(Observer News)
Recently, some netizens found that the international exchange foundation published on the official website of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in previous years that the Chinese writer Jiang Fangzhou had been invited and funded by the Japanese side to publish the Chinese literary work "Tokyo One Year" after living in Tokyo, and was suspected of receiving funding to do propaganda for Japan in China.
At noon today (7th), @Jiang Fangzhou posted a blog in response to this matter, admitting that he participated in the exchange activities organized by the Japan International Exchange Foundation in 2016 and wrote a book about his travel experience after returning to China, but this exchange is an open and normal cultural exchange, aiming to promote Sino-Japanese friendly exchanges.
@Jiang Fangzhou Statement excerpt
Born in 1989 in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, Jiang Fangzhou became famous at the age of 9 when he wrote the essay collection "Open the Skylight", was admitted to Tsinghua University in 2008, and became the deputy editor of New Weekly after graduating from university in 2012.
According to the official website of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the annual report of the Japan Foundation for International Exchange in 2017 (Heisei 29), in the section entitled "Strengthening Sino-Japanese Intellectual Exchanges to Hire Chinese Intellectuals", it was mentioned that Chinese writer Jiang Fangzhou was hired by the Association in 2015, and in August 2017, he wrote about his experience of living in Japan for a year as a Chinese literary work "Tokyo Year", which had been distributed in 150,000 copies by the end of the year and was also reported by Newsweek in Japan.
Click to view the larger image the same below
According to the report, the so-called "strengthening of sino-Japanese intellectual exchanges" means that the Japanese side began to find and hire these intellectuals with greater influence in the Field of Public Opinion in China from 2008 (Heisei 20) to provide them with the opportunity to experience Japanese life and study, to make contact with people from all walks of life in Japan, and then to promote the understanding of Japan in Chinese society through their voices in China.
Jiang Fangzhou's book, published in 2017, also clearly states in the introduction that this is a diary novel written by Jiang Fangzhou after living alone in Tokyo for one year at the invitation of the Japan Foundation for International Exchange, a total of 46 stories.
Screenshot from Douban
The book's rating on Douban is 7 points, with most of the ratings being three-star and four-star, but the popular reviews are almost dominated by medium and bad reviews.
Beijing Youth Weekly, who interviewed Jiang Fangzhou about the book in 2017, said she had doubts about writing at the end of 2015, when the Japan Foundation invited her to Tokyo for a year, providing a subsidy of about 20,000 yuan per month, so she gladly went to Tokyo in 2016.
Her job at the time was "nothing to do", and in 2017, the "Tokyo Year", which recorded Jiang Fangzhou's life in Tokyo, was published.
Photo of Jiang Fangzhou in Japan From Beijing Youth Weekly
After this incident was turned over, many netizens thought that Jiang Fangzhou was "taking money to do things", and received funds from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support Japan to do cultural propaganda for Japan, and some people angrily asked him, "Is the yen easy to earn?" ”。
At noon today (7th), @Jiang Fangzhou posted a blog in response to this matter, admitting that she participated in a 3-month exchange activity organized by the Japan Foundation for International Exchange in 2016, during which she conducted academic exchanges and discussions with Japanese writers, and also went to Japan to exchange scholars and teachers related to rural education and the transformation of the environment for the elderly. After the exchange, she recorded her psychological feelings and literary experience of living alone in Tokyo and wrote "A Year in Tokyo".
Jiang Fangzhou also said in the statement that the Japan Foundation for International Exchange is an institution set up to promote cultural exchange activities between Japan and China, aiming to promote friendly exchanges between China and Japan. As for the origin of the invitation to exchange, she said that she had written the relevant content in the introduction of the book, hereby explaining that the exchange was an open and normal cultural exchange to refute the netizens' accusations of "taking money to do things".
However, this storm did not end because of Jiang Fangzhou's response, looking at the annual report of the Japan Foundation for International Exchange in previous years, it can be found that in the past 6 years, each report has included a project of "strengthening Sino-Japanese intellectual exchanges and hiring Chinese intellectuals".
According to the latest data released by The Japanese government, as of 2019, the cumulative number of invitations to the project has reached 196, of which 105 are individuals and 91 are team members.
Carefully examined, there are also many well-known Chinese personalities, such as He Bing, Xiong Peiyun, Ma Guochuan, Duan Hongqing, etc., who have not spoken out on this matter as of press time.
"Among the 2017 (Heisei 29) appointees, He Bing, a professor at the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, published articles on Japan's judicial system and dispute resolution system."
Among the 2016 (Heisei 28) appointees, Duan Hongqing published a column in the Financial Times Chinese news network in The Japanese News, and the article praising Japan's health problems received 7.37 million views in China. In addition, Ma Guochuan submitted 26 reports on the results of his visit to Japan to a number of well-known Chinese media, with a total of 4.4 million views. ”
"Xiong Peiyun, who was hired in 2014 (Heisei 26), wrote his experience in Japan after returning to China as "West Wind and Eastern Soil", and the first edition of 100,000 copies was well received."
Some netizens saw these lists that were exposed, believing that this was the "funding" and "bribery" of the Japanese side, which gave rise to the impression that "the Japanese side pays for it, they do things".
In this regard, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, said in an article this afternoon that inviting various people from other countries to travel and study in their own countries at the expense of one country is a common practice in international exchanges, and it is not possible to accuse or severely characterize certain people in China because they have participated in exchange activities funded by Western countries. As for what the invitees do, whether they can keep a clear head in the face of the large amount of information provided by the inviting country, control that information, and never leave the basic position of the interests of China and the Chinese people while promoting the exchange of information, is the most crucial.
He also said that with the intensification of the confrontation between the United States and China and the increase of ideological conflicts between China and the West, the above-mentioned exchanges between China and the West are decreasing sharply, and the prevention of each other's "infiltration" through international exchanges has never been improved. China's foreign exchanges will not be specially impacted by this wave of criticism of the "public knowledge" of invited visits to Japan on the Internet, and in the current environment, international exchanges must face the deepening of the ideological gap between China and the West, cross various complexities, and explore ways to constructively expand such exchanges. Patriotism is the nature of the vast majority of people, and as for some people being questioned about patriotism, they need to conduct their own personal reflection, rather than closing a certain door to China's opening up to the outside world.
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