My friend Jay has practiced Kendo(the way of sword) for more than 3 months and he really throws himself into it I reckon, for every night when he takes a shower I could hear his exiting shouts from the bathroom ‘mennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn(striking on face), co te(striking on heads), tsu ki(stabbing throat)’

He successfully exerts an influence on me, my interest toward Japan is lighted up by him again. Luckily the university of Liverpool held a Japanese festival yesterday morning which was a really good opportunity for those who want to know something about Japan. We popped into there and really had a good time. When I entered the main hall I was shocked by the tai-ko performance (tai gu in Chinese). All the players dressed up in the Japanese traditional costume. Couldn’t that be fascinating? When they completed a section of performance they would bow as deeply as they could. Just like those Japanese as I saw on telly.

During the opening ceremony, the Japanese ambassador would like to address in front of us. Needless to say, his English adhering a strong Japanese accent but that’s comprehensible anyway. He praised Liverpool employing every beautiful word that he could imagine ‘wonderful city, European capital of culture, splendid culture and etc.’.

If you want to say how deeply you like a city the best way would be to worship the celebrities from it. Liverpool has successfully claimed many famous people as Scouce. Liverpool born and Liverpool bred, the Beatles never fail to represent the whole city even not every Liverpulidians appreciates their music. As a sort of routine the ambassador spending loads of time in talking about how Japanese like the Beatles, how himself became interested in English and English culture after hearing ‘LOVE LOVE ME DO’.

Two national flags hanging right above him, one is the Union Jack and the other on is the hi no maru (Japanese flag). Under the flags he said ‘The Anglo-Japanese relationship has been nourished for more 150 years after the two governments signed XXX treaty.’

I have no idea about what was in his mind at that moment. However his feeling should not be hard for me to trace down. For 150 years ago it’s about the time of the end of edo period in Japan and also the last few years of Qing dynasty in China. In the arena of nations, only the stronger could survive and the weak would find it impossible to flourish. It was not until early 1920s that Japanese government finally ceased the last unequal treaty with those western nations. Therefore 150 years ago the time that two governments signing the treaty, Japan was an underdog in the global arena and struggling to make its voice heard. With no doubt, that ambassador knew these historical facts, there is no point he didn’t feel sad by mention them. However the sadness would certainly quickly be airbrushed out of his mind, because he was giving a speech 150 years later after the signing of that treaty and Japan is not yet the underdog surprisingly it has stood by their won feet for more than one times. 150 years ago the majority of Chinese people had lived under the illusion that China is somehow superior to other nations. However the truth is that our nation was continuously falling and falling before it could grasp something to stop that fall. At the end China probably had reached a bottom line that it cannot fall anymore and mysteriously bounces up again. However that’s not enough. At least the economic success in China is only part of the whole picture. Many things could change all of a sudden: the collapse of Soviet Union, the collapse of the US economic before world war two and the collapse of military government in South Korea few years ago, there should be many things for us to learn from those lessons.  

As a Chinese saying goes there is no point for any nation to become strong without any reasons. Any successes should be backed up by many factors. It has always been a mystery to me why Japan can become the No. two power in this world based upon such tiny islands. I think I will spend more time on reading around it in order to get the answer.