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Forty years have passed since the Japan-China Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed. This May, the \u201cFilm Co-production Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the People\u2019s Republic of China\u201d became effective. Though we expected further progress in cooperation in the production of movies between both countries, it has been a cold winter for the movie industry in China. There have been fears about the Chinese government checking tax payments by people in the movie industry severely in order to reorganize the movie industry. As the SGRA China Forum was held in such an atmosphere on November 24, 2018, it moved us very deeply.<\/p>\n
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The Forum was held in the Yifu Public Hall of Renmin University of China under the theme \u201cPotential of Exchange of Japan-China Movies\u201d. Different from past China Forums, the theme of movies is very popular now. I thought it was an excellent opportunity to understand the histories of movie exchange from specific viewpoints not only for researchers and movie fans but also the young who know names such as \u201cTakakura Ken\u201d from listening to their parents\u2019 conversations. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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During the Forum, we focused on searching for the potential reconstruction of histories of East Asia from various viewpoints and tried to clarify the historical aspects of cultural effects or interference. We also emphasized the importance of the construction of historical and general viewpoints in East Asian cultural exchange. Based on these aims, starting from the planning stage, we invited specialists in each field in order to understand the impact of Japanese movies on China and vice versa. And we could materialize for the first time the so-called \u201cListening Comparison <\/em>(\u8074\u304d\u6bd4\u3079)\u201d between two specialists of the Japanese and Chinese movie histories, inviting Prof. Karima Fumitosi (Honorable Professor, The University of Tokyo) , Japanese specialist for the history of Chinese movies and Mr. Wan Zhongyi\uff08the chief editor of \u201cPeople\u2019s China\u201d\uff09Chinese specialist for Japanese movies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prof. Chen Quijia, Vice President, School of Liberal Arts\u3001Renmin University of China, representing the co-organizers, gave an opening speech. As a fan of movies he has been conducting research on Japanese Manga-animation for ten years, and has expectations for such a theme. Ms. Imanishi, representing the Atsumi Foundation, followed and explained the details of the Forum. Prof. Karima introduced criticism in detail about the introduction of Chinese movies into the Japanese market, under the title \u201cWhat did Chinese movies produce for Japan, the past, present and future\u201d. Recently, by new \u201ccontact\u201d by increasing number of Chinese tourists to Japan, contents of anti-Japanese drama which handled Japanese army are being criticized. People say \u201cwe will not be cheated because we know the real Japan now.\u201d Japanese side also came to know the real China through seeing Chinese tourists in Japan. Since a very long time ago when we could not have any chance to \u201ccontact\u201d, movies have been playing such a role in creating impressions of each other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In fact, the first Chinese Movie Week took place in Japan in 1977. At that time, Chinese loved Japanese movies passionately. On the other hand, when Japanese people saw Chinese movies such as \u201cDongfang hong (\u6771\u65b9\u8679)\u3001\u201dEternal Glory to the Great Leader and Teacher Mao Zedong (especially the scene of the funeral ceremony of Zhou Enlai), which reflected the atmosphere of the time, they were shocked. \u00a0After this period, however, Japanese audiences got to know another China, which was not broadcast by the news but rather through movies along the flow of time. Prof. Karima has stimulated also his interest in China through his work on subtitling Chinese movies at screening parties. During the period, from the latter part of 1977 to 1980, this image that \u201cthe common people in China lived a poor life (especially in farming area), but they persevered to live strong\u201d became solid in the minds of Japanese audiences. He presumes that Chinese movies, which describe present Chinese society, did not become popular in Japan because of the strong preconceptions of Japanese viewers. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The cinematic style in movie pictures in China at that time influenced Japanese movie directors like Mr. Nagisa Oshima, and people in the movie world in both China and Japan began to talk very often and communicate with each other. For example, Mr. Oshima\u2019s point of view, from the non-sufferer perspective stimulated Chinese movie director Chen Kaige. Chen came back to story-telling and went on to produce \u201cFarewell My Concubine,\u201d which was a masterpiece of the 1990s. Japanese companies, which were involved in the production of Chinese movies directly by having Japanese engineers, started their own movie companies in China. Japanese actors also began to be active in China. The biggest change in the co-production of movies during these 40 years, besides the fact that they changed the location of movies to China, was that the depiction of relations between Japanese and Chinese in movies became very non-discriminatory and intimate.