edited by Diego Cucinelli Andrea Scibetta

**FUP**

Tracing Pathways

D. Cucinelli, A. Scibetta

雲路

# Tracing Pathways

雲路 Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia

#### STUDI E SAGGI

ISSN 2704-6478 (PRINT) - ISSN 2704-5919 (ONLINE)

– 220 –

#### FLORIENTALIA ASIAN STUDIES SERIES

*Editor-in-Chief*

Valentina Pedone, University of Florence, Italy Ikuko Sagiyama, University of Florence, Italy

#### *Scientific Board*

Ester Bianchi, University of Perugia, Italy Alessandra Brezzi, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy Paolo De Troia, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy Marco Del Bene, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy Katsumi Fujiwara, Osaka University, Japan Hiromi Hyodo, Gakushuin University, Japan Henning Klöter, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Jennifer Li-Chia Liu, Harvard University, United States Federico Masini, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy Hiroaki Nagashima, University of Nishogakusha, Japan Chiara Romagnoli, Roma Tre University, Italy Bonaventura Ruperti, University of Venice Ca' Foscari, Italy Luca Stirpe, Gabriele d'Annunzio University, Italy Kazuomi Tada, University of Tokyo, Japan Massimiliano Tomasi, Western Washington University, United States Zhou Yongming, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States Serena Zuccheri, University of Bologna, Italy

#### *Published Books*

Valentina Pedone, *A Journey to the West. Observations on the Chinese Migration to Italy*, 2013 Edoardo Gerlini, *The Heian Court Poetry as World Literature*, 2014

Ikuko Sagiyama, Valentina Pedone (edited by), *Perspectives on East Asia. From the Point of View of Early Italian Poetry*, 2014

Ikuko Sagiyama, Valentina Pedone (edited by), *Transcending Borders. Selected papers in East Asian studies*, 2016

Ikuko Sagiyama, Miriam Castorina (edited by), *Trajectories. Selected papers in East Asian studies* 軌跡, 2019

Miriam Castorina, *In the garden of the world. Italy to a young 19th century Chinese Traveler*, 2020

Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, 2020

# Tracing Pathways 雲路

Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia

> edited by Diego Cucinelli Andrea Scibetta

FIRENZE UNIVERSITY PRESS 2020

Tracing Pathways 雲路 : interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia / edited by Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta. – Firenze : Firenze University Press, 2020. (Studi e saggi ; 220)

https://www.fupress.com/isbn/9788855182607

ISSN 2704-6478 (print) ISSN 2704-5919 (online) ISBN 978-88-5518-259-1 (print) ISBN 978-88-5518-260-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-88-5518-261-4 (XML) DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

Graphic design: Alberto Pizarro Fernández, Lettera Meccanica SRLs

Front cover: Utagawa Hiroshige, *Meisho Edo Hyakkei* (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1856-1858). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936

*FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing* (DOI https://doi.org/10.36253/fup\_best\_practice) All publications are submitted to an external refereeing process under the responsibility of the FUP Editorial Board and the Scientific Boards of the series. The works published are evaluated and approved by the Editorial Board of the publishing house, and must be compliant with the Peer review policy, the Open Access, Copyright and Licensing policy and the Publication Ethics and Complaint policy.

*Firenze University Press Editorial Board*

M. Garzaniti (Editor-in-Chief), M.E. Alberti, F. Arrigoni, M. Boddi, R. Casalbuoni, F. Ciampi, A. Dolfi, R. Ferrise, P. Guarnieri, A. Lambertini, R. Lanfredini, P. Lo Nostro, G. Mari, A. Mariani, P.M. Mariano, S. Marinai, R. Minuti, P. Nanni, A. Novelli, A. Orlandi, A. Perulli, G. Pratesi, O. Roselli.

The online digital edition is published in Open Access on www.fupress.com.

Content license: the present work is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license allows you to share any part of the work by any means and format, modify it for any purpose, including commercial, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author, any changes made to the work are indicated and a URL link is provided to the license.

Metadata license: all the metadata are released under the Public Domain Dedication license (CC0 1.0 Universal: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode).

© 2020 Author(s)

Published by Firenze University Press Firenze University Press Università degli Studi di Firenze via Cittadella, 7, 50144 Firenze, Italy www.fupress.com

*This book is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Italy*

## Table of contents


FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978- 88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

#### CHINESE STUDIES


### Preface

Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta

For the fourth collection in the Florientalia Asian Studies Series we chose the title *Tracing Pathways* 雲路 to celebrate how scholars can always trace new routes, paths and directions with their research, even when it seems that everything on a specific topic or issue has already been said and written. Pathways may have different forms, depicting either a straight way or a winding one, but they have the same function, that is to trace a route from a starting point to a goal. So does the research work, and we believe that the contributions of the scholars hosted in this volume could really enrich the field of Chinese and Japanese Studies through the pathways they chose to trace with their research studies.

This volume collects articles by eight contributors interested in different research areas within the field of East Asian Studies. The articles, which are organized in a Japanese section and a Chinese section, use different approaches across disciplines belonging to humanities in order to explore topics ranging from classical and contemporary East Asian literature to contact linguistics, sociology and anthropology.

The Japanese section contains four essays dealing with modern and contemporary literature and cinema. The opening contribution by Giacomo Calorio concerns contemporary Japanese cinema starting from a statement of the Japanese film scholar Yomota Inuhiko, which is *What is Japanese Cinema?*. In his article, Calorio discusses about ideas of contemporaneity and national cinema in the contemporary Japanese film production. The second contribution, by Diego Cucinelli, analyses the literary motif known as *kame naku*, 'crying turtle', and traces its path through Japanese literature from its origin to the contemporary

FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978- 88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

age. In particular, by using *kame naku* as keyword Cucinelli analyzes the attitudes and sensations of modern and contemporary poets and novelists toward the motif. The third contribution is by Marta Fanasca, who deals with *yuri* manga, i.e. manga focused on the representation of sentimental relations between girls. In particular, Fanasca analyzes the manga re-elaboration of Yoshiya Nobuko's *Hana monogatari* (1916), a collection of short stories on "passionate friendships" between students, or a student and a young teacher. The forth contribution, by Tsuboi Hideto, deals with *tenkō bungaku*, the «literature of conversion»: focusing on some writings by Kobayashi Morito, in his paper Tsuboi analyzes the stories of conversion experiences of various converted people (*tenkōsha*), reexamining how they accepted conversion, and at the same time focuses on the contradictions and conflicts that occurred there.

The contributions included in the Chinese section concern two main macro-topics: on the one side, they bring into light issues related to cultural contacts between Italy and China from different perspectives; on the other, they deal with Chinese migration to Italy, by highlighting socio-historical aspects as well as cultural production. The first contribution, by Andrea Scibetta, focuses on the case study of the graphic novels *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen*, both produced by Matteo Demonte and Ciaj Rocchi, as hugh-value cultural products both in terms of historical reconstruction of Chinese migration to Italy and of symbolic representations of Chinese migrants beyond stereotypical and simplistic views. The second essay, by Yang Lin, focuses on the image of China in the travel writings of two twentieth-century scholars, i.e. Alberto Arbasino and Luigi Malerba: the main issue which this essay draws its attention to is the role played by China as a literary space between imagination and reality in the writings of both authors. The third and the forth essays are mainly related to Chinese migration to Italy, which is seen from two different perspectives: a socio-anthropological one, dealing with social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region in Italy in the contribution by Meri Perna; one blending the aspect of cultural production with a historical dimension in the contribution by Yan Xiaopeng and Zhao Yinyin. The contribution by Meri Perna concerns issues of identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region, taking into account the results of a questionnaire administered to 198 young people and 21 teachers. Finally, the essay written by Yan Xiaopeng and Zhao Yinyin investigates migrant cultural productions in the town of Guifeng (Rui'An area) in its main historical developments, and then analyses the influences played by such a production on the broader cultural production of migrants belonging to the district of Wenzhou.

We are grateful to all the contributors and the referees who participated in the volume and helped us with ideas and suggestions, thus creating a fruitful climate of academic collaboration and exchange, and we hope to contribute, explore and trace new trajectories within the field of East Asian Studies.

JAPANESE STUDIES

# "What is contemporary Japanese Cinema?". Questioning the answers, answering with questions

Giacomo Calorio

**Abstract**: The English title of a recent book by renowned film scholar Yomota Inuhiko reads: *What is Japanese Cinema?*. In the preface to the English edition Yomota states that the direction we might take, should we try to provide an answer to the question, changes according to which word, «Japanese» or «Cinema» we choose to emphasize. When his survey reaches the recent past, the Japanese scholar describes the 2000s as «an era of chaos». Starting from these questions and affirmations, and combining them with others made by scholars such as David Bordwell, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Andrew Dorman and Mori Naoyuki, the following article attempts to explore a more specific doubt: what is contemporary Japanese cinema? In so doing, however, other questions arise, as we need to define when contemporaneity starts and what makes it different both from previous eras, and from the contemporaneity of other national cinemas. The further we probe, the more complex our definition becomes.

#### **Keywords**: contemporary Japanese cinema; Japanese film theory; visual culture, digital culture.

要旨:『What is Japanese Cinema?』(日本映画とは何か)とは、著名な映画史研究者、四方田犬彦 の最新のエッセイの英訳版のタイトルである。四方 田はその序文で、「Japanese」という言葉に重 きを置くか、「Cinema」という言葉に重きを置くかによって、疑問に対する答えを導くであろう探究 の方向性が変わってくるのではないかと述べている。現代映画の研究に至り、四方田は、2000年 代を混沌の時代と定義している。こういった問いや断言から出発し、他の研究者たちの疑問と絡 み合わせながら、本稿では、「現代日本映画とは何か」という更に具体的な疑問に対する答えを求 めようとしている。ただし、そのための様々な疑問が生じる。まず、日本映画の現代性がいつから 始まるのか、それまでの日本映画の時代とは何が異なるのか、また、他の国の映画の現代性とは何 が異なるのかを明確にする必要がある。しかし、話題を深く掘り下げれば掘り下げるほど、その定 義は拡大し、とらえどころのない話題になっていく。

キーワード: 現代日本映画、日本映画論、ビジュアル文化、デジタル文化.

#### 1. Questions and coordinates

The English title of a recent book about Japanese cinema by renowned film scholar Yomota Inuhiko (Yomota 2019 [2014]) reads: *What is Japanese Cinema?* In the preface to the English edition, Yomota states:

«Japanese cinema» is made up of two words: «Japanese» and «cinema». For those who are interested in Japanese cinema, the choice of which of those words to emphasize makes a big difference in the direction of their explorations. […] Which of these two perspectives is correct? In fact, both are correct and both are necessary.

Giacomo Calorio, University of Turin, Italy, giacomo.calorio@unito.it, 0000-0002-8750-9453 FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Giacomo Calorio, *"What is contemporary Japanese Cinema?". Questioning the answers, answering with questions*, pp. 11-27, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.01, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978- 88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

Although Japanese cinema cannot be separated from the cultural particularities of Japan, we must also see it as a part of the universal history of humanity's desire for images and movement (*Ibidem*: XVI-XVII).

Following a thorough examination of the history of Japanese cinema from such a perspective, and whilst addressing the contemporary era, Yomota writes: «The 2000s was an era of chaos» (*Ibidem*: 186). Andrew Dorman also discusses contemporary Japanese cinema and its cultural specificity in his *Paradoxical Japaneseness*, an essay which focuses on cultural performance and concealment phenomena concerning Japanese cinema in a global context. In the introduction, Dorman states: «Any film, in one way or another, is specific to the country that produces it. Whether it displays specific cultural images, articulates 'national issues' or is simply made in a particular location, a film carries with it an inherent nationality according to which it may be situated contextually» (Dorman 2016: 1). Prior to these considerations, and without wanting to bring into our discourse the debate surrounding the identity of Japanese cinema in a new panasian, global and transnational perspective, a necessary step is the formalist approach by which, roughly forty years ago, Noël Burch strived to investigate (or rather, to demonstrate) the specificity of Japanese cinema through an accurate analysis of its forms and meanings. As he wrote in the preface to his controversial milestone of Japanese film studies, «my reading of the films is conducted, moreover, with constant reference to the history of 'Japanese Culture' as a whole. For it is beyond doubt that Japan's singular history, informed by a unique combination of forces and circumstances, has produced a cinema which is *in essence* unlike that of any other nation» (Burch 1979: 11).

