Can’t we all just get it on?

OF ALL the positions with which Sora Aoi has excited her Chinese fans (and there have been many), this was among the more surprising. As anti-Japanese sentiment flared across China, the former porn star issued an online appeal, in fetching calligraphy, for Sino-Japanese friendship. One placard waved at anti-Japanese protests over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands read simply: “the Diaoyu islands belong to China; Sora Aoi belongs to the world.”

This odd slogan underlines the mixed and often contradictory feelings Chinese people can have about Japan. Brought up to hate it for its historic crimes, they also admire it for being better at some things than China: electronic goods; social order; comic books—and pornographic videos. Ms Aoi, unlike her government, has done nothing to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, or at least the young men among them. She has more than 13m followers on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblog, and her public appearances have caused near-riots with a rare pro-Japanese slant.