每日英语：Dispute Tests Japan Brands' Cushion in China

China's tough stance against Japan in an ongoing territorial dispute may have no bigger backer than Yao Xin, a 23-year-old legal assistant who says she refuses to buy Japanese products. 'This is a very big government issue and I will stand by the government,' she said.

stance：立场，姿态，位置　　　　ongoing：不间断的，进行的；前进的，前进，行为，阻止　　　　

Ms. Yao made her vow while standing in a Uniqlo store, a retailer owned by Japan's Fast Retailing Co., in Beijing's Japanese-themed Ginza shopping mall. Informed that the blue-collared shirt she was fingering was being sold by a Japanese company, she said, 'Oh, I didn't know.' Fast Retailing on Wednesday renewed its pledge to expand in China.

pledge：保证，许诺，发誓　　　　

Ms. Yao illustrates the complexities behind a nearly four-decade commercial relationship that time and again has bounced back despite occasional diplomatic flare-ups between Tokyo and Beijing. Japanese cars, electronics and clothing have won a high-quality reputation in China, contributing to Japan's $161.47 billion in exports to China last year.

flare-ups：爆发，昙花一现　　　　

At the moment, Japanese brands and business in China are suffering as the two sides argue over competing claims to group of rocky islands in the East China Sea. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 2% on Wednesday, its largest daily percentage decline since May. The fall came after Toyota Motor Corp. 7203.TO -2.67% and Nissan Motor Co. 7201.TO -2.64% said they would begin holiday closures of Chinese plants earlier than planned due to softening demand. On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the two nations met at the United Nations but failed to make headway in talks.

closures：停业，封闭　　　　softening：使软化　　　　make headway：取得进展，有进展

Campaigns against Japanese brands have continued online nearly two weeks after the cessation of protests in a number of cities, in which some Japanese stores and car dealerships were vandalized. 'Recommended actions: Make no missteps, absolutely do not buy Japanese products, not even those that were designed in Japan,' wrote one Japan critic, Wang Wei , who has 41,000 followers on China's Sina Weibo Twitter-like microblogging service.

Campaigns：活动，竞选，战役　　　　dealerships：代理商，经销权　　　　vandalized：毁坏，摧残

cessation：停止，中断，中止　　　  　microblogging service：微网志服务

Auto-industry experts blamed the tensions for a drop in China sales last month for Toyota and Mazda Motor Corp., 7261.TO -2.13% though Honda Motor Co. 7267.TO -4.88% saw a 15% rise from a year earlier.

Branding experts say the road back for Japanese brands has been complicated by the rise of social-media services in China, which have given anti-Japanese activists greater ability to rally Chinese consumers. 'Complaints now spread quicker and harder,' said Nicole Fall, head of trends at Asia-focused consumer research firm Five by Fifty.

Panasonic Corp. 6752.TO -3.36% said that one TV station in Shanghai earlier this month stopped running commercials for Japanese wares and also suspended programs sponsored by Japanese companies. It's very difficult to predict whether and how much the political tensions might affect Japanese businesses in China this time, said Toshihiko Shibuya, a Panasonic spokesman based in Beijing.

wares：商品，货物　　　　suspend：暂停，延缓，推迟

Past flare-ups include anti-Japan demonstrations in China in 2005 following visits by Japanese leaders to a controversial Tokyo war shrine that Chinese officials say honors World War II war criminals. In 2010, the detention of a Chinese fishing-boat captain involved in a collision with Japanese patrol boats in waters near the islands led to reports that China had cut off exports of key manufacturing minerals known as rare earths. But business over that period rose unabated, as Japanese exports to China more than doubled between 2005 and 2011.

shrine：把…奉为神圣　　detention：拘留，扣押，延迟，挽留　　　　unabated：不减弱的，不衰退的

This year's furor has occasionally reached violent levels. Police in China have turned to social media for help in tracking down a man who last week allegedly hit in the head a man driving a Toyota in the western Chinese city of Xi'an, leaving him hospitalized.

furor：狂热，激怒，喧闹　　　　allegedly：假设，依其申述，据说

Still, Japanese brands have a considerable cushion in China. Prior to the recent dispute, Japanese car-brand dealers ranked the highest in perception of best service, according to a survey of nearly 15,000 Chinese vehicle owners from market research company J.D. Power.

cushion：垫子，缓冲　　　　Prior to：在...之前，居先　　　　

There's also confusion in China, where Japanese restaurants and stores are staffed─and sometimes owned─by Chinese. Online critics of the anti-Japanese push have pointed at China-owned businesses like sushi joints that have to put pro-China signs in their windows. 'Many recognize that this is perceived as a loss of dignity,' said Tom Doctoroff, North Asia area director and Greater China CEO of ad agency JWT. 'It will die down, and they [Chinese consumers] will reassert their pragmatism.'

confusion：混淆，混乱，困惑　　　　die down：逐渐消失　　　　reassert：重复主张，再断言

pragmatism：独断，实用主义

On Wednesday, Fast Retailing Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai said that his company has no plans to slow its China expansion down. 'If possible we would like to open 100 stores in China annually and we have prospect of opening 80 stores this year,' he said.

prospect：前途，预期，前景

Ban Lu, 30, said Uniqlo sells some of the best clothing she can find in Beijing and her government's standoff with Japan has no impact on her shopping habits. Ms. Ban, a native of China's northeastern Hebei province, said as she shopped at the Uniqlo store in Beijing's Ginza mall that the dispute was a government issue and should be separated from individuals' shopping decisions. 'It's up to me what I want to buy, and quality is what I want to buy.'

standoff：和局；僵持；冷淡；平衡　　　　up to：取决于

The issue has also sparked humor attempts on China's Internet. One popular joke─tweaking the well-known taste of China's officials for luxurious foreign brands and sometime confusion over what is a Japanese brand as opposed to a different import─has one government functionary protectively asking his assistant whether anything he owns is Japanese. No, the assistant replies: His watch is Swiss, his clothing Italian, his car German and his mistresses Chinese. 'In that case, let's unite the people and boycott Japanese goods!' he says.

opposed to：反对　　　　functionary：官员，公务员的  　　　　mistresses：情人