A Visit to China in My First Year of High School Was the Catalyst: Peeking into a World Invisible with English Alone

My father was involved in Japan-China exchange programs, and he took me on a visit to China during my first year of high school. This experience led me to take Chinese courses after entering university. Wanting to study the language more, I proceeded to the Major in Chinese Literature. I was also interested in how various kinds of information are disseminated, which sparked my curiosity about what kind of literary activities were taking place in modern China, where media is strictly regulated. I focused on a popular writer named Wang Shuo, who emerged after the Cultural Revolution, and for my graduation thesis, I decided to examine the media landscape behind the Wang Shuo boom. I later expanded my research to include another popular writer, Chi Li, for my master's thesis. Recently, I have also become interested in translating literary works.

I had always been interested in film, but I began my research after starting my job as a high school teacher. This was because I had the opportunity to serve as an interpreter and emcee for stage greetings at film festivals, which allowed me to connect with Chinese filmmakers. Through these connections, I was able to watch films I thought I would never get to see and obtain information that was previously inaccessible to me. My research focuses on director Sun Yu's "The Life of Wu Xun" and Mao Zedong's "Criticism of 'The Life of Wu Xun'," which had a significant impact on media policy and literature. In recent years, I have also been involved in translating film subtitles and organizing the Hiyoshi Film Festival, an event held at the Hiyoshi Campus.

The writers Wang Shuo and Chi Li are known for having many of their novels adapted into television dramas and films. I find the world of literature and film, which undergoes dizzying changes reflecting the dynamism of modern Chinese society, to be incredibly stimulating and captivating. I am fascinated by questions such as: What kind of "imagination and creativity (sōzōryoku)" is at work in the process of turning printed words into images? What interactions occur when images are conveyed through different media? And what political and economic dynamics are at play? My research centered on the works of Sun Yu from the 1930s to the 1950s also has a different kind of appeal, as it seems to offer a sense of how the "imagination and creativity" of the Chinese people living today was formed.

At the Faculty of Economics, I mainly teach Chinese. I believe that second foreign languages, not just Chinese, are like "3D glasses." I think they are a tool for gaining a third perspective, allowing you to see a view of the world that is not visible with only English, which most people have studied for years, and the specialized subjects of the Faculty of Economics. Some people might say they are "useless things you forget after graduation," but I hope students will approach their second foreign language not just from the standpoint of practicality, but with the enthusiasm to see a new world. I want to conduct my classes in a way that meets that enthusiasm.

(Interview conducted in December 2011)