the Japan I knew of

About 1 week before my scheduled departure when the real sense of leaving this country finally pressed on me, to my surprise, an unfamiliar sadness and heaviness overtook me. I have moved a lot the past 11 years, couple times within the same city, but more so across cities and states, and this time across borders and sea, so naturally I thought I would be immune from the melancholy of leaving one place for another. But this time it is different.

This time I was not 100% convinced that my decision to leave Tokyo would lead me to a better future. I had doubts, and I thought it would have worked out nicely too if I stayed - Forget about graduate school, I would just get a job in Tokyo, work like a mature adult and settle down. It didn't happen of course. A week later, i was en route to San Diego to lengthen my academic journey. However, the mere thought of settling was definitely something - part of it might be age but I genuinely believed that Japan could be my home in the future.

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Yes, its glorious days of world economic supremacy might have been behind its back but Japan has never lost its 根気. 根気 is what defines a nation and it is something that never breaks in adversaries. In fact, it becomes stronger and unite people together when difficulty presents itself. You do not shy away from challenges; you stand up to them even when things do not go on your way. Only in great difficulties does it reveal the nation's true characteristics. I know not a nation or race with so much perseverance and character like Japan. What is significant is that this Japanese 根気 stems from the love for their people and country, not from hatred against other nations or race. There is just a vibe of composure in the atmosphere, unlike Hong Kong or even some parts of the US, where air of haste and anxiousness afloat. 

The Japanese are unique in a lot of ways. In my opinion the "variety" of Japanese people definitely spans wider than the Hong Kong people or Chinese that I have encountered with: a female classmate who has worked in the development field in Afghanistan, college student who majors in Indonesian because he wants to understand better the largest Muslim country, family who runs a farm for mentally disabled people, Japanese language teacher who lived and taught in Vietnam, PhD economics student who traveled miles to some poor countries to run natural experiments... they have all demonstrated to me the possibility of lives that is unseen of and unimaginable in Hong Kong with their daring souls. On a separate but related thought, many said that Japanese are inward-looking but the statement was flat wrong to me. Yes, my "sample selection" is probably biased (excuse my economic terminology) since the people I interact with are mostly in an academic setting but the people mentioned above have shown to me that the Japanese world view is way more comprehensive than the world view of Hong Kong, which despite how it prides itself as an international city, is embarrassingly ignorant about some very important parts of the world such as the middle east and south east America.

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I have not used the word "touched",  "感動" a lot in the past but in the past two years, Japan has filled my life with so much of these "itchy touchy" moments that have soften my tacky way of seeing the world. I was unsure how I could best leverage this past two years to the better use of my future but then I realize, Japan is already embodied in me - whatever I do, its influence shall remain. This is a country I shall be forever in debt to.

"Educated"

hunger strike protest against national education

To watch the way the event unfold around "national education" is disheartening. How did Hong Kong come down to this.. these secondary schools students, not even 18 years of age, went on hunger strike as their last resort to put pressure on the government before schools reopen on 9/2. How can the government officials turn away from them and see only Beijing in their eyes? When will Hong Kong come together and stand behind these students?

A propaganda in disguise, the "national education" has a clear political mission. Some said, "every country has its own national education, what is wrong with having one in Hong Kong?" First and foremost, "national education" shall not be mistaken as "civic education". The aim of "civic education" is to educate students to become responsible citizens who appreciate, and work to protect the rights of others. And quite the contrary, "national education" at its core glorifies nationalism, justifies the wrong that the party has committed with logic that seems right on the surface or unrelated facts that has no empirical correlations (the country is too vast, and the people are too diverse for effective democratic governance...etc). Proponents of "national education" also defend "national education"  by claiming that "national education" introduces students to "alternative thinking" - one that deviates from the universal values of the West and fits into the "Chinese reality". And that again, is bull. The "Chinese reality" is the twisted reality where people are denied the right to speak the bare truth, the inconvenient truth against the party. Our children need to be taught how to differentiate the white from the black, not how to make excuse for the black. Proponents would probably say that people like me are brainwashed by the western ideals. I disagree. The values that I believe in, namely democracy, individual freedom and rule of law are all driven by wants and needs of human kind and that is, to love and respect others. These are universal values and I don't see any room for compromise.

I have had many chances to interact with students from the mainland in the past two years and I have always been extremely cautious in the beginning. They were all top students from the mainland, spoke good English and Japanese and were all extremely nice and eager to make friends. But I always found it shocking when our views on Chinese government's handling in different events differ by great length. From disaster responses to apparent man-made mistakes, most of them did not display any anger nor agitation against the government and they were ready to defend with "facts" (China being a developing country... etc). The only time when they seem to be slightly perturbed, and quick in correcting the rest of the class (though in very good manner) was related to territorial issues in China. The story goes like this, a group in our class made a powerpoint presentation with the map of China at the backgroun and on the map, Taiwan was not included. Immediately after the presentation in the Q&A session, a Peking University student pointed that out bluntly and said in an almost accusing fashion to the presenting group, "If you just want to find a symbol of China you could have used the Panda or something - you should not use the incorrect map of China" ... (the topic of the presentation was actually about Chinese foreign aid policy and so the map has nothing to do with the topic of the presentation) And at that point, I thought to myself, "so that is what it is like to be "educated"."

I don't think that patriotism can be taught just like how you cannot teach someone how to love. So please, just leave our children alone.