A woman was arrested and interrogated for five hours by police in China for wearing a Japanese kimono while queuing for lunch.

She was surrounded by officers who reprimanded her for wearing the “unpatriotic” costume as she waited for food in Huaihai Street in the eastern city of Suzhou which is famed for its Japanese restaurants, bars and shops.

A video of the arrest on August 10 has gone viral on social media in China.

A Chinese woman was interrogated for hours for wearing a Japanese kimono in China. Credit:Weibo

“You wear a kimono! You are Chinese; if you wear hanfu, I won’t say this to you,” the policeman shouted at the woman. Hanfu refers to the ancient clothing worn by ethnic Han Chinese.

The woman posted a detailed explanation of the event on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. She said she was wearing the kimono to recreate a scene from a Japanese manga comic.

Officers later questioned her at length, deleted photos of her wearing the kimono from her phone and confiscated the item of clothing.

The woman expressed her regrets in the post, saying it was wrong to walk down the street in a kimono and she apologised for any offence caused.

Her story generated more than 40,000 comments online, with some users remarking that the arrest set a dangerous precedent for state power.

“Will police detain people who use iPhones since it is a product from the United States,” one user asked.

“You should take down the Japanese-style street. Otherwise, it is not the girl’s fault to wear a kimono there,” said another.

However, some commented that it was not appropriate to wear a kimono in China because Japan never apologised for invading the province of Manchuria in 1931 when it was seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries.

Wearing a kimono has become increasingly controversial in China as the nationalist sentiment rises under President Xi Jinping.

Patriotism is generally encouraged by the authorities but it is hard to strike a balance. Last year, a group of Chinese women dressed in hanfu were asked to leave the same street in Suzhou because they were accused of disturbing the peace.

The Telegraph, London

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