Of Grottoes and Good Will

Do you think maybe that Chinese and Japanese peoples are so different in national character and history of many thousand years that the best we can hope for is not friendship between the two but at the least mutual respect and honoring of the validity of both cultures, each to his own.

I would prefer to think that China and Japan have a lot in common, not least of all because half of the Japanese and Chinese cultures share mutual roots.

Confilct and difference make up only a very small, and relitively recent, part of a relationship that goe back over a thousend years.

A part from the obvious difference between face and honor (appearance over substance), and the fact that Japanese society is based on harmony (people are quieter and more concerned with manners) a lot of the differences that you see now are basicly surface diferences that were created after the communist take over and during the CR.

Saying that, whereas Japanese culture takes mutual respect as a founding tenement, it has always been a Chinese trait for it to seek to be the dominant partner, still the least that we can hope for is that China will stop seeing Japan as an agressor and accept that it is a peaceloving country.

I read a blog entry recently created by a person whom I have always found to have a reasonable point of view. I plead ignorance, though I find the whole topic very interesting--why can't people get along? Your comments shed a lot of light on the subject.

If you're interested:

http://regionsofmind.blog-city.com/japans_difficult_history.htm

If not, just ignore. Great picture of a shrine you might want to peek at, though.

I tend to avoid reading many blogs on this topic as a lot of it is too far to one side and makes me angry, while the rest if too far to the other side and it sickens me. The world needs more moderate measured views that explain and examin things for what they are rather than simply approaching them for a position of pre judegement that lends the author to see only what proves his or her particular point of view.

Up with the moderate logical writers. Common sense and reality over Jingoism.

Yes, it is a pretty cool picture.

That particular shrine has some wonderful cherry blossoms in spring. They are bred especially so that they will drop their blossoms early. In Japan this is very symbolic because the Cherry Blossom is meant to represent life, beutiful yet fleeting. By dropping their Blossoms early, the trees represent loss and the brevity of lives cut short by tragic events.

"...young middle class males from comfortable backgrounds"

that is good observation/characterization. it reminds me of what Lee Kuan Yew said about the generation borned after 1980s in cities.

It's a sad fact that a lot of the protests going on in China can be divided into two groups.

Those who are poor, adult, and who live in rural or semi rural areas (and are often, but not always, female) who protest against internal issues like exploitation, corruption and pollution and poverty.

Those who are young, middle class and male, who protest against external issues like America and Japan.

The first type of people protest because they are suffering and the second type of people protest because they are angry about a variety of isues and are being directed towards external arguments.

But one should not discount the fact that they have a justifiable reason to protest.

Some do, some don't.

Some people are protesting a genuine cause, others are jumping on the band wagon.