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20th Century Japanese Thought
Hybrid culture
Written by Monday Kato, translated by Weng Jiahui
Life, Reading, New Knowledge Joint Bookstore 2024-3ISBN: 9787108077523 Price: 56.00 yuan
【Brief Introduction】
In 1956, Kodansha published Kato's masterpiece on Japanese culture, "Hybrid Culture" (Japanese title: 雑種文化), subtitled "Japan's Little Hope." The book includes a number of critical essays, such as "The Hybridity of Japanese Culture" and "The Hope of Hybrid Japanese Culture", and analyzes the characteristics of Japanese culture from the perspective of comparative culture. Kato pointed out that English and French culture are purebred cultures, while Japanese culture is a typical hybrid culture. Overseas scholars disagree with some of Kato's views, pointing out that British and French cultures are not pure-blooded cultures, but are also the result of a long-term integration of multiple civilizations. In this regard, Kato responded and added to it in his subsequent research.
This is the first time that a Japanese scholar has put forward the idea of "hybrid culture", and this book has attracted wide attention and discussion in the academic and social circles since its publication. The Japanese academic community commented that Kato was the first person with an international perspective, and his keen insight and meticulous analytical skills were amazing. In 1974, Kodansha republished the book in the form of a library version after the author adjusted the title, making it the most popular edition among readers. "Hybrid Culture" has become one of the required reading books for majors in Japanese language and culture, comparative literature, and world literature at various universities in Japan. The term "hybrid culture" is also widely used, as a cultural typology concept, which no longer refers specifically to Japanese culture, but also to various mixed cultures in general.
Kato's purpose in conducting cultural studies is mainly to dig into the crux of conservatism and collectivism in Japanese culture from the depths of his mind, and his assertion of hybridization in Japanese culture is to prevent narrow Yamato national supremacy. The ideas he expresses in this book still have a unique value that transcends time today.
【About the Author】
Kato Mon (1919-2008) was a Japanese critic, novelist, and cultural scholar known as an "intellectual giant". Born in Tokyo in 1919, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tokyo in 1950 with a doctorate degree in medicine. Since childhood, he has been fond of literature and art, especially Japanese classical and European culture. In 1951, he went to France to study, and while engaged in hematology research, he traveled to various European countries, and wrote a large number of literary criticism articles from the perspective of comparative literature and culture, gradually forming the view that Japanese culture is hybrid. The study of literary and cultural history, represented by the Preface to the History of Japanese Literature (Volume II) and Time and Space in Japanese Culture, not only occupies an important position in Japanese academic circles, but also has a profound impact on overseas Japanese studies. At the same time, he always adhered to the idea of post-war democracy and pacifism, and in June 2004, he initiated and established the "Kujokai" with Kenzaburo Oe, Shunsuke Tsurumi and others to promote the concept of peace to protect Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.
Weng Jiahui studied at the Department of Japanese Language of Peking University from 1994 to 2003 and received a doctorate degree in literature. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Japanese at Peking University, a part-time researcher at the Center for Oriental Literature at Peking University, and a visiting researcher at the Kato Center for Modern Thought at Ritsumeikan University. He is the author of "The Road to Reality: A Study of Japan's "Introverted Generation", and has translated "The Legend of Kenzaburo Oe", "Hiroshima Notes", "The Song of the Sheep: My Reflections", "Life", "Life", and "Life".
【Contents】
Reflections on Japanese literature during a trip to the West
About being a wall view
Hybridization in Japanese culture
The hope of hybrid Japanese culture
The greatness and tragedy of translating literature
The Japanese view of foreignness
The view of the Japanese people
Matsuyama's impression - the problem of democratic education
Tears and sighs in Japan
What will happen next
Unconditional surrender with the eight-headed body
Epilogue
Postscript
【Excerpts】
Hybridization of Japanese culture (excerpt)The purification movement of Japanese culture can be divided into two types for the time being. The first type is based on a long-cherished wish to Westernize Japan by removing the branches and leaves of the Japanese species, and the second type is based on a long-cherished wish to remove the branches and leaves of the Western species and simply preserve the Japanese style. However, neither of these long-cherished wishes should come true. Even if the purification campaign to remove the branches and leaves of the Japanese species goes smoothly, it will not be possible to remove the Japanese elements that nourish the branches and roots. Because it can't get rid of those elements, after a while, the Japanese branches and leaves will grow again. So, as a matter of course, there was a movement to remove the branches and leaves of the Western species and organize them into a Japanese-style movement. However, in that case, you can't help the hybridization of the branches and roots, and the chain reaction between the effect and the reaction will continue incessantly because it will eventually not prevent the regrowth of the branches and leaves of the Western species. Since the Meiji era, there have been two tendencies that have alternated – a purely Westernization of Japanese culture that has led to an immediate reaction to the reverence of Japanese things – and even now, there seems to be no sign of stopping.
There is probably only one way to stop this vicious circle. Whether it is pure Japanese or pure Westernization, we must give up our long-cherished desire to purify Japanese culture. Anglo-French culture is purebred, and they're just that, it's good. Japanese culture is a hybrid, and that's it, and it's good. Even if it's not good right now, you can make a verbal promise that it will be better next. Some people may ask, is this a thing possible? You have to do it to know, and besides, we don't have any other way. — Schematically, that's the conclusion. Of course, the actual problem is not as simple as a schema, and before we can draw conclusions, we need to examine in more detail the actual situation of the Japanese cultural purification movement.
