Ten Thousand Things

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

More on Chinese History in Japan
Beyond exchanges, Chinese people and culture have been a part of Japanese culture since ancient times to the point of cultural fusion in many instances. Yokohama, Nagasaki and Kobe all have Chinatowns with deep roots.

One of my favorite historical museums in Japan is the Kobe Overseas Chinese Historical Museum (site is in Japanese). Across from Meriken-Park, the waterfront park in front of Kobe's port, the museum is on the corner of a major street, Kaigan-dori. I almost missed it because I didn't realize that the museum sign is on the side street, not on Kaigan-dori, where I was looking for it.

The director, Lan Pu, is a retired schoolteacher of the Chinese school in Kobe. A living repository of Kobe's history and a gracious and brilliant commentator on global multicultural history, he speaks Japanese, English, Mandarin, and Cantonese fluently. When I stopped by the museum, a television news segment was airing, featuring Lan Pu's commentary on Chinese singers performing in Kobe. We all gathered around the television set in the foyer and watched him. Then he gave me a tour of the museum, a warm, intimate space with two major rooms – a foyer and reading room area and a larger exhibition room. He told me that the early Chinese settlers in Kobe were Cantonese who came during the beginning of the Meiji period. These settlers brought a vibrant culture that contributed in so many ways to the attractive, open and cosmopolitan culture of today's Kobe, which also has Jewish, Moslem, and Jain communities.

We discussed the more painful issues of continued prejudice and discrimination in both the United States and Japan. Lan Pu said that the legal situation has improved somewhat in Japan but that informal and soft prejudice and discrimination still exist. As a minority American, I easily understood what Lan Pu meant to convey when he said, "People might not say anything but you can feel something in the air."

Lan Pu and I also talked about the similarities in history textbook controversies between the United States and Japan.

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