In Japan, when people talk about international students, people always naturally expect them to be the bridge(架け橋) between Japan and their homeland. However, today I want to explain not only why this doesn’t work but also why this kind of thinking is selfish or even offensive.
The dean of our department talked with me several times recently. He told me that the relationship between Japan and China is really bad right now, and he truly wanted me to try to help improve the relationship. Although I thought what he said was nonsense at the time, I still answered “I’ll try my best, sir” with a smile. To be honest, I don’t like China based on my personal first-hand experiences. I tried everything I could to leave that country. I regard Chinese culture as foreign to me. I stopped speaking Chinese and refuse to make Chinese friends. Maybe I won’t hate China someday in the future, but there is no way for me to be a bridge between something and China, not a chance.
Let’s say everyone is not as radical as I am, and other guys are just normal people who love their homeland. Can they be the bridges between Japan and China? No, I don’t think so. This is because the bad relationship between Japan and China is intentionally made by the Peking government in the first place. It’s not personal, but political. There are no misunderstandings happening. What is worse is that China is not a democratic country, not even close. Even if average international students want to help, their efforts are wasted, An undergraduate communist students complained about the manner problem of Chinese people online not long age, and she got punishment for this, which freaked me out. Even communists are not safe in China these days.
Besides, average international students don’t seem to like Japan as much as some Japanese would believe. I heard random international students complaining many times about Japanese culture and Japanese people in their own language. Some of them even think all Japanese people are psychotic. I can’t help but wonder why they came to Japan in the first place. I rarely meet someone that really likes Japan. At the end of the day, I believed that average international students came to Japan just for a degree or at least just for themselves. Some students, like a European guy I met, said he may become a diplomat someday. For people like him, it’s different and it makes sense to expect them be a bridge.
Finally, I want to explain why I think this kind of thinking is selfish and offensive. First, it’t not the Peking government who sent me to Japan and paid the bills. Unfortunately, the Japanese government doesn’t pay my bills directly either. (Because I’m in a national university, so indeed the government is funding me indirectly) Guess what, it’t my family who are paying my bills and I came to this country by my own will. I don’t have any duties to do anything for anyone except for myself and my family. The thing is I spent over three million yen last year in Japan. Then someone, maybe not random, showed up and told me I should go back to my homeland and become a sympathizer for them. It’s just awful. Any international students who spends their own money shouldn’t be treated like this.
On the other hand, I shall want to represent Japan in international situation. In fact, I have already started to represent Japan in many small ways. For example, sometimes foreign tourists will ask me for help at places such as a train station. Most of the time they don’t realize that I am not Japanese. The university accepted me as a “tutor” for new international students. This is exactly what I am struggling with. Even if many people like our Dean won’t understand and accept that, I will still follow this objective, and I know I will eventually get what I want sooner or later.