Wednesday, April 27, 2005

All is full of love

Or so I would like to think. Robots making love could teach us a thing or two.

But the truth is that I'm deeply troubled these days, and find my own thoughts obscuring the real world around me. It's like a thick veil between the world and my consciousness. I may have to change my research topic.

The past few weeks have been pretty traumatic for people caught in-between the China-Japan historical/diplomatic/macho battle. Watching both sides is enough to destroy my confidence that history or ethics can ever be rescued and respected again. Friends in China tell me how disgusted they are with the dogmatism there. I also feel ready to retch whenever I see the Japanese scandal sheets threatening military retribution against 'Japan-hating-countries' (from Japan's Weekly Playboy), to a rumor that the Chinese are circulating an 'assassination list' of Japanese politicians and citizens. This is pride, but only the blindly macho type.

[the truth is, the Japanese media is as much a 'national' institution as the Chinese state-run media. their give-and-take relationship with their audience may be different, but they each have a role in whipping up nationalist fury, and assuaging national pride. the media here made a big deal about the 'results' of a DNA test done on the 'remains' of a Japanese abducted by North Korea. they said that the remains came from several different people, none of whom were her. however, an article in the British nature magazine Nature cast doubt on the result claimed by the government. Read about it at a Korean site, because no Japanese media outlets are covering the story. they just shut up about the whole issue, and instead are focusing on China. There is a good, though lengthy writeup of the article by an Australian scholar here.]

But back to my project; at one point I wanted to look at the birth of a multi-ethnic identity in Yokohama, and its manifold possibilities as 'Chinese' and 'Japanese' refashioned a social network that was local as well as global. It seemed to me that the categories imposed on human interaction by nationalism were being undermined, and that flexible identities were emerging that would bridge people living in Japan and China by ironically, not engaging national institutions at all.

My counterpoint would be Yokohama in the 1920s-1940s, where national categories were enforced through police surveillance of 'enemy nationals', and the activities of Chinese government-sponsored associations. My idea was to sketch out the constraints imposed by these institutions on individuals in Yokohama at the time, and how they were be absorbed, inevitably, irrevocably into national bodies.

Well, the contrast just fell apart. The more I look into the historical documents, the closer the present seems to recapitulate the past. The same language 'han'nichi' (anti-Japanese) was used back in the 1930s to describe the textbooks and leaflets published by Chinese nationalists all over the world. The description today of the May 4th (1919) movement as simply 'anti-Japanese' is interesting as well because it seems to follow the same thinking that dominated Japan at the time. While to the Chinese, May 4th was a cultural and literary movement to reinvent the Chinese nation (the boycotts of Japanese goods began much earlier), to the Japanese it was merely resistance to their imperial designs.

Context. Does anyone even remember that May 4th was supposed to start on May 7th? That was the date on which Japan delivered the '21 demands' to China back in 1915. However, to avoid suppression by Chinese authorities, the students had to spring the movement a few days early. But today, the Japanese press just labels it an 'anti-Japanese' movement, without any explanation of its context. Similarly, Chinese nationalist activities in the 1930s were also labeled 'anti-Japanese' sentiment (and regarding Chinese in America, the added comment that they should have been helping their fellow Asians rather than criticizing them), without even an explanation that the Kwantung Army had just seized Manchuria. So little context, then or now.

Ok, but that's jumping ahead a little bit. Evaluating the situation, I'd have to say that we're not quite back in the 1930s yet, but more like the 1920s. So, I guess that means less than 20 more years before another major world war.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

When you ASSUME

. . . you make an ass out of David Hume, who as we all know, thoroughly attacked the common-sense understanding of cause and effect. Ok, enough (pseudo)philosophy.

A few comments on life over the past few days.
1. Demonstrations in China: I still don't have a clear opinion on this, and the obvious reason is my ambiguous position here in Japan as an ethnic Chinese (who has been in China for less than a year total). But that statement's a deadend, because I don't claim to represent people in my position, or even know of any others like me. So, you'll have to take my opinion (and ambiguity) as the statement of an individual. Much as people absolutely hate to do that.
A proposition: the protests are emotionally and morally justified, but simultaneously a disturbing expression of conformity and narrow-minded thinking among the Chinese public.
What I'm getting at here is that I emotionally agree with the desire to give voice to anger over war and massacre, and the circumstances under which the Japanese Government has not had to take full responsbility for its actions. This is especially the case here, where the Cold War (I'm talking about you, America) has made it so difficult to bring any sense of closure, and where the Japanese (do I have to remind you, the aggressors) also bear a strong victim consciousness. Nevertheless, the mob thinking that prevails in these demonstrations is a disturbing indication of a certain failure to democratize the historical consciousness of the Chinese people, and an environment where a diversity of opinion is not accepted. Here, I am foremost concerned with the direction China's society seems to be taking.

