Cover this book
A book I’m reading now is by Tianyuan,Chinese talent. This book transleted in Japanese is currently one of the top 500 selling books at Amazon, with a 4.5 star rating. A very small number of Chinese novel titles were actually published in Japan, this one I like, because somewhat not very traditional in its approach. This title is Double Mono.
Filed under: china, japan | Leave a Comment
Most of japanese people are very easy to drunk. if he’s drunk, you can see clearly red face!!!
Filed under: japan, travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: train japan hanshin railway
Cafe with masks?
This Cafe Gallery is an owner-operated small counter located in the underground of Hankyu railway station and entertainment district just one block center of Umeda Osaka, but for these days all the waitresses have to wear masks pretect them from H1N1 flu in Japan.
Filed under: japan, travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: H1N1 flu umeda Osaka
My cat pertects him from H1N1
My cat seems to say ” I see more signals coming from the virus itself and would not compromise the world people’s health and me”
Filed under: japan | Closed
Tags: cat pet, H1N1 flu, Osaka Kobe
New book cover
As for Japan, uh, I generally,cruise everything with my eyes and look at everything before I zero in on it. It’s really interesting to see waht Japanese looked like in daily life. My book on this issue newly published this month in China.
Filed under: china, japan, travel | Leave a Comment
Are Japanese Different?
Yes,and the research I’m going to write about the following days,I had originally contemplated doing a comparative study in Japan and a comparative study in China to see what the comparisons were like.It simply grew too large to handle.
But I have a strong suspicion that we are intersted particularly in those two cultures which offer one side an outlet that isn’t available in another side.In other words, I together with writer Mr.Sutong,find something in japanese Culture that satisfies us,that isn’t normally satisfied within our own chinese culture.
Filed under: china, japan, travel | Closed
Highlighting Japan
Details as following + Highlighting JAPAN
Filed under: japan, travel | Closed
Tags: china, china japan
I arranged to meet Mao danqing at Amagasaki station, Hyogo Prefecture. I expected him to step off a bus or train. Instead, the 42-year-old Chinese writer came tooling up in a silver Porsche. When I complimented him on his car, he shrugged, and said, ”I’m not the thrifty type.”
Strapped into his sports car, I relaxed as he kept up a running commentary on people and things we passed on the way to his house. Despite driving one of the faster production cars on the road, few details escaped his notice or interest. Before we passed Koshien baseball stadium, he pointed out a man carrying a sign that said “Parking Available.” Mao explained the man was soliciting customers for his private parking lot because the Hanshin Tigers had a game scheduled for that night. ”A guy like that-quick not to miss a chance to make money. It’s things like that, the everyday life of Japanese people that interests me most,” Mao said.
Mao’s ability to put Japan under a microscope-to see the trees and not just the forest-has earned him a large following in China and Japan. ”The Japanese prefer to emphasize only stereotypical images like Mount Fuji or geisha. But it is within the realm of everyday life where the real Japan exists,” Mao said.
As anti-Japanese rioting raged in China, Mao said a greater effort at cultural exchange must be made to bridge the gap between the nations. Mao said he feels he has a personal responsibility to do what he can via his writing to smooth out the cultural wrinkles. He said the destruction of Japanese businesses and attacks on government installations could actually turn out to be a good thing in the end. He said the media coverage of the hatred of Japan might induce some Chinese to take a closer look at their neighbor.
To prove his point, Mao said books on Japan are selling well in Shanghai. He also has received more requests from China to give his opinion on Japan. ”It may be a bit imprudent to say, but thanks to the anti-Japanese rallies, books on Japan like mine are selling well. That’s because the demonstration has brought attention to Japan both in good and bad ways. Chinese people now want to know what Japan really is.”
Mao’s most recent effort “Kuangzou Riben” (Running around Japan) took two years to complete. The collection of photos and essays was a collaborative work-he traveled from Hokkaido to Okinawa with a group of Chinese photographers.
Published in December, the Mandarin-language book has sold 80,000 copies in China. At a Tokyo bookstore dealing with China-related material, the book sold all 120 copies the shop had in stock. Mao plans to publish a Japanese-language version.
One of his favorite pictures in the book is of a woman Shinkansen driver. The photographer captured her pointing forward as her train was about to enter a tunnel. It is a signal all drivers must make before taking trains through tunnels.
”It took a lot of time to capture this moment. Getting approval from JR was difficult,” Mao said. Mao chose more than 30 photographers from all over China. The selection criteria was unusual. None should speak Japanese. The less knowledge of Japan the better. ”I’ve been here for a while. I wanted them to see Japan with fresh eyes. In a sense I brought them here to borrow their eyes.”
