Cultivating China-Japan relations one friendship at a time

As relations between China and Japan have once again taken a sharp turn for the worse ever since the re-election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2012, there are some on both sides of the East China Sea who would have us believe the hope for a prosperously shared future between the world’s second and third largest economies is doomed. In their eyes, still fixated on the rear-view mirror that is the twentieth century and unwilling to gaze forward into the new millennium we presently inhabit, China and Japan will always be antagonistic neighbours by necessity and another war between the two great civilizations is both imminent and inevitable.

The belligerent purveyors of this myopic worldview stand as the largest obstacle to a harmonious Asia and thus threaten the stability of the international economy and global peace. Sadly, it seems that they are currently winning the fight for the future, according to recent polls. In September 2014, 93% of Japanese respondents who participated in the Genron poll said they held a negative impression of China and vice versa, 87% of Chinese respondents who participated in the China Daily parallel poll reported they felt likewise about Japan. So, is it true that China and Japan hate each other more than ever — beyond the point of no return?

I fervently submit to you that the answer is “No!” and with the right actions by decent human beings on both sides, the turbulent tides in the East China Sea can permanently subside. What the animosity peddlers fail to grasp is the simple truth that the contemporary issues temporarily vexing China and Japan are by no means eternal in nature and are well within the abilities of everyday people to transcend and resolve. After all, it was only the men of the previous century that started this regional hatred. The men and women of today should be equally able to put an end to it. This can be achieved well within our lifetime, so long as the level-headed and good-hearted among us succeed in summoning both the popular and political will to do so.

Hence, in order to counteract the aforementioned negative contributions to the ever essential China-Japan relationship, there must be a concerted “friendship movement” at the grassroots level with direct people-to-people exchanges between Chinese and Japanese citizens, particularly among the youth. Even though the young adults of today are inculpable for the atrocities inherited from the past, we are responsible for co-creating a brighter future to leave behind for successive generations. There is ample evidence of such intercultural “friending” already happening in recent years between university students and young professionals with ties to the two nations on popular social networks like Facebook, YouTube and Meetup. While China has blocked most of these sites, keep in mind that there are still millions of Chinese nationals studying and working abroad, beyond the Great (Fire) Wall and open to gaining new perspectives.

I will speak specifically of the Meetup.com group that I personally founded in late November 2013. Based in my hometown of Toronto (Canada), which boasts one of the world’s largest Chinese diaspora communities and happens to be an increasingly popular working holiday and English school destination for young Japanese adults, our “Chinese-Japanese Friendship Society” organizes weekly trilingual (Japanese, Mandarin and English) language exchange, dining experiences, sporting events, karaoke nights, cultural activities, road trips, board game competitions and more. Less than three years old, our group has already successfully hosted over 1341 events all across our diverse city and have attracted over 3,100 members and counting. Our amazing team of 52 volunteer organizers receive no monetary compensation while giving so much of their time and energy for nothing other than the intrinsic reward of building this shared sense of Asian community. Through the process of facilitating fun hangouts and the accompanying everyday informal conversations among our members, previously held prejudices against the “other” begin to fade and long-ingrained antagonistic sentiments start to shift. Some of our most popular recurring Meetups include weekly tea shop language exchange, oyster outings, dim sum diplomacy brunches, badminton nights, karaoke-athons, weekend tennis and a fine dining series. With almost an event every day, the Chinese-Japanese Friendship Society has quickly become the most active Toronto-based group on Meetup. In fact, if you were to search the keywords of “Chinese Japanese” on Google, our intercultural friendship group is among the top Autocomplete suggestions.

Last August, we achieved a major milestone in reaching 2000 members, which coincided with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War 2 in Asia. Two thousand is a particularly significant number for this important cause as the much beloved Chinese Premier and internationally revered statesman, Zhou Enlai once characterized the Sino-Japanese relationship through the wide lens of world history, as “2,000 years of friendship and 50 years of confrontation.” With each member of ours representing one year of Chinese-Japanese friendship, we believe that these human bridges built in this informal and fun manner are the most effective foundation to repaving the road to an everlasting peace and enduring goodwill between these two world powers.

Multinational corporations with operations in both countries, universities, the pan-Asian entertainment industry and government at all levels should each do what they can to support this youth-led grassroots friendship movement on the horizon, as they too stand to directly benefit from warmer China-Japan ties. To the likeminded youth of today with an affinity and appreciation for both storied cultures, we must never tire in our efforts until a critical mass is achieved, where an overwhelming majority of Chinese and Japanese citizens would rather shake each other’s hand than remain with tightly-clenched fists.

As the iconic United States President and father to the current American ambassador to Japan, John F. Kennedy once addressed the United Nations in 1963,

“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on.”