In the following pages, without any intention of celebrating the unicity of contemporary Japanese cinema in support of whichever self-orientalist local ideology, I would like to delve into the matter and reflecting further on these quotations, and ask myself: how is contemporary Japanese cinema unique? If we want to find an answer to this question, maybe we should first establish whether a difference *does* exist and whether it is significant enough, both in quantitative and qualitative terms (in style, themes, essence…), to justify a break with the previous era of this national cinema. I believe the arrival of Japanese cinema in a completely digital phase is a distinguishing feature, as has already been pointed out by Canadian film scholar Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano (2012). Then, were we to query what characterizes this particular epoch's national cinema, the questions multiply: 1) does a specificity of Japanese cinema in the digital age exist *if compared to its analog season*? 2) does a specificity of Japanese cinema in the digital age exist *if compared to digital American cinema*, *digital Italian cinema*, *or digital Chinese cinema*? Underlying these questions is the ambition of exploring new frontiers, and of gauging the perimeter of our current image of Japanese Cinema (Calorio 2019), which is often fragmentary or anchored to the past. The ultimate goal is to acknowledge its form, to question it, and to exhort the reader to look beyond its borders.

Nevertheless, before trying to answer these questions we should step back and establish where contemporary Japanese cinema begins, assuming that we are not already witnessing the birth of another new era, which would automatically make it *past*. We should also consider the intrinsic permeability between ages, of course. Either way, if we want to draw a definitive dividing line between the last chapter of Japanese cinema, and what has happened since, I feel we should concede the very first years of the 2000s, both the peak of what is considered the Nineties New Wave and transition period to a new era, and draw that line around 2004 (Mori 2006: 11).

#### 2. After the Wave

It has been almost thirty years since the birth of what was hailed as the New Wave of the nineties or the fourth golden age of Japanese cinema (Schilling 1999; Tomasi and Spagnoletti 2001; Novielli 2001: 257-313; Richie 2005: 205-259; Mes and Sharp 2005; Dalla Gassa and Tomasi 2010: 195-237; Meale *et al*. 2010: 58-90; Bingham 2015) when a generation of producers, directors and screenwriters managed to revive a national cinema that was once an object of huge international prestige yet during the two previous decades had lost much of its allure. At the end of the eighties, the prizes obtained by Kurosawa Akira, the *Cahiers du Cinéma* veneration for the films directed by Mizoguchi Kenji and cinephiles' fondness for the *jidai-geki* of the fifties and the sixties seemed nothing but a distant memory. Conversely, worldwide declarations of love from film directors and scholars for Ozu Yasujirō's works (Stein and Di-Paolo 2015) increased year after year and strengthened a myth which persists to this day. Nevertheless, this equally sealed a sterile image of Japanese cinema, an illustrious but finite and unrepeatable chapter of world cinema history, a lukewarm fire barely enlivened by the last powerful sparks of the great survivors of the past, and therefore doomed to fade away with the likes of Kurosawa, Ōshima and Imamura. Not that Japanese cinema of the seventies and eighties lacked fine works, brilliant directors, previously unseen production ventures that harbored the seeds of what was to come, but Burch's «distant observers» saw little or nothing new coming from the land of the rising sun, and it seemed that the history of Japanese cinema had finally come to an end. As we know, things played out differently, because, as Alexander Zahlten highlights, the apocalyptic story of the end of Japanese cinema was doomed to end during the upcoming nineties (Zahlten 2017).

That being said, in retrospect, even the last golden age of Japanese cinema can now be considered long over. After reaching its peak at the turn of the millennium, its image abroad has since been fading. With few exceptions, in the following years, its leading exponents (such as Kitano Takeshi, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Miike Takashi and Sono Sion) failed to preserve the freshness of their beginnings, despite having earned a consistent presence in major festivals. Furthermore, emerging directors from the *Zero generation* (Mori 2006; Novielli and De Angelis 2016; Schilling 2019) were unable to replace their predecessors by developing a solid filmography that might otherwise have captured the imagination of a worldwide audience.

#### Giacomo Calorio

Nevertheless, if we set aside the image of Japanese cinema abroad and consider local production and distribution numbers, it should become immediately obvious that the fourth golden age provided an impulse whose effects last to this day. This allowed Japanese cinema of the 2000s and 2010s to settle on a respectable average annual production with a large presence of genre cinema, about thirty or more already established directors1 and a number of promising and noteworthy newcomers2 . Actually, the number of domestic Japanese films distributed did not revert to the disastrous levels of 1991 – compared to the relatively high standards of Japanese cinema history – when just 231 Japanese films were produced: throughout the last two decades, an average of 430 Japanese films per year have been produced, with peaks of 615 and 613 in 2014 and 20183 . At the same time, Japanese cinema was able to take on a wide range of forms and genres aimed at different audiences. This gave birth to a considerable number of *auteurs* (both male and female, which previously had not been so obvious) who, despite the lumbering presence of mainstream cinema and the lack of sufficiently effective forms of government support (Gerow 2006), strove to realize their personal idea of cinema, at times conforming to the system, at others openly opposing it. It embraced avant-garde movements and directors who persevere on the path of tradition, masters and artisans of the past who stepped back into the limelight in their senior years, as well as a renewed interest in militant documentary. Above all, it has generated a flood of adaptations from novels, *manga*, *anime*¸TV series and video games.

In addition to such a prosperous output, even if only in quantitative terms, and notwithstanding there having been alarming signals of homogenization (of productive models, of genres, ideological…) (Osanai 2011: 57-59) in the last decade, it is undeniable that the new millennium Japanese cinema has joined the international breeze of pluralism that was blowing in contemporary cinema. Such conformity occurred to a greater extent than in the past and certainly links Japanese cinema to the global scene as well as to other national cinemas: although not to all of them, nor to the same extent or in the same ways. Japanese cinema, therefore *does have* a uniqueness – if not absolute, at least related to a given time, because it is undeniable that certain facets may only be found *there*, in that par-

<sup>1</sup> In addition to those already cited in this text, we could at least mention Hashiguchi Ryōsuke, Harada Masato, Hiroki Ryūichi, Ishii Katsuhito Ishii Takashi, Kitamura Ryūhei, Kobayashi Masahiro, Kumakiri Kazuyoshi, Manda Kunitoshi, Makoto Shinozaki, Nakamura Yoshihiro, Nakashima Tetsuya, Ōmori Tatsushi, Sakamoto Junji, Sabu, Satō Hisayasu, Toyoda Toshiaki, Wakamatsu Kōji, Yaguchi Shinobu, Yamada Yōji, Yukisada Isao and Zeze Takahisa.

<sup>2</sup> For instance, Andō Momoko, Asato Mari, Fujita Yōsuke, Fukada Kōji, Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, Iguchi Nami, Imaizumi Rikiya, Imaoka Shinji, Ishii Yūya, Kazama Shiori, Kudō Kankurō, Lee Sang-Il, Matsui Daigo, Miki Satoshi, Mitani Kōki, Ninagawa Mika, Nishikawa Miwa, Mipo O, Okuhara Hiroshi, Okita Shūichi, Ōne Hitoshi, Sakamoto Ayumi, Satō Shinsuke, Seta Natsuki, Tanada Yuki, Tetsuya Mariko, Tsuta Teiichirō, Uchida Eiji, Yoshida Daihachi, Yoshida Keisuke, Watanabe Ryōhei.

<sup>3</sup> MPPAJ (Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan). Cfr. <http://www.eiren.org/statistics\_e/index.html>.

ticular moment and in such number. Examples include: such a flourishing animation industry; a remarkable and varied annual production, especially given the country's size; culturally connoted genres which continue to exist like *jidai-geki*, *pinku eiga*, *kaijū* or *yakuza eiga*; glocal phenomena like J-Horror; forms of transmedia storytelling and intermedia translation which are very different in number, density and phenomenologic variations if compared to their coeval US and European contexts.

#### 3. A Technological Question?

Most texts frequently cite economic, productive, cultural and social factors, among others concerning the single directors' poetic, as responsible for the rebirth, dissemination and ramification of Japanese cinema of the nineties. Additionally, there are several technology-related factors which merit consideration, in particular the advent of VHS (Mes 2018: 225) and VCD (Davis and Yeh 2004: 232). Nevertheless, in the same years that the fourth golden age flourished, a new device was rapidly taking up residence in people's homes, offices and production studios with even more substantial, endemic and structural effects: the personal computer. Once the prerogative of a select few, it soon became a mass-operated tool and it was succeeded by even more economic and user-friendly devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Bearing in mind the richness and the inner diversity that characterizes Japanese cinema production in recent decades, and equally avoiding any temptation to regard chronological coincidence exclusively in techno-deterministic terms, I believe it is safe to adopt the completion of the digital revolution as the turning point towards a new season, and then ask the following questions: what has the role of digital technology been and to what extent has it contributed towards this renewal process? Which have been its most striking manifestations, and how have they changed our idea of Japanese cinema? While acknowledging the necessity for a global contextualization and perspective, have such manifestations developed specific forms recognizable as being exclusively «Japanese»?

The relationship between Japanese cinema and digital technology has already been explored by Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano in her *Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age* (Wada-Marciano 2012). This is a pioneering work, which from the outset presents itself as an unavoidable starting point and interlocutor for my discourse. It allows me to overlook some relevant topics already analyzed exhaustively by the author and focus on others that she chose to ignore or simply introduced as useful tips for further research (*Ibidem:* 133).

While examining Japanese cinema in the digital age, Wada-Marciano shapes her analysis on the flourishing debate concerning the features of transnationality and cultural neutrality that supposedly characterized Japanese media production at the beginning of the new millennium. Starting from Iwabuchi Kōichi's wellknown theories on the role of Japanese popular culture and media in a global context 'decentered' towards the Asian area (Iwabuchi 2002), Wada-Marciano focuses her discourse on cinema alone. Nonetheless, she criticizes the determinism with which the label of «transnational cinema» had been affixed to some expressions of Asian and Japanese contemporary cinema (pan-asian productions, films by Japanese directors set in other Asian countries and spoken in English, films about Koreans living in Japan, 'ethnic' cinema, *Lohas cinema*, and so on) (*Ibidem*: 105, 139).

Wada-Marciano chooses to articulate her own discourse beginning with the impact of IT on Japanese cinema and claims that the peculiarities of the cinematic phenomena examined are suited to analysis in purely national terms as well. This allowed, among other things, the larger scale emergence of phenomena that otherwise would be confined to the domestic context (i.e.: national and/or homemade). In particular, the Canadian scholar focuses on the global achievements of *J-Horror*, the birth of new forms of cinematic realism, the rise of a «personal» animation and the «palpable sense of transnational, fluidity in identities, and national boundaries» (*Ibidem:* 22) that characterizes some productions endowed with a previously unseen international or Asian 'fragrance'. The analysis of these topics effectively answers the two fundamental questions of Wada-Marciano's book. However, in this essay we are mostly concerned with the first one: «What has been the impact of digital production and distribution on cinema?» (*Ibidem:* 24).

