We still don’t know enough about Japan
“During the ten years of Huang Zicheng’s writing, Jiu Qian made it impossible to circulate, making the Chinese ignorant of Japan, unprepared, unprepared, fearless, and even today.” So emotional.
This was the end of 1897, just two years after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War ended. In this war, China was unexpectedly defeated by Japan and signed the humiliating “Treaty of Shimonoseki” – ceding Taiwan and paying 200 million taels of silver in indemnity. This war finally wakes China from its slumber, not only is it no longer the center of the world, it may also be in danger of subjugation. Before this, neither the Sino-British war in 1840, nor the Anglo-French coalition that burned the Yuanmingyuan in 1860, nor the Sino-French war in 1883-1885 had shocked China. For many scholar-officials, they were challenges from distant barbarians. But this time is different. Japan has been regarded as a vassal of China for many years. Even if it does not belong to the sequence of North Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar, it is not far behind – it is regarded as a “Japanese country” with contempt. Japan’s victory also tore off the last veil of the mysterious ancient country – behind its arrogance and vastness lies incompetence and weakness.
Dramatically, after a brief period of hostility, Japan became the object of envy and imitation. The Chronicle of Japan, written in 1887, had been ignored for a long time, but now it suddenly became popular, several bookstores reprinted it, and even Emperor Guangxu became its reader. It is believed that this book contains the secret of Japan’s prosperity. Another reformer, Kang Youwei, simply persuaded Guangxu to follow Emperor Meiji and recreate China just as the latter recreated Japan. When the outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito (1) visited China, reformers turned to him for advice on reforming China, and some even expected him to serve as a guest secretary (2) , directing everything.
A Brief History of Japan
In 645, a centralized state system with the emperor as the absolute monarch was established;
In 1192, the Kamakura shogunate opened the era of shogunate rule;
In 1603, the Tokugawa shogunate was established, and the Edogawa era began;
In 1868, the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji government formally established a bourgeois regime centered on the emperor
The Hundred Days Reform failed, but the appeal of the Japanese model did not diminish. Between 1898 and 1911, at least 25,000 Chinese students went to Japan to study in what has been described as “the first modernization-oriented, truly large-scale intellectual migration in history”. Future leaders of China—from military strategists Cai E and Chiang Kai-shek to literary figures Lu Xun and Chen Duxiu—are among them. Liang Qichao, who was in exile, turned Yokohama into his knowledge production center. The newspapers and periodicals he edited were smuggled back to China and shaped the thinking of a generation of Chinese intellectuals. In China, the Qing government reformed the police and prison system with reference to Japan. Reformist officials are even preparing to introduce a Japanese-style constitutional monarchy.
International students from Waseda University in 1907
Behind this high enthusiasm, how much do the Chinese know about Japan? Can Liang Qichao’s “Records of the State of Japan” really be a reference for China’s reforms? Fumio Yano (3) , the Japanese envoy in Beijing, said with a sneer that if one were to understand Japan in terms of the Records of the State of Japan, it would be like understanding the current situation in China today based on the records of Ming history. Astute observers like Huang Zunxian also have a hard time seeing how quickly Japan is changing. Kang Youwei, who considers himself a national teacher, described the Meiji Restoration to Guangxu in his “Reformation Examination in Japan” as his own imagination. On such a much larger scale, three years is enough.
To Chinese reformers a century ago, Japan was fascinating, both because of its sudden ability to become prosperous and because it might lead to some kind of quick road. In Tokyo at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were crash schools for Chinese students. From language and law to military affairs and politics, these young people wanted to master everything in a few months, at most years. They view Japan from the perspective of “same language, same species”. If Japan can quickly grasp the secrets of the West, they can also grasp the secrets of Japan quickly.
