An Indonesian movie's Oscar nomination has triggered heated discussions on Chinese social media this week, with the film's central theme -- a re-enactment of Indonesia's 1965-1966 anti-communist purge -- touching a sore point as this historical event has not been widely known to the mainland public.
Anger and nationalistic sentiment were building on Tuesday as bloggers compared the Indonesian purge against suspected communists, many of whom were ethnic Chinese, to the 1937 Nanking Massacre where Japanese troops killed an estimated 300,000 Chinese.
Startled by the atrocities the film revealed, bloggers demanded that the Chinese government take a tougher stance against Indonesia and write the little-publicised killing into Chinese history books.
Others called for a tourism boycott against Bali, a now popular destination for Chinese tourists but which was the site of some of the worst killings in 1965.
On Sinaw Weibo, discussions of the 1965 killing also led to talks of Indonesia's 1998 anti-Chinese riots, during which thousands of ethnic Chinese were killed and hundreds of women were gang-raped, according to historical accounts. Gruesome pictures of their executions were posted, drawing anger and condemnation.
"China should stop sending any foreign aid to this barbarian country," wrote a microblogger.