It is certainly true, both in terms of density and phenomenological extension, that J-Horror's triumph abroad exemplifies most impressively the effects of the digital revolution on the worldwide diffusion of Japanese Cinema. It is equally true that the lower costs, immediacy of use and technological convergence (Jenkins 2008) have also changed Japanese cinema from within. These factors provided successful directors with new opportunities for experimentation and propelled aspiring directors like Shinkai Makoto from creating 'homemade' works on their personal computers to reaching international acclaim; alternatively, they gave rise to a rediscovery of realism through films that ponder the reality coefficient inherent in contemporary images, as well as the boundary between testimony and fiction, whilst expressing a new quest for authenticity «constructed in the process of viewing, particularly in the scale and close proximity of the viewer's everyday life» (*Ibidem:* 53). This «DV-Realism» (Manovich 2002b: 212) is principally characterized by immediacy, a realism that implies an act of testimonial presence also in terms of proxemics, in response to the anonymous levity of digital society's images, in which the relation between image and reality becomes increasingly weaker (Malavasi 2013: 77). In this respect, it is undeniable that the realistic approach mentioned by Wada-Marciano evokes highly relevant topics specific to the era of digital images, but the reader is left wondering whether the production of two of the three directors analyzed, Kawase Naomi and Koreeda Hirokazu, may be considered truly representative of Japanese cinema in the digital age, excluding their evident influence on the following generation of directors. In actual fact, the portion of their filmography which is most characterized by a direct relation with reality occurred between the eighties and the nineties, in a media environment that was still *heavily* analog. Indeed, Yutaka Tsuchiya, the third director mentioned in the chapter, is a perfect example of a film-maker who makes use of digital technology to comment on digital society in the two films analyzed in the book, *Atarashii kamisama* (*The New God*, 1999) and *Peep "TV" Show* (Id. 2003), and even more so in the following *Tariumu shōjo no dokusatsu nikki* (*GFP Bunny*, 2012). Conversely, Kawase shot her first 'I' movies (*watakushi eiga*) on 8mm film, while Koreeda's documentaries, recorded on video, may be considered auteurish TV productions. Besides, however relevant it may be, the realism of his approach in fictional cinema, which Wada-Marciano examines through a sequence of *Dare mo shiranai* (*Nobody Knows*, 2004), has become less radical and constant in his subsequent works. It should be also noted that, if some of the most representative film-makers of the last three decades (Dogma95, the Dardenne brothers, Jia Zhang-ke, Wang Bing, Lav Diaz, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Brillante Mendoza…) have expressed the tendency towards a rediscovered need for realism on a global scale, Japanese self-documentaries (Hisashi 2014) are unlikely to be included among the most original forms of contemporary realism. That said, we could perhaps take into consideration their diaristic, intimate and private dimension, which is easily identifiable with a far more ancient national literary tradition. In truth, even this aspect is not a unique case in the global cinema context, but it is significantly conspicuous to be criticized for its solipsism (Nornes 2007: 134-136).

#### 4. Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age?

If on the basis of the doubts expressed in the previous section the idea of «Japanese cinema in the digital age» formulated by Wada-Marciano appears (albeit necessarily) arbitrary, it highlights a very important issue: that is, how difficult it is to give an exhaustive image of contemporary cinema for this prolific nation. Moreover, the absence of a significant chronological distance confounds such a task. Whilst every facet of the *J-Horror* episode is assiduously analyzed by the author, the remaining chapters focus on a few phenomena. They cite three or four important directors, as well as films or sequences. Nevertheless, is it really possible to understand such a huge production (previously we mentioned an average of four hundred films from 2000 to 2018) in reference to a handful of sometimes minor cases? It is certainly true that the films cited in the text, like many others, belong to the permeable and interconnected contemporary Asian and global context, to the extent that they would have been inconceivable, in such numbers, in the cohesive and almost asphyxial cinema landscape of the previous years. I am not convinced, however, that they can equally be numbered among the most representative films of contemporary Japanese cinema. There is no doubt that they exemplify the contribution of IT and their ubiquitous features in the redefinition of cultural geographies. Nonetheless, is this peculiarity sufficient to justify the centrality of such films to the exclusion of others from the book? Moreover, if we consider the 'digital age' label a mere synonym of contemporaneity, and in so doing move away from the goals of Wada-Marciano's investigation: is it possible to affirm that Japanese cinema today *is* simply that? Personally, I believe that such an interpretation of contemporary Japanese cinema is overtly restricted. For instance, if we cast a glance over the entire landscape and consider the essence of Japanese cinema in the digital age, we are left wondering what happened to contemporary Japanese blockbusters.

We shall now return to the time we chose as the starting point of contemporaneity, and take as our example *Kyashan* (Id. 2004) by Kiriya Kazuaki. Like any modern science fiction film, this exemplar has incurred a heavy debt with CGI. How was its aesthetics influenced by computer graphics, then, if compared to Hollywood superhero movies? Moreover, *Kyashan* is the *live action* adaptation of a well-known animated series from the seventies, and as the very phenomenon of the cinematic translations of *manga* and *anime***,** it may be considered one of the most representative manifestations of Japanese cinema in the 2000s (Novielli 2011; Joo *et al*. 2013a, 2013b; Calorio 2014, 2019; Mori *et al*. 2017). In my opinion, the peculiarities that these films manifest compared to the coeval US *cinecomics* ensures that they are worthy of analysis. To quote Federico Zecca, «the cinematic translation of comics has provided cinema with an important field of implementation to experiment the new potentialities of digital technology in relation to the creation of previously unknown models of 'reality' and film experience» (Zecca 2013: 51), and among all the films produced in Japan between 2000 and 2016, 8% are *manga* adaptations (Mori *et al.* 2017: 39). However, what might seem a meagre percentage implies that on an average of 430, there were at least fifteen comic-inspired Japanese films in 2002 and 2003; this number reached a peak of fifty-three comic adaptations in 2014. The increasingly frequent recourse to the 'production committee' (*seisaku iinkai*) system has been crucial in this sense. Of course, the function of these ephemeral clusters of fields related to the cultural and entertainment industry, which temporarily gather around a plot or a character, may be seen to resemble that of the American media conglomerates. That being said, there are significant differences (Joo *et al.* 2013a, 2013b; Steinberg 2018: 256). In the context of Japanese media studies, such forms of production which rely on parallel sectors to reduce costs and maximize profits are usually labelled as «media-mix» (Ōtsuka 2010, 99-119; Steinberg 2012; Perez 2017 and 2019). Their extension to the cinema sector played a vital role in molding (and homogenizing) the identity and image of contemporary Japanese cinema (Yomota 2019 [2014]: 189). Nevertheless, the discourse surrounding the collaborative work ethic of cinema, *manga* and digital technology (the latter being, «a formidable instrument of improvement and expansion of the intermedia geography of cinema», Zecca 2013: 51) in an age when the manipulation of images has almost transformed cinema into a «sub-genre of painting» (Manovich 2002a: 295), does not solely concern the acquisition of narrative contents. This also affects the intensification of the semiological interferences (Zecca 2013: 234) between the two media on a visual level, which was fostered by their conversion to a single language and 'matter': binary code. However far-reaching this phenomenon may be, its significance has been relatively overlooked in the field of Japanese cinema studies, even though it stands out for its sheer magnitude and consequently, in my opinion, ranks highly among the many examples of Japanese cinema in the digital age. Moreover, the impact of CGI, with its facilitative capacity to transform science fiction blockbusters and *cinemanga*, can also be seen in other genres' peculiar, deviant, or even counter-current use of computer graphics. We might consider, for instance, the brilliant intrusions made by TV comedian Matsumoto Hitoshi in the realm of cinema, the almost boastful low-budget and lo-fi grotesque body horrors by directors like Iguchi Noboru, Nishimura Yoshihiro e Yamaguchi Yūdai, or small, invisible and practically homemade films like *Tennensei shinryaku to mozō ai* (*FIX*, 2005) by Yamaoka Nobutaka. In some notable cases, e.g. Ishii Katsuhito's *Cha no aji* (*The Taste of Tea*, 2004) or Matsumoto's *Symbol* (Id. 2009), computer graphics are exploited differently to create fluid, dreamlike or surreal atmospheres. This approach contrasts markedly with fantasy and science-fiction cinema whose use of CGI is aimed at pursuing «the mimesis of our own imagination» (Belting 2005: 309) through a photorealistic aesthetic.

In returning to cinematic realism, we might question the pertinence of the forms of digital realism and documentary which have emerged in the eight years since the publication of Wada-Marciano's 2012 book. We could cite the films by Tomita Katsuya (Sharp 2013), or the many post-Fukushima documentaries, in particular of *Mujin chitai* (*No Man's Zone*, 2011) by Fujiwara Toshifumi (Bingham 2015: 144-170; Boscarol 2014). Other noteworthy examples include: self-documentaries such as *Mainichi ga arutsuhaimaa* (*Mainichi Alzheimer*, 2012) by Sekiguchi Yuka, which instead of a realistic approach, choose a distinctly intermedia attitude; documentarists like Sōda Kazuhiro, whose career and approach followed a different path compared to what characterized the phenomenon of self-produced documentaries, and yet whose works may be considered more representative of a conscious and original use of digital (Gray 2007) than many others. We might further consider the affect a DV camera bears on photography and sound in a work like *Aragane* by Oda Kaori (Id. 2015); certain films' deformation of the realism of proximity and testimony into the grotesque appearance of a reality show, as evidenced in *Koi no uzu* (*Be My Baby*, 2014) by Ōne Hitoshi; or those who, to an even greater extent than Kawase's, query the boundaries between reality and fiction in the digital age further still, e.g. *Kaihō-ku* (*Fragile*, 2014) by Ōta Shingo. Looking back on the previous decade but continuing to address the issue of the ambiguity between testimony and fiction often underlined by these forms of DV realism when they are used as an aesthetical option in all their poverty and immediacy: have the peculiar Japanese declinations of contemporary phenomena like mockumentaries, fake found footage films or media collages, not produced cases worthy of study, both in the field of horror cinema (Shiraishi Kōji has made this his trademark since 2005) and comedy (among the most noteworthy we might mention Yamashita Nobuhiro's and Matsumoto Hitoshi's hilarious mockumentaries in the same years)?

#### 5. Deeper into the plural

At this point, great is the temptation to broaden our gaze. We might for instance include in our discourse the main exponents of experimental Japanese cinema in the digital age like Makino Takashi, Goshima Kazuhiro, Shinkan Tamaki and Nishikawa Tomonari (Kiejziewicz 2016: 99-114). Moreover, the word 'digital' does not only imply opportunities to export films abroad (Iordanova 2010; Iordanova and Cunningham 2012), ease and immediacy of use, realistic aesthetics and CGI: another noteworthy interpretation might be *Riri shu-shu no subete* (*All About Lily Chou-Chou*, 2001) by Iwai Shunji. This project was born in a website's BBS, and subsequently evolved into CD-ROM, before achieving its highly intermedial cinematic forms (Locati 2016a, 2016b). A similar case is that of *Densha otok*o (*Train Man*, 2005) by Murakami Shōsuke. In this respect, an essay which explores Japanese cinema from such a perspective would be incomplete without mention of such films that establish transmedia and intermedia relationships with the digital culture on every imaginable level. The same applies (as for animation) for a director like Yuasa Masaaki, whose works resort to multifaceted forms of convergence (and divergence) (Steinberg 2018: 252-262), as is evident in *Mind Game* (2004) and *Tatami Galaxy* (2010). Other works by Yuasa, such as *Kaiba* (2008), unequivocally investigate, albeit through metaphor, the urgent themes of memory and identity in a digital society, while the late Kon Satoshi's turn of the century fluid and visionary style of animation seemed to recall the aesthetics of the digital itself, with some of the most disturbing portrayals of the post-media society. Regarding animation once more, it would be natural to consider the relationship between three-dimensional computer graphics and the persistence of a bidimensional aesthetics in Japanese anime (Sharp 2008: 120-133; Lamarre 2006: 161-188 and 2009: 26-44), and to mention the «Web-gen» of Japanese animation4 .

Without delving too deep into technical issues such as photography, light or sound and digital technology's influence thereof, we shall now turn our gaze on the grammar of cinema: how did a digital environment transform the way directors conceive their framings and edit them, in Japan? For example, would Matsue Tetsuaki's use of 3D in his spatial stratifications of documentary, videoclip and videoart in *FlashBack Memories 3D* (Id. 2013) not be a perfect example of Japanese cinema in the era of «deep remixability» (Manovich 2013: 49)? Equally fitting would be the adoption of a new «economy of the gaze» (Uva 2009: 75) in his previous work *Live Tape* (Id. 2009), which is structured in a single seventy-four-minute long take. Such virtuosity was made possible by digital recording which is not subject to the limits of duration that are physically intrinsic to celluloid, and can «intensify real time or reproduce it in its integrity» (*Ibidem*). Perhaps we could also allow ourselves a short digression into the category of films realized with phones or conceived to be seen through them, but I believe that it would be equally, if not more engaging to investigate the two-way influence of cinema and video games. Of course, in this respect, many video games

<sup>4</sup> Cfr. *Storia dell'animazione digitale in Giappone e alcune caratteristiche fondamentali*, «FAR from Animation» 30 aprile 2017. <https://farfromanimation.com/2017/04/30/storia-dellanimazione-digitale-in-giappone-e-alcune-caratteristiche-fondamentali*>* (12/20).

have been adapted for the cinema screen, and the copious debts that video game aesthetics has incurred with cinema are obvious. However, on the other hand, there are also films that incorporate the primary structural and visual traits of video games, such as iterative and accumulative narrations, the peculiar use of «first person shot» (Eugeni 2012: 19-31) and «run and gun style» (Jullier 2011: 59-76). In this regard, as Japan is one of the top worldwide producers of video games, perhaps there are also peculiar cases worth researching (e.g. the so-called «machinima» phenomena).