When Deng Xiaoping visited Japan in 1978, few people remember the interlude of Huang Zunxian and Kang Youwei. In the narrative of China’s revolutionary history, they are reform figures that can be ignored. But Deng Xiaoping expressed similar emotion. When he visited the Shinkansen, he said: “Fast, really fast! It’s like there is a whip behind you! This is the speed we need now.” He also said: “This visit to Japan , I understand what modernization is.” This is also a “sad” feeling, Deng Xiaoping, like the reformers in the early 20th century, saw a new world in Tokyo.
The Shinkansen, Japan’s high-speed railway system, was also the world’s first high-speed railway to be put into commercial operation. The line first opened to traffic in 1964 connecting Tokyo and Osaka.
Japan is once again a crash course. Just as Meiji Japan was seen as a model of wealth and power, postwar Japan was seen as a purely economic story. The Japanese story didn’t last long before it ended with the collapse of the stock market and real estate. The rise of China’s economy seems to have completely ended the era of Japan as a role model. In the 21st century, Tokyo’s shopping malls, hotels and parks are crowded with tourists from China, and the Yomiuri Shimbun and NHK are full of reports about China’s economic strength.
Chinese media keep repeating Japan’s “lost twenty years” argument. Japan has become some sort of negative textbook, with critics cautioning China not to repeat its economic bubbles and malaise.
But Chinese tourists soon discovered that despite the size of China’s economy, they still wanted to buy a toilet seat in Ginza, visit temples in Kyoto, lament the cleanliness of the Japanese countryside and the politeness of the people, and follow Haruki Murakami’s novels and Japanese dramas “mid night canteen”. Sometimes, wealthy Chinese tourists in the 21st century feel similar to those of foreign students a century ago. They are deeply impressed by “Japan’s political goodness, school preparation, beauty of customs, and one of people’s hearts”.
The streets of Ginza, the central business district of Tokyo, Japan, symbolize the prosperity of Japan’s economy to a certain extent.
At the same time, our understanding of Japan is lacking and lagging behind. Chinese intellectuals still often cite “Chrysanthemum and the Sword” and “On Japan” when talking about Japan at this moment. The former is written by American anthropologists in the 1940s, and the latter is from Dai Jitao during the Republic of China (4) . The inherent complexity of Japanese society rarely enters our field of vision. It is either a highly ideological enemy or a neighbour worthy of imitation. As for what is Japan? We still lack interest.
What intrigued me deeply while reading Ian Bruma’s “Creating Japan” (5) was the ambivalence of modern Japan. Its envy of the West, its internal war of authoritarian traditions and liberal culture—the two different forces that drove Japan’s rapid rise and led it to disaster.
This is a compact yet ambitious book. In less than 200 pages, the author provides a bird’s-eye view of modern Japan. He marked the beginning of modern Japan with the attack of the black ships in 1853, the traditional Japanese order began to unravel, and the West was both a source of humiliation and strength. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics is the end of the book. Japan, the host country, deliberately set up an indiscriminate judo competition, but when their legendary player Akio Kamunaga (6) unexpectedly lost to the Dutch player, they accepted the defeat, Applause was given to the winner.
The Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo, Japan, from October 10 to October 24, 1964, became a symbol of reform in Japan’s renewed self-confidence.
“Overconfidence, fanaticism, a deep sense of inferiority, and the occasional obsession with national status—all of these factors have influenced modern Japanese history, but one of the qualities that stands out the most: That’s the grace of defeat and glory,” Bruma wrote, believing it marked the end of modern Japan’s transformation, which presented a more mature gesture to the world.
If modern Chinese intellectuals are fascinated by the secrets of prosperity and power represented by Japan, Ian Bruma is fascinated by the continuity and complexity of Japanese history, and the difficulty of establishing a modern political system and a liberal culture in such a country.
