Sino-Japanese Lecture

Sino-Japanese Lecture

The Sino-Japanese Global Village was originally categorized within the larger Asian culture region because of China’s deep historical influence on Chinese culture in Japan.  It is now divided into three areas: the Indic, the Southeast Asian, and the Sino-Japanese. 

The Sino-Japanese represent a combination of Japanese and Chinese cultures, highly reflected by Chinese writing characters meshed within the written Japanese language. Other cultural influences on Japan from the Chinese are Buddhism, Confucianism, art, architecture, and philosophy. The Japanese have adapted the aspects of Chinese culture into their unique Japanese traditions, yet still maintaining strong ties to Chinese origins.  The Sino-Japanese people are of mixed Chinese and Japanese characteristics. Their descendants live in the Sino-Japanese Global Village, which includes North and South Korea, Japan, and most of mainland China.

The relationship between the two has been marked by periods of conflict and wars, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries, as you saw in the videos. Sino-Japanese relationships have eroded due to the hotly disputed ownership of an island the Chinese say is theirs. Additionally, Japan after WWII, has experienced rapid modernization, which has caused subsequent tensions with China.

Chinese culture may be the longest-shared culture in the world, with human remains dating back to the Old Stone Age 35-50,000 BCE. China’s writing system arose 4,000 years ago.  221 BCE established their first dynasty.  China was plagued with foreign invaders during their “dynastic history”, first by the Mongols and later by the Manchus. All invaders cause cultural disruptions. The Sino-Japanese wars caused so many conflicts, and those conflicts are still going on today between the Sino-Japanese and the island Japanese cultures.

China’s dynasties lasted until 1911. A replacement government ended in 1949.  The People’s Republic of China (PRC) established a communistic system that has endured until the present.  Even though Communism rules, China is now proclaimed the most capitalistic economic system in the world, second only to the United States. The Sino-Japanese global village is becoming more important and influential in both economic and political status in the world.

Many ethnic groups share in the culture of the Sino-Japanese Global Village, including those related to indigenous groups of Mongolia, Central Asia, and Siberia.  The ethnic-group, Hui, has faced much social inequality.  During the Sino-Japanese wars, when occupations changed from Chinese to Japanese, the Japanese focused on helping the Hui implement policies that gave them preferential treatment.  That preferential treatment advanced the division and control of China. 

In 1938, an Islamic group was founded in China to advance the “Muslim campaign” of the Japanese Army.  The group’s objective was to support the regime, oppose communism, and train young Muslims for military service (Japanese Army).    However, the Hui people rebelled against the Japanese occupation.  The Hui used education as a tool to fulfill their own goals.  The Hui became people with a double identity of being both Muslim and Chinese!  They chose to side with China instead of Japan.  The complexities in culture that arise from both wars and religious activities and conflicting beliefs and values leave divisions that make it hard to find any kind of solution.

My Father Had No Children