded people not to wear anything “strange” when traveling in China.
After Chu posted the episode on his blog, many supporters left encouraging words.
An Internet user who did not leave a name explained that the words on Chu’s T-shirt were considered sensitive perhaps because of the characters 宅 (house) and 反抗 (resistance), since there were several protests in Shanghai by people whose homes had been flattened to make room for the building of exposition halls for the World Expo.
Other Internet users, however, criticized Chu for being too “soft” on the issue, as he has a reputation for taking a stand against injustice.
“The funny thing is that he always calls on otakus to resist, but now he’s backing off himself when facing China,” a member of the social networking service Plurk.com with the username Yutingtwn said.
Another Plurker, GreenOil, posted a picture of a roaring tiger with the caption “you on the Internet” next to a picture of a small cat with tiger-like markings behind bars and the caption “you in real life.”
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