Japan in the Eye of a Chinese (Part 1)
I have always had a mixed feeling of curiosity and distance towards Japan, even though this country is close to where I came from and not to even mention that there are so many similarities in both cultures. After almost living in Japan for two months, I want to write down this short piece reflecting on how I started my “relationship” with Japan, and how I am gradually getting closer to a more nuanced understanding of Japan.
The Start －2015
Before my last year in high school, I had never actively thought of knowing more about Japan. When talking about Japan, the things that came to my mind was that my friends were crazy about J-POP and the Japanese Animes I watched when I was very little.
For a very long time in the past, my understandings of Japan were only passively constructed from limited pieces of media articles and events. From the time that I was surprised by the crisis management system and how organized the society ran during the 2011 earthquake that caused tsunami and damaged the nuclear reactors, to watching the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi with awe and respect about the concept of “Shokunin” (similar to ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan’, though the literal translation does not fully express the meaning), I was constantly impressed by this country and the people.
However, in the meantime, I have also received far more conflicting information about Japan. In my history class, I was taught about the Nanking Massacre, and in some Japanese textbooks, it was not recognized as a true story. During the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Island disputes, I have witnessed people in my city smashing windows of Japanese-owned businesses and burning Japanese-made cars, which was followed by a series of more radical protests. What’s more, before I went to Japan, my grandmother even “warned” me not to buy anything there.
Apparently, I understand that I will never be fully knowledgeable to reach a single conclusion to explain to others, this is a much more complicated historical, economic, and political issue of the relations between China and Japan.
The Turning Point 2015
The final turning point came quite late as I started to become so motivated to learn more about the Japanese culture, after participating in a camp in Hong Kong 3 years ago. That’s the first time that I got a chance to meet some students of my age from Japan, and we exchanged our views about all the historical disputes and conflicts.
Gradually, I began to realize that there are so many things that I hope to discover:
Why do they prefer calling each other by their family name?
Why do we have completely different pronunciations for the same characters?
Why do they say “いただきます(itadakimasu)” before they eat any meal?
Why do they prefer bowing to other people, while handshaking is more natural in China?
……
With all these questions in my mind, I made up my mind to self study Japanese and learn Japanese art, philosophy, history, and literature. Unsurprisingly, It opened up an entire new world for me as I come to appreciate all the nuances of the similarities of the two cultures, the overall philosophy rooted in Japanese people’s daily activities, the delicate Ukiyo-e (a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries) that reflect the Japanese aesthetics, and similar themes of many of the Japanese stories about life’s fleeting transience relating death with beauty.
I love learning about new cultures. For me, it’s amazing how, as humans, we can all be so similar, but yet, also very different between the two cultures and people at the same time. I understand that we are all not educated to know these specific differences, but that’s why it is even more important for us educate ourselves and have open and respectful dialogues before we start to form the “prejudices” or “stereotypes” for one culture. I hope that many self-claimed Chinese “patriots” could have chances to learn more about the history and culture before taking radical actions or post any offensive speech online.
I loved the process of comparing the same characters with different meanings in Chinese and Japanese, and told my friends about it: “娘” means daughter in Japanese, but “mother” in Chinese; “大丈夫” means “it is okay” in Japanese, but “husband/male” in Chinese.
I started reading Tale of Genji and related it back to Dream of Red Chamber I read years ago, noticing that though both stories ended up as love tragedy, the love of Murasaki-no-ue is more based on tolerance, yet the love of Lin Daiyu is set up on the foundation of mutual conviction and fidelity. I could draw some interesting conclusions of analyzing the two books about the differences in aesthetics, gender roles, and how they portray physical beauty.
I began to think that how “Confucianism” influenced both countries differently. In China, Confucianism developed a set of ethical and moral principles to guide people’s behavior, including respect for elders, filial piety, benevolent governance, harmonious relationships in a family, and so on. In Japan, besides Shinto and Buddhism, which also play a huge role in the society, Confucianism ideas are still somehow prevalent in the modern era: the seniority system/Sempai system are reflecting the respect for elders, lifetime employment system is reflecting the loyalty and devotion, and so on.
The Trip to Kansai 2016
Last year, I finally had the chance to visit Kansai and lived with a local Japanese family for two weeks. I did not specifically make plans for the trip, hoping that I can just experience how Japanese people live their life.
Seeing many people wearing kimonos slowly walk on the streets, I would never imagine seeing this scene in China, even though kimono was originally derived from Chinese curving-front garment used for Han Fu (the traditional clothing in ancient China).
Talking to the families coming together under the sakura trees for Hanami (a cherry blossom viewing), I got to understand how important sakura is to Japanese people and they indeed appreciate the fleeting transience concept.
Getting lost in a local shrine as I was wandering around Kyoto, I was lucky enough to receive help from Japanese people who literally walked me to my destination.
Living in the traditional Japanese tatami room in their house with exquisite paintings and decorations that made me feel peaceful and calm.
My hosts invited me to see their family albums back to the 1970s, sharing their memories of traveling, marriage, birthday parties, and children, etc. They even went to my hometown ten years ago and couldn’t stop praising how stunning Jiuzhaigou was and how cute the pandas were.
……
There were millions of these little moments that just made me want to live here longer so that I could have enough time to digest them. I felt like the life here was no different from many Japanese dramas that I had watched: my host says “おかえりなさい” (welcome back) to me whenever I head back home and “行ってらっしゃい”(have a good day; take care!) whenever I leave the house. In China, we have similar phrases, but we never really feel necessary to say these words even to our family members. For some reason, I feel that I want to live this kind of life that every day is filled with such harmony and tranquility.
(to be continued)
