This is a review on On Contemporary China, one of the main works of Takeuchi Yoshimi, a scholar of Chinese literature and a cultural critic. At first I delineated the features of his view on China and showed that he attempted to provide Japan’s cram...
This is a review on On Contemporary China, one of the main works of Takeuchi Yoshimi, a scholar of Chinese literature and a cultural critic. At first I delineated the features of his view on China and showed that he attempted to provide Japan’s cramped intellectual sphere with a stimulus by examining Chinese people’s sentiment in depth. Then I dated back to his activities during the Pacific War and argued that his affliction of this specific period led to the formation of his distinctive view on China. It is his interpretation of Lu Xun that best portrays Takeuchi’s thoughts. By thoroughly reading Lu Xun’s works, he converted the concept of ‘resistence’ into an thoughts and with sincere interest and examination he acquired a way to penetrate into the intellectual sphere of Japan. Furthermore, I pointed to some problems hidden in his view on China, which are derived from his evaluation of Mao Zedong. I indicated that his seemingly rather excessively high evaluation of Mao’s thoughts is innately connected with his thoughts and proved that there coexist impact and danger within his thoughts, should it be considered in contemporary standpoint.