2010 Nanjing Japanese Culture Week Held

President Hu Jintao pointed out during his visit to Japan in 2008 that, in the final analysis, lasting friendship between China and Japan should begin with youth and children. And this message was very much taken to heart by those sponsoring and participating in the 2010 Nanjing Japanese Culture Week from February 28.

The event was sponsored by the Nanjing Municipal People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, and the 11 colorful events staged during the week attracted the enthusiastic participation of an estimated 5,000 people.

Huang Huang, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal People’s Congress, and Yutaka Yokoi, Japanese Consul General in Shanghai, respectively spoke at the opening ceremony, which saw the attendance of over 60 Japanese guests, including Yasuhiro Yamashita, Japanese Olympic judo champion, and Yasuhiko Fujita, Chief Representative of the Japan Foundation Beijing Office.

The first activity on the afternoon of Feb. 28 was the “Beauty of Harmony” Japanese Cultural Festival held in the Nanjing Art and Culture Center. This included a Kimono fashion show, the playing of the shamisen, a Japanese stringed instrument, the making of New Year rice cakes and other traditional Japanese activities were staged before a large and enthusiastic audience mainly comprising local university students.

On the morning of March 1, a Japanese painting exhibition opened at the Nanjing Art Gallery, displaying about 100 works by 18 noted Japanese painters who took the opportunity to have discussions with Chinese painters present maintaining the long tradition of friendly contacts between close neighbors. The local artists agreed that the occasion provided an excellent opportunity to appreciate the charm of contemporary Japanese art. The exhibits, rich in content and varied in form, represented a crystallization of the Japanese art inspiration and painstaking efforts and reflected from different angles the harmonious relations between man and society and between man and nature in modern Japan.

On the afternoon of the same day, at the Nanjing Heavy Sports School, the China-Japan Friendship Judo Hall was inaugurated by Yasuhiro Yamashita, judo gold medalist of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, who gave instruction to children studying at the school. Mr. Yamashita said it had long been his cherished wish to contribute to friendly Sino-Japanese relations through his judo skills and he promised to visit Nanjing regularly to coach in future.

A delegation of Japanese university student sign language lovers visited the Nanjing High School for the Deaf where they interacted with the students there. The Japanese undergraduates delivered speeches and put on some shows with their relatively unskilled Chinese sign language and their sincerity moved the local teachers and students. Well-known Japanese companies such as NEC and OMRON also donated school supplies to the school. The exchange ended with dance performances by the students of both sides.

On the morning of March 2, a student Japanese language speech contest was held in the Yifu Auditorium of Nanjing University. The contestants were Japanese majors from 14 universities. They made excellent speeches focusing on “future Sino-Japanese relations” before an attentive audience of more than 400 students. A lecture on Japanese corporate culture was given on the afternoon at the School of Business at Nanjing University. Senior executives from Toyota and Mitsubishi Electric talked about their respective corporate cultures, from which the students felt they learned a lot. A concert by the young Japanese singer Mai Fukui staged in the evening in the Concert Hall of the Nanjing Art and Culture Center brought the Japanese Culture Week to a successful end.

The events received a good social response. Many in the audience said, these activities gave them the opportunity to appreciate the friendship of the Japanese people and the charm of the Japanese culture up close. And for the many Japanese language learners, they expressed their gratitude to the organizers for providing them with such a precious opportunity. Just as Yutaka Yokoi said at the opening ceremony, a week is only a short time, but through the activities staged in Nanjing, the friendship that had already taken root in the hearts of the two peoples would grow into a luxurious tree, bloom and bear fruit and the tragedies of the past would never be repeated on this particular piece of land. The Japanese Culture Week was reported by all major mediof Jiangsu Province and Nanjing City as well as NHK, Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun of Japan.