Sino-Japanese relations…
Every so often I’m reminded of how deep the antipathy toward Japan is here. We have videotapes of first grade reading lessons, which include a lesson with the sentences “Father is a soldier. Mother is a nurse.” The teacher asked the students why there are soldiers and the first response was “to fight against the Japanese.”
To put this into perspective, I have a family story of an aged relative back in Ireland who would sit and say the rosary, only interrupting herself when the clock chimed each hour to say “God damn the English! And where I grew up in suburban New York there were still many families who would not buy German products of think of visiting that country. I’m not sure how true that is any more.
I was reminded of this yesterday when I was describing a scheme whereby a young man of my acquaintance, who’s American but a good Japanese speaker, might be able to find work in China as someone who is not Japanese but who could interact with Japanese nationals here. I have no idea if it’s feasible. I mentioned this to a grad student I know and said that it might work because Chinese people seem to all hate the Japanese. This student, who is fan of Japanese cartoons, said that that wasn’t true, adding as an example, “I don’t hate the Japanese very much” before both of us burst out laughing.