If we extend our exploration in the fields of distribution and exhibition of films, we might research the impact that transition to digital projection has both on the many minitheaters that flood the Japanese capital, and on the independent productions they host. Alternatively, we might investigate the repercussions of download practices on film festivals, and on their relocation on the Web (practically an obligation in the year of coronavirus). Additionally, the recent distribution abroad of Netflix or Amazon productions which involved Japanese directors like Sono Sion, Hiroki Ryūichi, Ninagawa Mika and Miyake Shō, represents a novelty inherent in the recent digital mediascape. A similar investigation could be made into the presence of Japanese cinema on such international and national video-sharing platforms like Youtube, Vimeo and Niconico Dōga respectively. We might then mention Web-produced crowdfounding films, all films that today are viewable, downloadable and purchasable *only* thanks to the Web, films which are 'muxed', remixed, re-used by net surfers, and others that contain subtitles in foreign languages thanks to the work of the «connective» (De Kerkhove 1999) intelligence or the «networked publics» (Itō 2008: 3), or otherwise all the grassroots social and cultural practices (including, on an anything but the playful side, the organization of public projections by underground filmmakers and activists) (Fujiki 2015) that the digitization and the convergence of media, in synergy with the Web 2.0, facilitate and stimulate.

We could also invert our perspective and discover all those movies that witnessed, both in terms of content and visual, the digitization of society and identity. Either deliberately or symptomatically, these films expressed the feverish enthusiasms and the technophobic fears aroused by IT, while science fiction movies attempted to foresee future digital landscapes. Were we consider the cold, distant, «operative»5 drone gaze of the mysterious aerial lens of *Tokyo Scanner*  (Id. 2004), directed by Matsu Hiroaki under the supervision of Oshii Mamoru: would it not be a suitable metaphor for the diffused and minute surveillance of the so-called «digital panopticom» (Han 2012: VIII)?

In closing, if we acknowledge media's permeability in the digital age, and widen our gaze to consider cinema not only as «the films» but a «a modality of watching films» (Casetti 2015: 54) or, in the words of Manovich, a «visual esperanto» (Manovich 2002b: 87), a «cultural interface» (*Ibidem*) or a «toolbox» (*Ibidem:* 94) of contemporary visuality, then our perspective expands

<sup>5</sup> The term refers to the definition of «operative Bilder» coined by film director Harun Farocki.

substantially. So, how is Japanese cinema placed in the post-media context (De Rosa 2013; Eugeni 2015)? Does it manifest cultural specificities in a globalized environment? Has there been anything new in recent years, concerning other audiovisual media closely related to cinema, such as *doramas*, web films, web series, video-art, commercials, Youtube videos and videoclips (let's think about those realized by Tsujikawa Koichirō for Cornelius, those that star the virtual *idol* Hatsune Miku, the 'Mikumentaries', the AMVs) (Itō 2012a: XVII; 2012b, 275-298)? Even live performances share something with this visual Esperanto, if we consider hologram-concerts of Hatsune Miku, or the animations included in the musicals 2.5D. Finally, so as to avoid any injustice towards less noble, yet closer, relatives of cinema: what could we say about the impact of digital recording technology and the Internet on Japanese pornography, its cataloguing and role as visual and lexical diffuser in the global supermarket of porn?

And so on. A seemingly infinite list of examples presents itself the moment one ponders the definition of digital cinema, even when remaining within the narrow boundaries of the Japanese case. Thus, we realize that *every* arbitrary definition, including Wada-Marciano's, is not sufficiently inclusive. And indeed, perhaps the plurality that characterizes the current Japanese cinema landscape, its flourishing polimorphism however unbalanced towards mainstream adaptations and shared by other national cinemas it may be, is the only aspect that can now define its being digital. As Francesco Casetti notes, today cinema is a «plural word» (Casetti 2006: 12), as well as an «expanding reality» (Casetti 2015: 111): plural is its experience (which may be both «filmic» or «cinematographic», *Ibidem*: 56) and plural are the ways we can read cinema's relation with digital technology.

Thus, we are dealing with a plurality of cinematic forms and aesthetics, of ways to create, look at, enjoy and rework cinema; and also, a plurality of formats, sizes and channels through which cinema can be drawn and disseminated. Perhaps we must simply acknowledge that it would almost be impossible, if not useless, to thoroughly embrace this cinema's heterogeneity. Although some individual cases have been actually subject to analysis, its multifarious manifestations would merit closer investigation. At this point, it seems pertinent to adopt a specific perspective, as Wada-Marciano did, indeed. For instance, we could consider which are the most visible images of Japanese cinema from the Web itself, and observe how they deviate from an elusive reality that defies any definition (Calorio 2019; 2020).

#### 6. A Beautiful Star

Therefore, *what is* Japanese cinema today? To some extent, it is a national cinema that has some trouble equaling its ancient splendor. At the same time, however, it abounds with all manner of productions, whether big or small. It includes both films that rely on and establish fruitful relationships with other media, and conversely, films that strive to emerge outside the 'bubble' of this system. It is also a cinema in which we can find things you cannot see (yet or anymore) anywhere else in the world. In short, it is a peculiar cinema, and for this reason alone I think it is still worthy of further research. Its features are not determined solely by the persistence of unique genres that marked the history and the identity of Japanese cinema, such as *jidai-geki*, *yakuza eiga* or *pinku eiga*. They are molded by the presence of new genres as well. These are more related to categories of *manga* – different and more diverse than those found in comics – than with the traditional shortlist of actual cinema genres. For the moment, such films give life to an almost unique phenomenon, especially because of the aesthetical and cultural specificity of Japanese comics themselves. Of course, Japanese cinema today is not simply this: it does not consist only of *cinemanga*, nor has it blended with J-Culture such that its medium identity, its autonomy and the density of its own experiential dimension are completely lost. Nevertheless, it is difficult to deny the numerical importance and the intensity of this phenomenon, whose image, however cumbersome it may be, corresponds to something real, for better or worse. Likewise, I believe we cannot diminish Japanese cinema by claiming that very few of these movies stand out for their qualities, that *manga* is not the only medium cinema draws from, or that Japanese comics adaptations or films inspired by *manga* aesthetics already existed in the past. If we really want to discover a peculiar trait of this digital Japanese contemporaneity, I think today's cinematic representations of *manga* are where we must start. And by moving upstream, against the flow of intermedia loans and borrowings, we can uncover the origins of such traits. However, it would be wrong to assume that these peculiarities will forever be strictly associated with Japanese heritage. The permeability and global interconnectedness of every media system in today's society ensures that what may initially belong strictly to Japan soon disperses throughout the world, thereby losing much of its «cultural odor» (Iwabuchi 2002: 27-28). This is already happening. Indeed, it has already happened, and many times, and not only in Hollywood, nor in cinema alone (Napier 2007: 133, 137, 172, 211; Calorio 2019: 47).

While we try to find an answer to the question above, if answers do exist in this regard, perhaps we should also ask ourselves *how* Japanese cinema *appears* today. The answer may depend on our standpoint. For the seasoned festival-frequenting movie buff, cinema might appear rather stale and devoid of new *auteurs*. Seen from the Web, on the other hand, through digital platforms such as Netflix or Amazon, we can appreciate a broader landscape made of a plurality of different things. The image of Japanese Cinema that reaches the observers of the digital age runs along different avenues: both large highways and narrow trails. Therefore, in spite of the sheer mountain of works and the breadth available on the Web, some distortions arise. The landscape that emerges in front of our digital telescope is dotted with more sharpened and intense areas. Focusing on a specific objective (after all, a lens is the icon par excellence of all search engines), we can discover almost every conceivable phenomenon of the varied picture of contemporary Japanese cinema. While focusing on the big picture, however, only the most evident areas emerge. These correspond to the greatest, the densest and most populated niches of the Web. If an active search can still lead to discovering something novel and unknown, it is exactly these areas, visible at a glance, that define the borders of the image of Japanese cinema that today reaches our distant screens: that is, above all, J-Horror and J-Culture-related hyperpop *cinemanga*.

The overall image of Japanese cinema today tells us two things. The first is that Japanese is by now a reflection of the past, the light of a distant supernova already extinguished although still visible. The second is that Japanese cinema is a star which still shines today not only by its own light: the stronger the bonds with other media belonging to that nebula named J-Culture are, the more we can see it. So, if the supernova has attracted sufficient admiration, and if we really want to understand what Japanese cinema is, perhaps we should take a closer look at this largely unexplored astral configuration, to analyze its *forms and meanings*. Even if the current era appears less golden than the time explored by Burch, and despite the suspicion, or the hope, that perhaps this star is already being replaced by a newer celestial body, as the twenties begin, further investigation would still be a worthwhile venture. In doing so, perhaps we will understand in which ways and to what extent J-Culture changed Japanese cinema, and not only Japanese cinema. Granted, this might complicate our task, but at the same time, it would make our effort even more worthwhile.

#### References


*Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas*, edited by Iwabuchi Kōichi, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong: 232.


Han Byung-chul 2012, *The Transparency Society*, Stanford University Press, Stanford.


# 幻の春の声. 近現代日本文学における「亀鳴く」 The illusory voice of the spring: the motif of 'crying turtle' in modern and contemporary Japanese literarure

Diego Cucinelli

**Abstract**: The turtle (*kame*) is of great importance in East Asian culture and it is seen as a supernatural creature. In Japanese literature, we can find examples of the turtle in works dating back to the Nara period, such as *Tangokuni fudoki* and *Nihonshoki*. Just like the crane, the turtle is a symbol of longevity. However, from the Kamakura period a new and unique interpretation of the turtle as the 'singing/crying turtle' makes its appearance. Of this topos, known as *kame naku*, we can find only very few examples in literature until the Meiji era and the most known are the *waka* anthologies Shinsen waka rokujō and Fuboku wakashō, and Kyokutei Bakin's *kigo* collection *Haikai saijiki shiorigusa*. However, from the beginning of the modern age, kame naku has been used by many poets as a kigo connected to spring and its frequency has hugely increased. After the war, it began to appear not only in poetry but also in novels and essays. The best known examples of this being Mishima Yukio's short novel Chūsei, Uchida Hyakken's essay *Kame naku ya*, Kawakami Hiromi's work *Oboreru*. Using *kame naku* as a keyword, in this paper we will analyze the attitudes and approaches of modern and contemporary poets and novelists toward the topos.

**Keywords**: season word (*kigo*), fantastic, turtle, modern and contemporary Japanese literature, 幻の春の声.

要旨: 遠い昔から、東アジア文化圏において「亀」は重要な位置を占めており、神秘的な存在と して認識されている。日本でも、亀は古代の文献に登場し、鶴と共に「長寿」の象徴である。しか し、鎌倉時代から新しく特異な亀の姿が見られるようになる。それは「亀鳴く」である。この主題 は鎌倉時代中期に成立した『新撰和歌六帖』に現れ、その次に藤原長清に編まれた『夫木和歌 抄』や曲亭馬琴による季語集『俳諧歳時記栞草』にも登場するが、明治時代までは文学における 例が非常に少ない。だが、近代では多数の俳人に春の季語として使用され、その頻度も増して行 く。また戦後には、この主題は韻文の世界のみならず、小説や随筆にも現れるようになり、三島由 紀夫『中世』、内田百閒『亀鳴くや』、川上弘美『溺レる』はその具体的な例である。本論では、「 亀鳴く」をキーワードにしながら、この主題に対する近現代の文学者の態度や感覚を考察する。

キーワード: 季語、幻想文学、亀、日本の近現代文学.