\u00a0 Historical viewpoints by Japanese movie directors gave Chinese movies a new means of interpretation and opened up new possibilities. The \u201cFilm Co-production Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the People\u2019s Republic of China\u201d was signed this year. Prof. Karima expects that exchange and cooperation between the Japanese and Chinese movie industries will develop further. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In contrast to Prof. Karima\u2019s presentation, Mr. Wang Zhongyi discussed the background of the movie world precisely under the theme \u201cJapanese movies in China \u2013 Interfusion, Interchange, and Cooperation\u201d, how movies expressed imagined sceneries of Chinese people and how Japanese movies influenced China.\u201d In short, Japanese movies stimulated Chinese audiences and technical aspects of the movie world. The contents of Japanese movies left a deep impression on Chinese people. During the 1950s, in the early stages of the movie industry of New China, Japanese had already started taking part in the production of Chinese movies. For historical reasons, Shanghai movies were heavily influenced by America and movies in the North-East area inherited the tradition of Japanese movies. The most famous one was \u201cThe White Haired Girl\u201d (1950) by Changchun film studios. In Japan, this film was opened to the public in the 1950s and Matsuyama Ballet produced the ballet version of it. Japanese documentaries about the effects of rapid economic growth such as social or environmental problems also made people in China consider these issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After conclusion of the Japan-China Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978, the Japanese movie boom took root in China and Japanese movies are being talked about even now. Through Japanese movies, Chinese audiences came to know about fashion, sceneries, daily lives and social issues in Japan. An image of a hero in a Japanese movie, which could not be seen in Chinese movies, won the hearts and minds of Chinese audiences and a Japanese movie star, who was at the height of his popularity, was born in China. This was Ken Takakura. His movie,\u201cKimi-yo, Hunnu no Kawa-wo Watare\u201d\u300c\u541b\u3088\u61a4\u6012\u306e\u6cb3\u3092\u6e09\u308c\u300d<\/em>(no English title) has been shown on screens many times in the past forty years and continues to have much influence even today. The place where the film is set became a so-called \u201cPilgrimage to the Holy Land\u201d for Chinese people. Hokkaido, which is where the film by Yoji Yamada, a very famous Japanese movie director, is set has also been featured in Chinese movies many times. However, Mr. Wang emphasized that \u201cthe Homeland\u201d for Japanese is the Seto Inland Sea. So, if Japanese and Chinese companies jointly produced a film at the Seto Inland Sea, considering our common culture of \u201cNasake (sympathy)\u201d the films would be a sure hit. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the 1980s, events for cultural exchange for people in the movie world and films or dramas through joint production of both countries continued to be produced. \u201cBo-Kyou no Hoshi\u201d\u300c\u671b\u90f7\u4e4b\u661f<\/em>(<\/em>no English title)\u300d which was produced in collaboration with NHK and the preface of which was written by Deng Xiaoping, and \u201cDaichi no Ko\u201d\u300c\u5927\u5730\u306e\u5b50<\/em>(no English title)\u300dwas based on a Japanese novel received good public response. Recently in the \u201cInternet Era\u201d, there have been a few cases where Japanese movies received an award abroad and became very popular in China first, and after that were released on the Japanese market. Prof. Wang said that we can expect further collaboration not only in movies and dramas but in stage productions, anime as well as games.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had a panel discussion after the talks by the two professors. Prof. Li Daoxin, Peking University, Dr. Qin Lan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Prof. Zhou Yue, Beijing \u00a0Language and Culture University, Dr. Chen Yan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Prof. Lin Shaoyang, the University of Tokyo took to the stage. Due to the limited time, they could not have a deep discussion but could share their own understandings and research on the cultural exchange of movies in Japan and China. Dr. Qin shared his educational experience in contemporary literature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prof. Zhou analyzed works by Koreeda Hirokazu, Japanese movie director and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chinese movie director. Dr. Chen examined the common market of Japanese movies and anime. Prof. Li, specialist in the history of Chinese movies, appreciated the lectures and remarked that \u201cconversations between Japanese \u2018geeks\u2019 for Chinese movies and Japan experts in Chinese media people were very unique (curious) and were rich in content\u201d. Prof. Lin talked about the cooperation between intellectuals in Japan and China, adaptation to Japanese of Chinese historical materials and the image of China in Japan. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since young students in their twenties who were present had never seen Japanese movies from the nineties or before then. they thought that Ken Takakura, a movie star in Japanese movies, was just an idol for their parents\u2019 generation. Through this forum, however, they came to know the histories of exchange between Japanese and Chinese movies. Inspired by this forum, they may start to study Japanese and Chinese cultural exchange, one which for a new generation is based on Manga and anime.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am looking forward to the future of exchange between Japanese and Chinese movies and to the exchange of academic research based on it.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n