The article entitled "Patriotism not simple hatred to former enemies," which was published on Saturday in the Global Times raised an interesting question - what is the best way for Chinese to remember the wartime past?

It is a question worth pondering carefully since a growing number of people in China are gradually going to extremes over patriotism nowadays. Take the example pointed out in the article. Guo Bin, husband of former table tennis world champion Wang Nan, once kept the tap in a Japanese hotel running all the time when he visited the country, as a way to avenge the Japanese invasion of China decades ago. Guo later realized that his behavior made no sense and called for more rational efforts in all aspects to remember our shame in history, as well as efforts for China to grow stronger than our former enemies, but his first action has gained widespread support.

There is a phenomenon in China in which some people tend to believe anything is righteous under the name of patriotism. This includes boycotting US fast-food chains, smashing Japanese cars, firing employees for their purchase of an iPhone 7 and insulting foreigners or Chinese who either work for foreign companies or live abroad. People do this as if they have justice on their side.

Admittedly, patriotism is needed in any country in the world, yet once people go too far, it will cause only negative influences on their nation. For example, after the passage of US President Barack Obama's $820 billion stimulus package, also known as the "buy American plan," which aimed at ensuring US taxpayers' money will be spent to promote manufacturing in the US only, instead of other countries, US ties with its closest ally, the EU, worsened with a looming US-EU trade war. Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, vowed to fight back soon after that. This has well illustrated that there is no simple answer to complicated economic and political affairs.

Some people say that behaviors of certain Chinese people are no longer out of patriotism, but nationalistic sentiment. Speaking of this, I also noticed a commentary in your paper in which Yan Xuetong, dean of the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University, distinguished the difference between nationalism and ultra-leftist ideology. He pointed out that nationalism emphasizes interests while ultra-leftist ideology gives priority to principle.

If that is the case, it means the unreasonable behaviors we have been witnessing are not actually patriotism or nationalism. And those people are unconscious of the fact that they might have already turned themselves into a vital part in hyping up the country's ultra-leftist ideology, because they do things without careful calculation of the benefits and barely think before they act.

It is time for us to think about the nature of all the irrational behaviors under the name of patriotism. Will they bring us more benefits? Will they make our nation stronger and make other countries respect us? There is nothing wrong with anyone loving his or her country, or remembering the country's wartime history. But what is the best way? The author has given a good answer - make our country greater. More rational and hardheaded efforts are needed in that.

Zhang Yuning, a freelancer based in Beijing