Around the time of the Meiji Restoration, the contact between Japanese and Western cultures took place under the impetus of external compulsion and technical necessity from within. Exceptionally, Meiji Thought included the opportunity to absorb Western culture and the ideals of Westernization and nationalism in Japan, while maintaining a relationship of interdependence on the whole. This is because the so-called Western culture mainly refers to technological culture, and as a tool of nationalism, technological culture can play a role in strengthening nationalism. The phrase "Japanese soul and foreign talent" is a good example of how the ideas of civilization and enlightenment in the Meiji period were closely linked to the ideas of enriching the country and strengthening the army.
However, if the Western culture that should be absorbed goes beyond the realm of the technical system and involves the spiritual realm, then there will be an irreconcilable situation between it and the idea of a rich country and a strong army, and this will lead to a more complex and deeper nationalist reaction. The introduction of Christianity is a prime example. Because the presence of the opposing force is often too strong, the influence of Christianity can be said to remain only within a very limited range. (If it had had been wide-ranging, the history of Japanese culture would have changed since then.) However, if this assumption is to be made, it will probably be too late in the Meiji era. The timing of the Christianization of Japan was probably not in Tokyo at the end of the 19th century, but in Kyushu in the second half of the 16th century. ）
But, in general, when the input of technology and institutions reaches a certain stage, the imported thing will begin to move spontaneously—as in Christianity—and if it does not directly lead to a spiritual change on the recipient, it will indirectly change the mood of life there. When customs change, morality and aesthetic consciousness will leave traditional things to a certain extent. The principle of "harmony with the soul and foreign talents" can no longer be as simple as it was in the early stage of civilization and enlightenment. "Wazumi" became something that had to be consciously protected, and moreover, it became something that could only be protected by opposing all Westernization outside the realm of pure technology. At this time, nationalism emerged as a type of Japanese cultural purification movement.
Moreover, the point at which one type appears is also the point at which the other type appears. Why? Because after the introduction of technological systems, in order to survive in the society created by these imported technological systems, the next step is to import the ideas necessary for survival. The contradiction between "foreign talents" and "Japanese souls" will lead to an understanding of "foreign souls" and will manifest itself as a movement to Westernize Japanese culture while forming a sharp opposition to nationalism. For example, the relationship between foreign music and Japanese music, and between Western and Japanese paintings, is almost irreconcilable. If this is already the case in the realm of sensibility and aesthetic consciousness, it is impossible for the same principle not to involve the realm of morality, and thus to the realm of various social problems. If this continues to develop, the idea of Westernization of Japanese society will eventually have a decisive influence with the introduction of historicism. - From the perspective of historicism and history, the Westernization of Japan is the modernization of Japan. Why? According to the theory of the stages of historical development in order, the West has already reached the stage of development, while Japan is probably still in the stage of backwardness. We must get rid of backwardness, liquidate Japan's feudal and pre-feudal nature, and carry out a pure modernization of the country. In this sense, those who want to purify culture, but do not lean towards nationalism, are inclined towards modernism. As these two tendencies go to extremes, the antagonism between them will intensify.
The various opposing elements that have recently emerged in the cultural movement, such as traditional and innovative preferences, ahistorical and historical views, conservative and progressive views on society, can be largely reduced to the two types mentioned above, namely, the opposition between nationalism and modernism. Needless to say, the period during which these two types appeared in their clearest form and on the largest scale, was during the war and during the post-war occupation of Japan. (In the beginning, after the defeat.) In a narrow sense, before the suppression of the February 1 Strike in 1947, and in a broader sense, before the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. There is no need to look at the difference here as a problem. Until the outbreak of the war, state power had not been involved in all areas of culture in an organized manner. Education on the policy of enriching the country and strengthening the army, centered on the emperor system, was thoroughly popularized, and for example, in the fields of thought, literature, and art, the intervention of power was limited to necessary repression, and it did not have the proactive nature of the "general mobilization of the national spirit" during the war. The kind of cultural nationalism that purifies culture on the basis of Japanese tradition is a reaction of some intellectuals to cultural hybridization, and it can be said that it has no deep relationship with the masses and is not enthusiastic about it. However, along with the war, there is also the spirit. As a tool for strengthening political nationalism, cultural nationalism, with the active help of power, has received unprecedented prominence. Cultural nationalism has long ceased to be the self-amusement of some intellectuals, but has established a certain connection with the masses. Moreover, in response to such a "general mobilization of the national spirit," postwar Japan launched a large-scale "democratization of Japan" against a completely different power background. Unlike during the war, this time it was connected to the masses by the spontaneous fact that they came here spontaneously to seek support. — At least on a certain level, the same can be said. In any case, the war was used as an opportunity for a conscious and organized response to cultural issues. In this way, two types of reactions derived from the characteristics of Japanese culture, namely the nationalist type and the modernist type, appear in a form that is unexpectedly clear and 100% typical.
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