Another proposition: should we not compare Chinese 'demonstrations' with the nearly constant (over the past few decades) loud-speaker activities of Japan's right-wing? A friend mentioned that they're parked out in front of Japanese government buildings nearly every day, blasting war marches and haranguing the public. Another friend mentioned that they also come by dormitories primarily occupied by visiting Chinese dignitaries and give speeches in (poorly pronounced) Chinese, criticizing Mao Zedong, etc. She and the other Chinese exchange students would gather to hear the right-wingers whenever they came by. Apparently, they found them quite amusing.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

ODA?

Japan's ODA to 'developing countries' can now be parsed as 'Overseas Distribution of Anime'. According to an Asahi article, ODA money can now be disbursed to buy airtime for Japanese anime such as Pokemon. As if consumerism weren't a strong enough engine pushing for it as well. In fact, after an exhaustive (and no doubt expensive) study, they conclude that a large percentage of foreign students of Japanese first developed their interest in Japan through anime. Well, duh, I could have told them that, and provided numbers to back it up too (from a study I conducted on my 2 classes at Illinois. . . )

Big boom in jobs for anime subtitlers/translators in the works?

(note: the article does note that Spanish and French-speaking areas of Latin America and Africa will be the primary targets of this 'anime foreign policy'. The US does not receive any ODA from Japan. It stands for 'Overseas Development Assistance'.)
(update: oh, there's an English version of the article as well.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Ride into the Sun

I actually have a spare moment tonight, since 1. it's Sunday, and 2. I actually accomplished everything I intended to do today. The former condition occurs far more frequently than the latter. Last week was an especially bad case, but that leads to the main story of this blog entry.

I lost two days last week to doctor visits, and while I am continually impressed with the economy and efficiency of the Japanese healthcare system (no need for appointments! never wait more than 10 minutes! two weeks of medicine for under $20!), I also lamented my inability to get any work done. But making the most of a bad situation, I decided to tour around Western Tokyo on my bike since the clinic was in an unfamiliar corner of my district.
Here we have a classic case of an accident waiting to happen. I first headed south toward Tamagawa (the river dividing Tokyo from Kanagawa Prefecture), and was treated to this spectacle in the lee side of a tree-covered hill.

Looks like someone lost at Tetris. I guess this is supposed to stop erosion, but at what cost. This is the above-mentioned Tamagawa, home also to a bunch of squatters who probably do Bo and Luke Duke proud by straddling the prefectural line to avoid prosecution. Note: squatters not pictured.

Getting tired. Rode up the slope to Asama-jinja near Tamagawa Station, and took a breather to watch the commuters on the Toyoko Line. In a way I was glad not to be crowded in there with them. But then again, they didn't have to bike 6 more kilometers back home.

Substance (abuse)

The weather is warm again, and though I'm pretty much living in a basement (where temperatures still linger in February), the dusty wind outside announces that spring is here. Yesterday was a blizzard of activity, in my otherwise quiet existence, and I managed a hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) party out in Komazawa Olympic Park (commonly filmed in dramas and music videos, including Shiina Ringo's 'kofuku ron') . Here are two pictures to show you what it was like:

blue tarp on hard ground
no respite for acheing legs
hanami season


a swarm of petals
lands quietly in my beer
color but no taste

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Unknown Pleasures

One thing I've come to truly enjoy, and perhaps this is my childish, sneaky side showing through, is discovering documents marked 'secret'. Especially if they date from 1944. . .

Small pleasures make academics bearable, somehow.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

New New Order

Strange, I thought as I was browsing through various skin-care products at a local drug store. The store was broadcasting a poppy guitar track which included a very familiar sounding bass line. But not too familiar, and I was sure I had never heard it before. Then it hit me; was there a new New Order single?

Sure enough, they have a new album out, called 'Waiting for the Siren's Call', and you can watch a dizzying video from it here. See if you can't identify Peter Hook's bass-work, in an otherwise rather plain song.

Monday, April 04, 2005

first-sakura


first-sakura
Originally uploaded by benkei242.
It's cherry blossom season again. . . sort of. I caught this lone tree on the way to the station a few days ago. It jumped the gun apparently, since none of its compatriots were in bloom yet.
This year the cherry blossoms are late. People who made early plans for cherry-blossom-viewing parties are stuck sitting under nude trees, forlornly drinking their beer.
By the way, I got a Flickr account, so I'll be posting pictures from there. There's an iPhoto plug-in that makes it ridiculously convenient to upload photos (and comments intact), so you'll probably see more of these in the future. . .