Imagination, Memory and Misunderstanding: the Chinese in Japan and Japanese Perceptions of China

Abstract

China has always loomed large in the Japanese imaginary. The source of its primary written script, much of its religious culture, its tradition of tea, many of its features of architecture and aesthetics, Confucian ethics and concepts of government, China is in a sense the great continental ‘mother culture’ for Japan (Pollack 1986). And like children everywhere, Japan has reacted to this in complex ways — a deep appreciation of the language and culture of China, combined with the need to separate itself from the maternal bonds and to establish a distinct identity. More recent historical events beginning with Japan’s colonial involvement in Manchuria that spread into full-scale war, the establishment of the People’s Republic and the political separation of Taiwan from the mainland, the penetration of the postwar Japanese economy into China and post-Cold War political and commercial rivalries between the country with the world’s largest population and the one with the world’s second largest economy, have ensured and will continue to ensure an intimate bonding between China and Japan.