1. はじめに

1.1 日本文学における「亀」

遠い昔から、東アジア文化圏において「亀」は重要な位置に置かれてお り、神秘的な存在として認識されている。古代の中国では、霊獣四神の 一つとして玄武があり、北方を守護するとされた上に、「鶴」と共に「長

Diego Cucinelli, University of Florence, Italy, diego.cucinelli@unifi.it, 0000-0002-3773-2921

FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Diego Cucinelli, 幻の春の声. 近現代日本文学における「亀鳴く」 */ The illusory voice of the spring: the motif of 'crying turtle' in modern and contemporary Japanese literarure*, pp. 29-50, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.02, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress. com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

寿」や「命」の象徴となっている<sup>1</sup> 。また、神々と通じる存在として見ら れ、占いの儀式である「亀卜」にその甲羅が使用された<sup>2</sup> 。

こういった亀に対するビジョンは中国から日本にも伝わり、定着してい く。日本の民間伝承には、亀と人間の雑種である河童があり、昔話のよく 知られた登場人物だが、それに中国からきた亀が加わるといえよう。奈良 時代に神亀や宝亀などの年号があるので、この時代に既に亀は瑞祥として 用いられていた事が解る。この様に、亀は日本文学の夜明け以来、歌集、 説話集や散文など、時代の流れの中で様々なジャンルに登場し、重要な 役割を果たしてきた。具体的な例を挙げると、『万葉集』(奈良時代末期 成立)の長歌がある<sup>3</sup> 。また、『丹後国風土記』(715年ごろ成立)には五 色の亀が美人に変身し浦島子を海底にある竜宮城に連れていく物語があ り、これが現在世界的にも知られた「浦島太郎」の伝説に発展していくの である。又、『日本書紀』(720年成立)雄略紀および、説話集の『日本霊 異記』(810年頃成立)や『今昔物語集』(1120年頃成立)には人間が亀に 命を助けてもらう話がある。更に、『宇治拾遺物語』(十三世紀前半頃成 立)の第164話は、大金で買い取って川に放してやった人に、亀が払った 金を取り戻してやる話である。

王朝時代に限らず、文学における亀は中世と近世にもある。室町時代の 有名な御伽草子『浦島太郎』の他、江戸時代に三坂大弥春が編んだ 『老媼茶話』(1742年)のような怪談集にも亀を巡った物語が見られる<sup>4</sup> 。

亀をテーマにした作品は明治維新以降にも存続する。複数の新聞に記載 された亀の妖怪現象をはじめ<sup>5</sup> 、戦前の文学者は乙姫と浦島太郎の伝承に 深い興味を示し、それを扱った作家の中には、森鴎外、坪内逍遥、 武者小路実篤や川端康成なども数えられる<sup>6</sup> 。又、小説のみならず、亀は


正岡子規の俳句やイソップ寓話を元にした石原和三郎の童謡『兎と亀』 (1901年)、萩原朔太郎の歌集『月に吠える』(1917年)などといった 韻文にも登場する<sup>7</sup> 。

戦後でも、「浦島伝承」を基にした太宰治や大庭みなこの作品や<sup>8</sup> 、 すっぽんが登場する大江健三郎の長編『取り替え子』(2000年)などがある 一方、亀は世界中で有名になった映画『大怪獣ガメラ』(1965年)で主役 を演じる。また、このガメラのイメージから着想を得て、家の中に閉じこ もったまま巨大な亀に襲撃される村上春樹の『トランプ』(1981年、『夢 で会いましょう』に収録)と、河原で亀を焼いて爆発させる町田康の『河 原のアパラ』(1997年、『くっすん大黒』に収録)という短編小説もある。

このように、古代から近世まで、亀は日本人に強い霊力を持った動物と して認識されており、主に「命」と「長寿」(浦島伝承、説話文学など)に 関連することがわかる。しかし、近現代ではそれとは逆に「絶滅」を もたらす怪獣としても見られるようになるのである。

2. 「亀鳴く」:鎌倉時代中期に誕生したモチーフ

2.1 「亀鳴く」:モチーフの誕生

前節で述べたように、日本文学には亀の形象が多数見られ、古代より 亀を「長寿」の象徴として認識している。だが、鎌倉時代の中期に韻文の 世界において亀の新しいイメージが作られ、それは1243年に成立した歌 集、『新撰和歌六帖』に原点があるとされる。

川越のをちの田中の夕闇に何ぞと聞けば亀のなくなり

この歌は「第三、水」の帖(n.00952)に収められているが、作者は五 人の詠者のうち、藤原為家である。歌人は川向こうの暗闇に包まれた田ん ぼの中で、ある鳴き声が聞こえ、それが何かと尋ねたら、亀が鳴いている という答えが返ってくる。

同じ歌は『夫木和歌抄』の二十七巻にも所収されているが、そこでは 本文に異同がある。

河ごしのみちのながぢのゆふやみになにぞきけばかめぞなくなる

『夫木和歌抄』は冷泉為相の門弟である藤原長清によって編まれた 歌集で、『万葉集』以来の和歌のうち、主に勅撰和歌集に採録されなかった ものの副産物として成ったと言って良い。構成と内容は17000余首を 三十六巻596題に収めた類題和歌集で、規模としては空前のものである。

<sup>7</sup> 子規は亀を主題にした俳句を19句ほど詠んでいる。「正岡子規の俳句データ ベース」(<https://sikihaku.lesp.co.jp/>)を参考。(12/20)

<sup>8</sup> 太宰治『浦島さん』(1945年、『御伽草子』所収)、大庭みな子『浦島草』 (1977年)。

鳥獣を題とする歌を多数含めているのも特徴で、上に取り上げた為家の 歌もその例である。

 二つの歌は二句に表現された場面が異なっている。前者の場合、亀の 声が聞こえるのは薄暗がりに包まれた遠くの田んぼで、後者においては これが暗くて遠い道程から聞こえて来る。為家詠の原型は『新撰和歌六 帖』のもので、『夫木和歌抄』は誤写と思われる。

根本的な問題として、為家が想像力を活かして独自にこの主題を創作し たのか、それともいずれかの文献を参考にしてそこから着想を得たのかと いうことがあるが、これは不明である。確かに、鳴いている亀はすでに 中国の『新唐書』(1060年成立)にも登場するが、為家がそれを把握して いたかどうかは定かではない<sup>9</sup> 。いずれにしても、日本における「亀鳴く」 の典拠は為家の歌とされる。そして、このモチーフはそこから出発して、 歴史の流れに沿って俳句をはじめ随筆や小説にも定着していくのである。

2.2 江戸時代の「亀鳴く」:その季語化

鎌倉時代中期に誕生したこの鳴く亀は、室町時代から江戸時代初中期に かけての文学に現れず、隠れた場所で数百年間に渡る「冬眠」に入る。 その後、十九世紀に入って曲亭馬琴の季語集『俳諧歳時記栞草』(1803年) の中に姿を現すのである。馬琴は春二月の季語として「亀鳴く」の項を たて『夫木和歌抄』為家の「川越のをちの田中の夕闇に何ぞ聞けば亀の なくなり」を引用する10。これを皮切りに「亀鳴く」は俳句の世界に導入 され、以後春の季語として復活する。

「亀鳴く」の季語に惹かれた俳人の中、最も早いのは小林一茶である。 彼の『文化句帖』(1810年頃成立)に以下の句がある:

鶯に亀も鳴たきやうす哉<sup>11</sup>

一茶が上記の句を創作したのは1808年(文化5)で、馬琴の季語集が出版 された五年間後のことである。これ以前にも一茶には亀を主体にした句は あるが、鳴く亀はこれが初出である。大した学問知識を持っていなかった 一茶は、おそらく馬琴の季語集を読み、そこから発想を得たのであろう12。


この句には鶯と亀が登場し、後者は前者の綺麗な鳴き声を聞き、自分も 鳴きたそうな様子を見せている。従って、この俳句では実際に鳴いている のは鶯のみで、亀は鳴いていない。ここでは二つの動物、あるいは二つの 春のイメージが「鳴く」ことを中心に向かい合い、興味深い対照を作り 出す。一方で立派な声を誇る鶯がおり、他方で声帯ですら持たない亀が いる。その亀さえ賛歌に唱和したくなるほどの春の訪れという長閑けさの 中に、声を持たない動物の姿に一抹の哀れが漂う。

もちろん、亀は完全に無音な動物ではない。首を引っ込めるときの音 と、擦過音という呼吸音に近いものが「キュー」や「クー」などと聞こ えることがある。また、春になると、亀の雄が雌を誘い寄せる時や交尾 時に「シュー」という音を立てたりする。この音はお経を唱えている ように聞こえる為、「亀の看経」とも呼ばれることがある13。しかし、こ れが「鳴き声」といえるかどうかは、大きな疑問である。

古生物学の専門家、早稲田大学の平山廉によると、日本における亀類 の研究は明治以降に始まったとのことである14。そのため、一茶は亀の解剖 学について知識を持っていたはずがないということになる。但し、一茶の 時代には、亀屋で亀を購入して食用にするのは一般的なことであった。 更に、歌川広重の『江戸名所百景』(1856年頃)からもわかるように、 放生会の儀式の一つである放し亀も行われていた。一茶も放し亀に興 味を示してそれをテーマにした発句を詠んでいる15。街中でも人間と 亀との距離は現在に比べてずっと近かったのである。また、一茶は自然界を よく観察する俳人であったため、おそらく亀のその特徴に気付いていた とも考えられる。

一茶の句にはこの他にも亀が鳴くものがある。彼の『七番日記』(1818 年頃成立)には、以下の句がある:

すつぽんも時や作らん春の月

ここでは主体は一般的な亀ではなくすっぽんとなっている。すっぽんは 亀と同様声帯を持たないが、前者に比べると最大甲長は38.5cmで、咀嚼力が 非常に強く、甲羅表面は角質化していないため軟らかい。更に、その 柔らかさを巧みに活用し、岩の隙間に隠れて生活する特徴もある16。日本で はウミガメやイシガメは一般的であるが、すっぽんは特に中国で繁殖した 種類であり、稀に四国や九州でも見られる。その味も特徴的なので、両

<sup>13</sup> 川崎展宏・金子兜太 (監修列句選)、『鳥獣虫魚歳時記 春夏』、朝日新 聞社、2000年, p. 180 ;田中美穂(著)、 矢部隆(監修)、『亀のひみつ』、 WAVE出版、2012年、p. 42を参考。

<sup>14</sup> 平山からの私信。

<sup>15</sup> 「放し亀蚤も序にとばす也」。前掲「一茶の俳句データベース」を参考。

<sup>16</sup> Brejcha Jindrich, Ivan Cizelj, Dario Maric, Jiri Smid, Melita Vamberger and Radek Sadnda 2014年, *First records of the soft-shelled turtle, Pelodiscus sinensis (Wiegmann, 1834), in the Balkans*, «Herpetozoa» (26号): pp. 189-192を参考。

国では古くから食用にされることもあった。ここから、今日でも有名な 「すっぽん鍋」が生まれるのである。ただし、江戸時代の日本では狸や狐と 同じく亀も妖怪として見られており、多量のすっぽんを食べた人間がその 幽霊に襲撃されるという怪談もある17。

一茶の発句のすっぽんは「春の月」の下で発声するが、この動作は 「鳴く」ではなく、「時を作る」と表現される。「時を作る」とは、 鶏が鳴いて夜明けの時を知らせることであるが、一茶の句ではこれが すっぽんに委ねられている。この発想も一茶によるのではなく、おそらく あるはずがないことのたとえである「鼈が時をつくる」という慣用句か ら着想を得たのであろう18。一茶はこれを誹諧らしい形にアレンジして、 「春の月」に配した。

同じ発句は『おらが春』(1852年)の「水江春色」にも収録されて いるが、それについて加藤楸邨は、水を漫々と湛えた水辺は春色が濃く なって、春の月が夢幻の世界をつくりだすような夜、これに誘われて すっぽんも鶏のように時をつくる句意だと解説している19。確かに一茶の すっぽんは月の美しさに惹かれており、それに向かって声を上げたそうな 様子を見せる。だが、仮にこれは放し亀されたすっぽんだと想像すれ ば、動物は春の月の下で自分が「自由を回復した」、又は「解放された」 喜びに浸っているとも考えられる。だとすると、時を作る一茶の すっぽんは、自由人として迎えようとする新しい一日にを歓呼の声で呼び 寄せようとしていることになる。

3. 近現代の俳句における「亀鳴く」

3.1 近代の俳句における「亀鳴く」

科学研究の世界が初めて亀に対して興味を示したのは明治時代の後期で ある:現生スッポンについては1911年にドイツ語で書かれた立派な解剖学 の論文があり、今日でも引用されるほどである20。又、日本国内では1918年 のカメの化石に関する報告がその研究への最初の一歩であった。これを皮 切りに、日本人は亀に対する新しいビジョンを持つようになったといえよ う。科学は亀が声帯を持たないことの他、その生態や行動を学問的に検討 し、斬新な知識をもたらした。もちろん、それが日本の社会にどこまで浸 透したかは不明であるが、新聞や雑誌にも亀に関する情報が増えて、一般 読者の目に入ることもあったと思われる。