Few are more qualified to describe modern Japanese stories than him. He has traveled extensively in Asia, Europe and America, and is sensitive to the conflict and fusion between Eastern and Western civilizations. The background of being born in the Netherlands may also add to this understanding. For a long time, the Netherlands was Japan’s main channel to see the outside world, and “Lan Xue” was also the only choice for Japanese scholars who wanted to gain new knowledge. He is also among the cultural critics who matured in the 1980s, convinced of individual liberty and often viewed with skepticism various “cultural particularisms”.
In this small book, Chinese intellectuals can read the propositions they are familiar with. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, facing the same impact from the West, why did Japan succeed but China failed? From the author’s point of view, the marginality of Japanese culture played an important role. It was not a behemoth of Chinese egocentricity in the late Qing Dynasty. Japanese thinkers could easily turn their attention from China to the West and start a new study. Japan has never been a centralized society, and the co-existing emperor and shogunate gave the reformers more room for manoeuvre.
But the more important passages were left to something domestic intellectuals ignored or deliberately ignored—the darkness behind prosperity. While the Meiji Restoration was a huge military and industrial success, Japan never underwent a complete modern political reform. Although Japan has formulated a constitution, “the foundation of the nation does not depend on political rights, but depends on the religious worship of the emperor system and the origin theory of Japan instilled through the national Shinto”.
This political system is also responsible for future failures. The emperor is the nominal person in charge, but does not participate in specific decision-making and does not need to take responsibility for it. It was this lack of clear accountability that dragged Japan into World War II, as one senior official recalled: “The navy believed that a war with the U.S. was a sure-fire way to lose, but was reluctant to say it publicly. The army may not be I want to fight, but I strongly oppose the withdrawal of troops from China. The foreign minister firmly believes that if we do not agree to withdraw our troops from China, there is no hope that the negotiations with China will be successful.” The atmosphere of irresponsibility eventually dragged Japan into disaster.
A corresponding liberal culture has never been established, and both the anxiety and authoritarian influence of the West have left Japan struggling. From the very beginning, the “civilization” movement also contained two sides. It pursued modern ideas of freedom and equality, and was obsessed with external expansion. The entire country was dominated by strong social Darwinism. As the most important thinker of the Meiji era, Yukichi Fukuzawa, known for his advocacy of Western civilization and his efforts to promote Japan’s equal status, jumped with excitement when he heard the news of the victory over China. Even in the more open Taisho era, Japanese society was always accompanied by a sense of tension brought about by individualism, and the “holy war” of the emperor made people feel relieved.
Ian Bruma is clearly adept at handling a more open, free Japan, and some of the details are particularly witty. “The Japanese tried their best to imitate the Europeans’ frown and smile. The male guests smoked Havana cigars and played Whist ; This is how he describes the imitation of the West by Meiji figures. He wrote of Taisho-era Ginza: “The young man had long hair, ‘Lloyd’ glasses (8) , flared trousers and a floral shirt, and a loose tie. Mushroom-headed girls roamed the streets with weeping willows. Young people with vigour and blood gathered in the ‘milk shop’ to discuss German philosophy or Russian novels, hence the name ‘Marx Boys and Girls’.”
After the war, Japan’s economy collapsed across the board. After more than 20 years of rapid development, in 1978, Japan became the second largest economy in the world.
In modern Japan, this apparent admiration and following of the West has always given way to envy and confrontation. The arrival of the Americans seemed to break the cycle. Japan finally showed a mature scene for the Tokyo Olympics. But has Japan really become a normal country? In the post-war economic recovery, the former chaebols and political families soon took over again.
In Tokyo at the beginning of the 21st century, more than one Japanese complained to Bruma that he hoped that another black ship would come, and they felt that only with the help of external forces could the closure of Japan be broken. Behind this sad complaint, one can’t help but imagine how Japan would have appeared if General MacArthur had boldly abolished the imperial system.
Going back to more than a century of history, if domestic intellectuals can also realize the dark power contained in the Japanese model when they seek the way to prosperity, the road to modern China may also be different. This is especially instructive for countries that are gaining prosperity.
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