Mao graduated in 1985 from Beijing University, the apex of Chinese educational institutions, majoring in philosophy. He first worked as an assistant researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
He came to Japan to study Japanese literature in 1987. He said he had a special interest in Kojiki, the ancient chronicle of Japan. He signed up for a seminar at Mie University in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, but with only 500,000 yen in savings, Mao was soon having financial difficulties.
To make ends meet, he went to work for a Japanese company distributing fish caught by Chinese boats. Later he joined a trading company in Kobe. While living the salaryman life, Mao translated ”Tannisho,” a 13th-century sutra of the Jodo Shinshu sect into Chinese.
One day Mao had a dream. ”I had previously dreamed of myself speaking in Japanese. But in that dream, I was writing Japanese, a mixture of hiragana, katakana and kanji. When I woke the next morning, I started writing essays in Japanese frantically for two weeks.” The output formed the backbone of his first book, “Nippon Mushinome Kiko.” (Traveling around Japan with the eyes of an insect), published in 1998.
”People say the language is something that you acquire over time. I disagree. I think it’s something you suddenly come to master,” he said.
In the book’s first chapter, he writes about his metamorphosis from ”living in an ivory tower” and understanding Japan only through reading as a scholar in China, to actually experiencing Japan after coming to live here.
”In the past I never paid attention to things close to me. Before, the topics I brought up used to be big issues, like those about the state or race. Chinese people are said to prefer big issues. But (after leaving China to live in a different country) I’ve become aware that I like the eyes of an insect better, not those of a dragon. The view from the insect may not be comprehensive, but that’s where the reality exists.”
Mao has published three books in Japanese.
For Mao it is important to notice even the smallest of details of Japanese life.
”For example, I ride on a train and see the same business man in the morning and at night. He sits with his head tilting toward the right on his way to work. In the evening his head is tilted to the left and you begin wondering why that is the way it is,” he said. ”This may be something that a Japanese would overlook, but as a stranger to the society, I pay attention to these things.”
Mao travels around Japan with a video camera in hand. He films whatever catches his interest, from temples, villagers and fishermen to ordinary houses. Upon returning to his home in Kobe, he watches the videos from the trip over and over again. Though it may sound like a boring process, Mao believes that it’s crucial to constantly adjust his perceptions of Japan to match reality.
He said taking classes in semiology-the study of the function of signs and symbols in human communication-as a student helped him observe people carefully. He said this training allows him to see what’s in front of him and think about what it means.
”Say I meet this woman selling tofu and exchange a few words with her. Just by that, I can understand what she feels. From her facial expressions, I can understand what she thinks about her job or sometimes even her feelings toward her family.”
With such an ability, it is no surprise Mao tries to converse with nearly everyone he comes across in his daily ”insect-eye” observation of Japanese society.
”As you can see, my books are not just about my thoughts; not just a monologue. They are written through dialogue with others,” he said.
It is also from his relationships with people he met on the road that Mao has come to understand Japanese better.
”A long time ago, I hitchhiked from Mie Prefecture to Tokyo and a dump truck driver gave me a ride. Years later when I became a writer, the driver came to visit me. He remembered I’d told him I intended to be a writer. He was wearing a suit. He said he bought the suit especially to meet me, calling me a great writer. That made me think that on a person-to-person level, there are no national borders.”
Mao said the success of his Japanese-language books prompted him to write ”Kuangzou Riben.” A sequel to the book is expected to be published in November.
”My books in Japanese have been well received by Japanese readers. That gave me the courage to take on another mission-to introduce Japan to the Chinese people,” Mao said.
”At the moment there is a public hatred toward Japanese in China. It is because these Chinese are bound by the historical image or stereotyping of the Japanese. I want to show that Japanese are no different from ourselves,” he said.
To bring about a better understanding, Mao supports greater cultural exchanges, including exchanges of writers, actors and musicians, “because they have influence over media and the power to transmit their impression of each country to the other.”
His steady efforts to build up small “insect-eye” images of Japanese and share them with Chinese people is, to him, part of an effort to help develop ”the third power”-next to political and economic power-in both nations.
”Nowadays, it is said that while political ties are very cold, economic relations are hot. I believe what’s really needed is a movement of people between the two nations so they can see and feel what is real in the neighbor nation,” he said.
”Maybe someday, there will be a book by a Japanese writing about little details of China using an insect’s eye.”
(05/07/2005 By SAYAKA YAKUSHIJI Contributing Writer IHT/Asahi Shimbun)
Filed under: china, japan | Closed
Tags: china japan
Making a draw myself
Here I am at home all day.
One of my sketches today I took a couple of time at drawing myself at home before this one. I drew myself, but it didn’t look right soon. I felt like I was making myself look too funny, and who wants to see this? Also up it to my chinese blog then.
Filed under: china, japan, travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: draw, funny, holidays
Recent Entries
Categories
- china (12)
- japan (16)
- travel (11)
- Uncategorized (2)