上記の科学的進歩が日本の文学者たちを直接に刺激したか度合いは 具体的に測定できないが、とにかく明治以後に文学における亀の存在感が 大きくなってきているとはいえよう。

特に、これを実感できるのは俳句の世界である。また、そこにおいて 注目されるのは「亀鳴く」の季語が活かされた俳句である。明治維新 以後の俳人はこのイメージを愛し、近世までにはみられなかった数の 俳句を創作した。その中には高浜虚子や村上鬼城などといった著名な 俳人の句もある。

例えば、虚子の初期の作品に以下の句がある。

亀鳴くや皆愚かなる村のもの21。

虚子がこの句を詠んだのは1899年で、まだ二十五歳だった。師匠の子規に 「虚子」の号を授かったのはその数年前のことで、当時の虚子は経験が まだ浅かった。虚子はわずか数年間俳人として活躍した後、小説の創作 に没頭する。だが、1913年に、先輩である河東碧梧桐に対抗するため俳 壇に復帰する。碧梧桐は五七五調に囚われない新しい傾向の俳句を唱えて おり、それに対して虚子はより季語を重んじた伝統的な俳句を主張して いた。これによって、今日でも彼は「花鳥諷詠」と「客観写生」を重視し た守旧派の俳人として知られている22。

しかし、上記の句をみれば、初期の虚子は「客観写生」ばかりを求め た俳人ではなかったことがわかる。主観性を表現するばかりでなく、「亀 鳴く」という幻想的な季語を用いるほどの画期的な一面を持った俳人だった のである。師匠の子規は亀を詠んだ俳句を多数創作したが、「亀鳴く」を活 かした句はみられない。当時の俳壇ではほとんど顧みられなかった季語で、 これを用いた明治時代の俳人の中で虚子は最も早い例という可能性もあ る。どのような経緯でそれに遭遇したかは不明であるが、馬琴の『俳諧歳 時記栞草』を引いたか、若しくは一茶の句集で見つけたと考えられる。と にかく、虚子はこの虚構の季語を通して、「愚か者」と言わず、「愚かな る村」の「もの」と「ひらがな」表示にすることによって比喩性を強調し たのではないかと思われる。

虚子の他に、「亀鳴く」の季語を愛した近代の俳人の中に、虚子の 門下生である鬼城もいる。例えば、彼の処女作、『鬼城句集』(1917年)に 以下の句がある。

亀鳴くと嘘をつきなる俳人よ

亀鳴くや月暈を着て沼の上

<sup>21</sup> 公益社団法人・日本伝統俳句協会の電子データベース、「虚子の俳句」、 <http://haiku.jp/home/read/kyoshi-haiku50/> を参考。(12/20)

<sup>22</sup> 加藤楸邨、「解説」、『正岡子規・高浜虚子』、新潮社、1969年を参考。

若い頃の鬼城は軍人を志したが、耳の病気のせいで断念する。その後、 明治法律学校で法学を学び、司法書士となった。また、結婚して子供を 十人儲けるが、非常に困窮していた。鬼城が「境涯 俳句作家」といわれるのは、こういった失望や困窮 を表す悲哀に彩られた俳句が数多いからである 2 3。 だが、上記の句はその枠に入らず、異なる句境を表していると思われる。 また、同じ句集に入ったこの二つの俳句はともに「亀鳴く」を用いている が、それぞれ表現するものが違っているように見える。

一句目は、観念的な俳句で、主体は俳人である。そこで、俳人は「亀 鳴く」のようなとんでもない嘘をつく者だといわれており、それがあらゆる 俳人か、若くは鬼城のみのことを指しているのかは明らかではない。これは 皮肉に満ちた俳句で、鬼城の人格も端的に反映している。確かに、後期の 虚子ほど、鬼城は「客観写生」を重視せず、浪漫派的な風味の俳句を創作 する俳人であった。鬼城にとって、俳句は自由な次元であり、俳人が実在 のものより、夢幻的なもの、つまり嘘をつける空間なのである。これは俳 人の特権であると同時に、彼らの生きる道だといえよう。しかし、鬼城の ビジョンにとって、そういった嘘は心に潜在する感情や思いを伝えるための 道具である。要するに、この俳句における「亀鳴く」は単なる季語では なく、一つの幻想的、又は実在しない現象の例えである。それは、嘘を 指すと同時に、俳人の心に潜んだとんでもない感情や想像力を表現でき る媒体であるといえよう。

二句目は、前句と違い、景観を中心にした俳句であり、「亀鳴く」は季 語として用いられている。一茶のすっぽんを配した句と同様、今回の亀 も月と水辺の場所、沼に位置付けられている。「亀鳴く」という季語に より、季節は春である。輪郭がはっきりした秋の月と違って、春の月はお ぼろに月暈がついたものという伝統的なイメージがある。この朦朧とした 月の趣きは、強い虚構性を持つ「亀鳴く」と響き合い、幻想的な雰囲気を 醸し出す。この二つのイメージはどんよりした沼の水に反映し、これに よってさらに幽かな余韻に彩られる。

一方で観念俳句があり、他方では自然描写の俳句があるが、その主旨の 異なる二つの句は「亀鳴く」によって結ばれている。鬼城が「亀鳴く」の 多面的な潜在力をよく把握して、それを使いこなせていることがわかる。 彼は、それほど偉大な俳人であった。

3.2 現代の俳句における「亀鳴く」

中西進は「俳句の世界にはエアポケットがある」と言っているが、それは 俳人が句中に設置する非現実の空間のことである。読者はそのエアポケットに

<sup>23</sup> 松本旭、「村上鬼城の生涯・代書人罷免事件について」、『連歌俳諧研究』、 65巻、1983年、pp. 32−39.

陥ち、惑わされる。しかし、「それが俳句だと思い改めてみると、この エアポケットは存外に大切で、そっちの方がむしろ主なのだと、思わな ければならない」、また「この虚に遊ぶ文芸こそが俳句である」とは 中西の結論である24。これは、ちょうど「亀鳴く」のような季語が果たし ている役割だと思われる。

例えば、鈴木真砂女による以下の俳句がある:

亀鳴くや独りとなれば意地も抜け<sup>25</sup>

この句には端的に中西の論じる「エアポケット」が感じられるだろう。 作者の切った張ったの生業の潮が引いた時に亀は鳴き声をとどけてくれ る。真砂女は三十代前後に俳句の世界に初めて触れるが、本格的な俳人に なるのは戦後で四十代後半の時である。この時代に彼女はすでに夫や兄弟の 死を体験しており、実際に独りになることを経験している。上記の俳句は 社会的責任から解放される安堵感を表しているように読める。しかし、「 亀鳴く」という非現実的な季語から、実はそれが願望の次元に留まってい ることが示唆され、同時に独りになることに伴う心の働きの損失に対する 寂しさも揺曳する。

真砂女の韻文世界では、これに限らず、他にも「亀鳴く」が数多く みられる。

生命線長きを亀に鳴かれけり

亀鳴くや齢など数へたくもなし

亀鳴くや子は親のみのものならず

一句目と二句目は「生命」と「寿命」という同じテーマを軸にして おり、その裏に隠れたイメージも同じである。いうまでもなく、それは 「死」であろう。一句目は、愛した身 内が次々と死んだにも拘らず、俳人が まだこの世に立って、生き残っていることを、手相の生命線に託して 描写する。その事実を自分でもなかなか信じられなく、また自分の命 だっていつ尽きるか解らないのに、生命線はむやみに長く伸びているのを 「亀に鳴かれる」俳人がいる。孤独感の波に襲撃され、悲哀に囚われる真 砂女の心が根本にあると思われるが、その直截な表現を避け、距離を置い て、鳴く亀の視点で客体化する。長寿の象徴である亀だが、あるはずも ないその鳴き声は不協和音となって俳人に浴びせられる。長い生命線、亀 という吉兆が、鳴く亀の非現実性によって一気に相対化され、逆に皮肉な

<sup>24</sup> 中西進、『亀が鳴く国・日本の風土と詩歌』、角川学芸出版、2010年、 pp. 33-34.

<sup>25</sup> 「現代俳句データベース」、<http://www.haiku-data.jp/index.php> を参考 (「鈴木 真砂女」の項)。以下も同様。(12/20)

現実を示唆し、それに甘んじるしかない俳人の境涯は「鳴かれる」という 受動態に定着される。

二句目には、自分の年齢のことを考える俳人がいる。自分にとって、 それは非現実に聞こえるような膨大な数であり、その非現実性が「亀鳴く」 によって形象される。だが、その裏を読めば、哀れな自問自答をする俳人が いるのではないかと思われる。それは、愛した人の多くが早死にして しまい、自分だけがこんな年齢まで生きていて良いのかと迷う真砂女の心 である。鬼城と同様、彼女も境涯俳句の句人と思われ、作句したものに自 分自身が体験した悲哀と疎外感が強く反映されている。しかし、真砂女は こういった感情を「亀鳴く」によるアイロニーの膜で包み、このフィルターを 通して間接的に読者まで届けるような形を選んだといえよう。

三句目では真砂女の一人の女性としての世界観が表出されて、俳人は 「母親」と「娘」との関係について考察している。ここにおいても、強い 対立が潜んでおり、それは「肉体」と「精神」、また「親」と「子供」と の対立だといえよう。物理的な意味では子供は一人の母親から産まれるも のであるため、その肉体から離脱した部分であり、その母体に属するもの である。そうでありながらも、人間社会の中で生きていくため、娘は母親 との精神的な臍の緒を切らなくてはならず、これから自分の「妻」や「母 親」としての新しい人生を迎えなくてはならないのである。いつか、母親と 娘はそれぞれ違う方向に歩み始める時がきて、その別れは悲しいものであ ると同時に、人生の自然な流れで喜ばしいことでもある。上記の俳句では、 母親の心に潜んだ葛藤は「亀鳴く」によって表現される。娘の母親からの 離脱は、一方で「非現実的」、あるいは実現して欲しくない寂しいこと であり、他方でそれが娘にとっての新しい人生の出発点、又は「夢」でも あるので、母親もそれを願い、承認せざるを得ない。

女性の目からみた「亀鳴く」に対して、その数年後に1982年に角川俳句 賞を受賞した田中裕明にも以下の俳句がある。

亀鳴くや男は無口なるべしと

あそびをり人類以後も鳴く亀と

上記の句はそれぞれ裕明の第一句集『山信』(1979年)と遺作となった 第五句集『夜の客人』(2005年)に所収されたものである。裕明は虚子に 師事した波多野爽波の門下生だが、徹底写生を唱えていた二人に対して 彼は「反写生」への志向を示す。裕明にとっては、理屈や意味のない世界 が詩の本来の世界であり、そういった思考を込めた俳句を多数創作した26。 その傍ら、日本の社会にも常に関心を示し、一部の作品において政治に 対する個人的なビジョンも表現している。上記の一句目はこのグループに

<sup>26</sup> 小澤實、「近現代俳句」、『作家と楽しむ古典』、河出書房新社、2019年を 参考。

属する俳句であり、七十年代末期の日本の政界に対する裕明の皮肉なコメン トが含まれたものである。「亀鳴く」を通して、裕明はここで幻想的な境地 ではなく、むしろ嘆かわしい現実を指弾しているように思われる。この句に 現れる「男」は政界の男たち、つまり政治家のことを指す。彼等の吹き散 らす空疎な高言や饒舌に、「無口」な亀が苦言を発しているのである。

これに対して、二句目は思い切って幻想的な情景を描く。亀と比較すれ ば遥かに短い寿命をもつ人間は「あそぶ」、つまり無駄なことをするばかり である。ここで、「鳴く亀」に次ぐ「と」とは同伴を表す助詞で、この幻 獣と戯れているのは俳人であろう。だとすると、この「あそび」は句作そ のものではないだろうか。それは、実利を伴わない無益なことであろうが、 それ故にこそ、世間智や常識から解放された自由な想像力の発現する空 間、まさしく亀が鳴くような領域なのだ。そして、人類が全滅してからも この亀は生存して、鳴き続ける。人間の限られた現実などにはお構いなし に、幻は浮遊し続ける。裕明は2000年に白血病を発症し、この句を収めた 『夜の客人』はそれ以後の作品で構成されている。この悠久への思いは、 自らの死と対峙する作者の心境と無関係ではあり得ない。永劫の時空の 前に、人間の存在は実に儚いものだが、それを敢えて「あそび」に費や するのも、一つの意識的な選択であろう。前の句に垣間見えた作者の 反骨の精神が、ここでは静穏な中にも透徹した句境に昇華されている。

