Beijing (CNN) A video of university security guards attacking a man wearing a "kimono" last Sunday has gone viral in China, stirring heated debate online over the country's easily stoked anti-Japanese sentiment. The widely circulated short clip shows a group of uniformed guards surrounding two young men and stopping them from entering Wuhan University, whose Japanese cherry blossom gardens have become a top tourist draw each spring. One man, clad in a Japanese kimono-style dress, is shown being violently pushed to the ground, while his friend is restrained in a choke-hold by another guard before collapsing. As the video quickly spread online, local news media picked up the story Monday and interviewed the man in the "kimono," who identified himself as a college student from northeastern China visiting Wuhan to view the city's famous cherry blossoms. Acknowledging he may have become agitated after being stopped at the gate for his attire, he insisted that the guards overreacted with physical violence.

Source: CNN March 26, 2019 07:52 UTC