本人の言葉を借りて、裕明の作風を解説すると、「たとえば、「いつま でも」ということばに心惹かれたら、句帳に記しておく。吟行会などで、 句帳を開くと、そのことばが、目に飛び込んでくる。波打ち際を吟行して いたら、たまたま、白魚漁があるという話を耳にした。「いつまでも」と 「白魚の波」というフレーズが、心の中で結びつき、自ら出てくる。眼前の 昼の汀は、やがて、心の中で、夜のイメージへと繋がっていき、「古宿の 夜」という表現が浮かんでくる」27。『山信』は裕明が二十歳を記念して 編んだ句集で、彼が作句した最も早い作品を集めたものである。これに 対して、『夜の客人』は、裕明の死後、2005年に出版されたもので、そこには 晩年の俳句が収められている。両方の句集に「亀鳴く」が用いられている ことからすれば、このモチーフは彼のキャリアを貫くほど印象に残った ものと考えられる。裕明がその着想をどこから得たかは定かではない。

「亀鳴く」は師匠の爽派の作品には一度も現れないのである。しかし、爽派の 師匠である虚子が若い頃に創作した句に登場している。仮に裕明がそれを 読んだとすれば、初期の虚子が有していた「反写生」に出会い、それに 刺激されたのではないかと考えられる。虚子と裕明とでは、それぞれが 生きた時代による相違点がたくさんあるが、この場合、「亀鳴く」は同じ 系図に属する二人の俳人を繋げる架け橋の役割を果たしているといえよう。

<sup>27</sup> 上記の裕明の台詞は,中岡毅雄による俳論集『壺中の天地:現代俳句の考証と 試論』(角川学芸出版、2011年)に収められている。

現代に入ると、俳句の世界が非常に拡大し、俳句に関連した本、雑誌、 協会などが増えると同時に、ウエブサイトも多数誕生する。また、俳句 教室やサークルや様々な年齢層の人を対象にした俳句コンクールが普及し たことによって、それまで俳句の世界と関わりのなかった人の中にも季語 や季題に関する情報や知識が広まる。こうして、小説家や一般愛好者によ る俳句の数は非常に増え、雑誌やインターネットを通してそういった作品 は社会の隅々まで浸透していく。

 その中で、「亀鳴く」も例外ではなく、多数の人に知られるようにな ったのである。現代に編まれた「歳時記」には必ず「亀鳴く」の項があ り、その意義について議論する評論家や俳人も少なくない。例えば、『ホ トトギス新歳時記』(1996年)に虚子の孫、「日本伝統俳句協会」の会長 を務める稲畑汀子は、「馬鹿げたことのようであるが、春の季題としては 古く、「亀鳴く」ということを空想するとき、一種浪漫的な興趣を覚えさ せられる」との記している28。また、『新編・俳句歳時記』(2016年)で、 俳人の桂信子は「亀はかすかな声は出すと言われているが、声帯などの 発声器官はなく、想像上の季語である。(中略)春の夕方に聞こえて来る、 何かわからない声や音を亀の声としたもので、いかにも俳諧的な趣があ る」と述べている29。更に、「俳人協会・俳句文学館」のウエブページ、 「春の俳句」セクションの中に「亀鳴く」の季語を活かした俳句が数多 くリストアップされている30。

 このように、前時代では稀にしかみられなかった「亀鳴く」に、俳壇と 文壇の境界を超えた新しい時代が開幕するのである。俳人以外の文学者も この興味深い季語に触れてそれに魅了され、この挑戦を受けて立つのであ る。その中に、小説家の小川洋子もいる。

婚約は再婚同士亀鳴けり<sup>31</sup>

1990年に芥川賞を受賞し、女性の視点から男女関係をテーマにした短編 『妊娠カレンダー』や、ベストセラーになった小説『博士の愛した数式』 (2004年)などで有名になった小川洋子も、「亀鳴く」を活かした俳句で 自分の内面世界を表現したのである。テーマは「結婚」で、小川洋子の 『余白の愛』(1991年)などといった小説にも頻出している。また、小川 洋子の文学世界における「結婚」は多くの場合にネガティブな経験であ る。例えば『余白の愛』の二十四歳の「わたし」は夫の裏切りでショックを 受け、耳が聞こえなくなる。こういった経験を経た後、「わたし」は若い 速記者と親密になっていき、別れた夫の甥と交流を持つようになる。菅野


<sup>28</sup> 稲畑汀子(編)、『ホトトギス新歳時記』、三省堂、1996年、p. 188.

昭正は結婚に次ぐこの「わたし」の世界は「なにか異常な静かさに包まれ ている」と指摘している32。

上記の俳句には軽いアイロニーが漂うが、主体は過去にネガティブな経 験があり、それを一種の通過儀礼としてくぐり抜けた婚約者たちである。 この結婚は亀の鳴き声に彩られたものである。苦い体験に懲りている彼等に とって、このセカンドチャンスは亀が鳴くような、あるはずもない非現 実性を帯びたものだったろう。この二人の迎える結婚式は、初婚の若者 たちを言祝ぐような通り一遍の賑やかな結婚式と違って(おそらく、 この場合に鳴くのは鶴であろう)、地味で、控えめなものになると思われ る。この二人が見ている夢は情熱に富んだ感情的な結婚生活ではなく、む しろ漠然とした安定感に第一目的が置かれた男女間の約束事のような生活 であると思われる。

#### 4. 小説と随筆における「亀鳴く」

4.1 三島由紀夫『中世』

公がなすがままにおかれるので亀はお膝下まで来て双六の盤に 掴まった。そうしてそれに凭り、すくっと立った。皺畳んだ頚を のばし公のお顔を仰いでキキ、キキともどかしく鳴いた。公はこの 時から亀の澄んだ眼が忘れられなくおなりになった33。

近現代の散文に「鳴く亀」のモチーフが初めて姿を現すのはおそらく 三島由紀夫の短編小説『中世』であろう。『中世』は三島が二十五歳の 頃に執筆した物語で、『美神』や『仲間』と同様、幻想的な空気の漂う 作品である。特に、『中世』に関しては東正夫が「古典に取材し、絢燗 たる美文によって耽美的な世界を造りあげた」作品だと指摘している34。 三島自身が『中世』を「何かに憑かれて書いたもの」と自認したように、 『中世』 には、非日常の「オルギア」に踊り続けることによって、その 一瞬の凝縮に根源的なエネルギーを得て、現在を肯定しようとする此岸的な 志向が現れている35。

主な登場人物は八代将軍足利義政、若死にしたその息子、足利義尚、禅 師の霊海、猿楽の舞踊家の菊若、医師の鄭阿、巫女の綾織と大きな亀で ある。物語は義尚の死によって始まり、その死に纏わる義政の悲嘆や、 彼の霊を呼び戻そうとする降霊儀式、繰り返し言及される「冥界」や

<sup>32</sup> 菅野昭正、『変容する文学のなかで・下』、集英社、2002年、p. 46.

<sup>33</sup> 三島由紀夫、「中世」、『三島由紀夫全集』、第1巻(小説)、新潮社、 2000年、p. 426.

<sup>34</sup> 東正夫、『日本幻想作家事典』、国書刊行会、2009年、p. 657.

<sup>35</sup> 滕夢溦、「オルギアとしての戦争・三島由紀夫の終末体験」、『日本語・ 日本学研究』、9号、2019年、p. 30.

「幽冥」等によって、作品全体に死の雰囲気が漂い、デカダンス的な 色合いが見られる。

だが、『中世』では人間だけが死んでいくのではなく、もう一人の重要 な登場人物が死んでしまう。それは、大亀である。物語の後半で、鄭阿 は不死の薬の調合に取り掛かるが、その最も重要な材料は亀の肉体であ る。そのため、亀を殺し、その脳髄を使って薬を調合する。その後、亀 の骸を宮殿の池に沈める。柴田勝二は、たえず号泣する亀のイメージ、 「濡れた皺と沈鬱な動きに充たされて陰々と輝いてゐた」などの亀の描 写、鄭阿の思惟から、亀は義政の分身であることを指摘する36。また義政 の亀に対する愛玩は、自身の弧絶の境涯に耽溺する営みであり、そこに ナルシスティックな構図が見られる。田坂昴は「亀は老公その人でもあっ た」、「亀を殺すことは老公を殺すことに等しいであろう」と指摘する<sup>37</sup> 。 要するに、この亀は両義性をもった幻獣である:不死の薬の材料とし ては「命」のシンボルであると同時に、残酷な「死」のイメージで、冥 界に属する存在でもある。

亀は星をみて、たえず号泣した。その素朴な、腸を絶つやうな 叫びに、老公は聞き惚れ、この世の哀歡をわすれた。夜をこめて 移る星、夜すがらめぐる大地、孤空のしづかな廻転の軋りが、天の 一角からたえずきこえてゐた。樹々は一ト夜に百度も姿をかへた。 かく夜ひとり眼覚めてゐることには、なにか美しい荘重な罪障感と 涜神のかなしみとがあつた筈だ。老公は竟に寝食を廃するに至つた。

「死」と並んで、『中世』の根本的な要素としては「音」もある。物語の 中では、風の音、琴や弓弦の音、「囁くような水音」、「小鳥らの鳴聲」 、笹村の鳴る音や「雁のわたる聲」などといった音が次々と文中に現れ る。その中で、亀の鳴き声は最も頻繁に響くものであり、他の響きに 共鳴しながらその波動で叙述の全体を包み込んでいる。このように、強 い虚構性をもったこの鳴き声は物語の幻想的な雰囲気のライトモチーフ とも言える。星を見て号泣する亀は正に義尚の死に悲嘆する義政の姿と 重なっているが、冥界から来たこの亀は、義政を亡くなった義尚のいる 世界へ導く使者なのである。

 最後に、三島がどうやって「亀鳴く」の発想に至ったかという疑問が 残る。『中世』の執筆過程はかなり長いものであった。三島はおそらくそ れを1945年の1月に書き始めたが、現在の形に至るまでに1年間以上かかった のである。また、その素材は三島だけが集めたものではなく、物語の下書 きを何度も査読してくれた川端康成が提供したものもある。その中には、 日本の歴史文献の他、中国の唐朝と明朝の文献も含まれている。また、 三島は非常に曲亭馬琴の文学を愛していたことから、『俳諧歳時記栞草』

<sup>36</sup> 柴田勝二、「終末への対抗−『中世』の表象」、『三島由紀夫−魅せられる精 神』、おうふう社、2001年、p. 45.

<sup>37</sup> 田坂昴、『増補三島由紀夫論』、風濤社、1977年、p. 120.

を手に取ってそこで見たことも考えられる。あるいは、明治時代と大正 時代に「亀鳴く」の季語を用いた虚子や鬼城のような俳人の作品を読ん で、それによって刺激を受けた可能性も排除できない。

こういった疑問に正確に答えられる根拠はないが、三島は「亀鳴く」の モチーフが表現する虚構性に魅了され、それを誰よりも早く小説に取り 入れたのである。

4.2 内田百閒の随筆における「亀鳴く」

「亀鳴く」のモチーフを愛する近現代作家の中に、夏目漱石の門下生で ある内田百閒がおり、それを活かした作品が複数あるが、ここで取り上げ たいのは随筆『亀鳴くや』(1951年)である。実は、随筆に「亀鳴く」が登 場するのは百閒の作品が初めてではない。その前にも百井塘雨が書いた『 笈埃随筆』(1854年)、小山田与清による『松屋筆記』(1908年)といった 随筆に登場するが、そこでは為家の歌が引用されるだけでそれ以上の 発展は見られない38。この意味では、百閒の『亀鳴くや』は近現代文学の みならず、日本文学史上はじめて「亀鳴く」を題材として発展させた随 筆なのである。

『亀鳴くや』は非常に短い作品で、主に百閒と芥川龍之介との交遊に 軸を置いたものであり、百閒が芥川の田端の家を訪れた思い出や友達の 死を知らされたときのことが書かれている。百閒は山高帽子をよく被る ような少し人並外れた趣味を持っていたが、芥川はそれが気にならず、 相手のそういった人格を好んでいたようである。百閒にとって、彼は 無二の親友であり、仕事関係のことでも力になってくれる人であった。 芥川のおかげで、百閒は横須賀の海軍機関学校の教官の仕事に就き、処 女作品の『冥土』(1922年)が出版された時に、『新潮』において芥川 は絶賛の記事を記載する39。『亀鳴くや』には、いくつか二人の関係が 端的にわかるような文章があるが、以下はその最も著しいものだと思わ れる。

「君の事は僕が一番よく知っている。僕には解るのだ」と云った。 「奥さんもお母様も本当の君の事は解っていない」 それから又別の時に、「漱石先生の門下では、鈴木三重吉と君と 僕だけだよ」と云った40。

<sup>38</sup> 『松屋筆記』は1815年(文化12)ころより1846年(弘化3)ころにかけての 筆録で、1908年に国書刊行会に活字本にされた。

<sup>39</sup> その五年間後、芥川は『文芸時報』にも『冥土』に関した絶賛の記事を掲載 する。

<sup>40</sup> 内田百閒、「亀鳴くや」、『私の「漱石」と「龍之介」』、ちくま文庫、 1993年、p. 258.

ここから、百閒にとって芥川が自殺に至ったという報告を受けたときの ショックがどれほど激しいものだったかが容易に推測できるであろう。 彼の心の動揺は、『亀鳴くや』で以下のような具体的な言葉によって 表現される。

芥川君が自殺した夏は大変な暑さで、それが何日も続き、息が できない様であった。余り暑いので死んでしまったのだと考へ、また それでいいのだと思った。原因や理由がいろいろあっても、それは それで、矢っ張り非常な暑さであったから、芥川は死んでしまっ た41。

百閒は芥川が自殺したことを信じられず、その残酷な事実を認めることが できない。頭で理解していても、やはり彼の心はそのことを拒否しており、 友達が自分自身の不安定な精神状態ではなく、外部の原因によって死んだと いう解釈の方が承諾しやすく思えるのだ。

ここで、もう一つの百閒の作品を取り上げたいと思う。これは1929年に 『中央公論』に掲載された短編『山高帽子』で、その主な登場人物は「 私」と「野口」である。

私は野口の様子が普通でないと思った。

さうして非常に心配になった。

しかし、彼がその二日後に自殺するとは思はなかった。

麻睡薬を少しづつ過量に飲んで、その最後の日の準備をしてゐたの だとは思はなかった。

その知らせを受けた時、私はいきなり自分の部屋に這入って、後の 襖を締め切った。

「野口は自殺した」と私ははっきり考へようとした。

しかしそれは私にはできなかった。

どうして自殺したのだらうとも思はなかった。

ただ私の長い悪夢に、一層恐ろしい陰の加はった事を他人事のやうに 感じただけだった42。

『山高帽子』と『亀鳴くや』とは二十年間以上隔たっており、それ ぞれ異なるジャンルの作品であるが、これを合わせて読めばこの中に漂 う雰囲気の強い類似性に気づくだろう。『山高帽子』の主人公「私」は 百閒自身で、脇役人物の「野口」のモデルになったのは芥川であろう。 『亀鳴くや』からわかるように、『山高帽子』の人物と同様、実際に 百閒と芥川が会ったのは芥川の自殺の二日前であり、自殺のことを知らさ れるのは電話である。また、短編小説の「私」も友達の「野口」の自殺を 体験し、彼にとってこれは文字通りの「悪夢」に相当する。おそらく、百

<sup>41</sup> 同上、p. 259.

<sup>42</sup> 内田百閒、「山高帽子」、『日本幻想文学集成・8』、国書刊行会、2017年、 pp. 281−282.

閒の頭の中にその「電話での知らせ」が刻み込まれ、悪夢の形で彼を責め 続けたのであろう。

更に、百閒は前出の『亀鳴くや』の文章に次いで、二句の俳句を創作 して加える。

亀鳴くや夢は淋しき池の縁。亀鳴くや土手に赤松暮れ残り43。

これは確かに二つの俳句だが、同じ行に置かれており、その合わせた 形は一つの挽歌となっているといえよう。ここで、まず目につくのは反 復される「亀鳴く」であるが、それはこの場合、単なる季語ではなく、 「非現実」、または幻想的な空間を作り出すためのキーワードだと思わ れる。先述したように、百閒にとって芥川が死んだことは「悪夢」の ような体験であり、ここの「亀鳴く」は夢幻の世界の幕を開ける機能を 果たしていると考えられる。また、二重の反復も、現実から離れた距離の 感覚を強調するためであろう。

一句目の主体をなすのは「夢」という語彙であり、これは百閒とその最 愛の師匠、漱石を結びつけるキーワードである。例えば、漱石の『夢十 夜』と百閒の『冥土』の共通点や相違点については様々な評論家が論じて いるが、実は最も早くこれについて書いたのは芥川なのである。

この頃内田百閒の『冥土』(新小説新年号所載)と云う小品を 読んだ。「冥土」「山東京伝」「花火」「件」「土手」「豹」等、 悉く夢を書いたのである。漱石先生の『夢十夜』のように、夢に 仮托した話ではない。見た儘に書いた夢の話である。(傍線筆者)

上記は芥川が『新潮』に掲載した記事の一部で、その中で正に漱石と 百閒、それぞれの「夢」を巡った作風に注目している。「夢」がどれほど この三人を結びつける言葉であったかがわかる。また、その次にくる「池」は 松尾芭蕉の有名な発句、「古池や蛙飛び込む水の音」の「池」を引用して いると思われる。『百鬼園俳句帖』(1959年)において、百閒はこれにつ いて長く議論しており、彼が非常に愛した句であった。また、同じ句は芥 川にも愛され、彼が執筆した寓話『蛙』も「古い池」に棲む蛙たちを主人 公にしている44。百閒の俳句における「池」には、こういった記憶が反映 しているかのようだ。親友とかつて共有した次元が潰えた今、それへの挽 歌の中で、この「池」を修飾する形容詞は元の「古い」から百閒の感情を 表す「淋しい」に変えられたと考えられる。

二句目には、「土手」のイメージが現れる。これは、『冥土』に含まれ た短編小説『土手』を始め、百閒の作品に頻出するものである。大谷哲 は、百閒の作品における土手は「他界への入り口」と主人公の「自己同

<sup>43</sup> 前掲内田百閒、「亀鳴くや」、p. 259.

<sup>44</sup> 『蛙』ははじめて1971年に筑摩書房によって出版された。

一性、自明性を揺るがす場を生成するものである」と指摘している45。ま た、上記の俳句では、「土手」は「赤松」のイメージに関連づけられて いる。赤松は黒松とともに日本文化や歴史と深い関わりを持った樹木で、 昔から建築の梁や棟木に用いられた優れた構造材である。それに、日 向を好み、日陰では育ちが悪く、常緑の喬木で長寿や節操を表わす ものとして古来尊ばれてきている。

百閒の俳句では、日が沈んだあと、赤松はしばらく残る明るさを浴びて おり、その輪郭が土手に際立つ。これは象徴的なイメージであると同時に、 百閒が非常に愛していた色彩に彩られた幻想的なスケッチの一つだと思 われる46。短編小説『件』の「夕暮れが近づき、月が黄色にぼんやり照ら し始めた」や、『東京日記』の「牛の胴体よりもっと大きな鰻」の体を 照らす信号の赤と青の照明などがその最も著しい例だが、この俳句もその 趣向によって創作されたと考えられる。ぼんやりした暮れ残りの薄赤く染 まった空と、それに照らされた赤松の薄い褐色という色彩的な要素が、「 土手」と「亀鳴く」が醸し出す幻想的な画面を彩っている。深まる夕闇に 取り残された赤松は、百閒の孤独を象徴するが、それもやがて闇に閉ざさ れるという、自分も含めた人の命の儚さも暗示している。

「亀鳴く」は百閒の他の俳句にも頻繁に現れることから、百閒がこの イメージを非常に愛していたことがわかる。

亀鳴きて亭主は酒にどもりけり<sup>47</sup>

亀鳴きて貴君は酒に吃るなり<sup>48</sup>

赤坂や雲低く行けば亀鳴ける

一句目と二句目は酒をテーマにしていて、随筆『御馳走帖』(1979年)に 含まれている。百閒の生家は造り酒場であり、彼は小さい頃に親の後を 継いでその主人になるつもりでいたが、「泡沫一朝お店はつぶれ、私は文 士みたいなことになりました」49。百閒は師匠の漱石と違ってお酒を非常 に好み、主に料理や飲み物をテーマにした『御馳走帖』から彼には強いこ だわりがあったことが分かる。百閒は美食家ではないが、おいしい酒肴を ととのえて御膳を賑やかにするのが好きで、それもお酒を美味しく飲む 手順であると思っていたらしい。また、飲酒することによって彼の有名な


気むずかしさも和らぐのであった。百閒にとっては、火に炙った油揚げを 噛むときの「パリッとした音」やフライパンで鶏肉 を炒めるときの「シャアシャアという芳しい音」 は何よりのご馳走だった。また、大好物の麦酒を 飲みながら喉を鳴らして、その音を耳にするのも好きであった50。音は常 に百閒の飲食生活に伴うものであり、彼は酒肴を味覚だけでなく聴覚で も楽しむ人間だったといえよう。

上記の俳句においても、酒に伴った音が二つあり、それは亀の鳴き声と 酒にどもる亭主/貴君の声である。前者は幻想的な声で、後者は酒のせ いで舌が回らなくなった百閒自身、またその客人の声であろう。人間が 次々と並べ立てている訳の解らない言葉に亀の幻の鳴き声が反響すると 同時に、春のイメージを作品中に導入する。また、酒を飲み過ぎて言動 感覚が鈍くなるという場面は、酒を非常に好んでいた百閒が実際に何 度も経験したと思われるので、この意味で上の二句は作者の実生活に 根差した作品であろうが、主体の言葉が亀の鳴き声に喩えられるという アイロニーが際立っている。

これに対して、三句目の主体は東京、赤坂の景観である。『東京日記』の 時代の百閒は麹町に住んでおり、よく三宅坂や赤坂の近辺を歩いていた。 彼の目に赤坂の景色は何度も写ったはずで、そのイメージは彼の頭に 刻まれたようだ。雲が垂れ込めた灰色の空の赤坂は具体的に彼にとって どんな情緒を呼び起こすか不明だが、上記の俳句ではそれが「亀鳴く」に 関連づけてあることから、そこにある種の幻想的な雰囲気を感じ取ってい たと思われる。この俳句の赤坂は、巨大な鰻が出現する三宅坂や、散歩 中にいきなり黒雲が集まって雷が鳴り出した東京駅前ほどの不安に満ち た場所ではない。むしろ、百閒にとって、それはある条件が整った時に 「亀鳴く」ような奇跡も起こり得る場所だっだのではないかと思われる。

4.3 川上弘美の「亀が鳴く」

ユキオが水槽を覗きこんだ。私と肩を並べて覗きこんだ。 二人で水族館の珍しい魚を眺めるように、仲よさげに 水槽を覗いた。亀がきゅうと鳴いた。 「鳴いている」と言うと、ユキオは 「え」と聞き返した。 「亀が鳴いている」 「聞こえなかった」

短編集『溺レる』が出版されたのは1999年だが、川上弘美はその3年前に すでに小説『蛇を踏む』で芥川賞を受賞し、注目を浴びている。『溺レ

<sup>50</sup> 平山三郎「解説」、『御馳走帖』、中央公論新社、2009年、pp. 386−403を参 考。

る』は八話の短編集によって構成されており、全て男女の情交を描いた 物語である。文学評論家の大塚英志が「川上弘美の小説は、通過儀礼の 根本的な不成立を否応なく生きなくてはならないという事態に処方され た小説として書かれてきた」と指摘する通り51、『溺レる』に含まれた物 語を通して川上弘美は人の生き様、恋愛などを不安定かつ、不確定なも のとし、曖昧な挙動・言動で読者に提示しようとしていると思われる。

八話の中には、コマキとモウリの主従関係が逃避行の経過とともに変わって ゆく様を描く『溺レる』や、性的虐待の経験を持つ二人を主人公にした 『七面鳥が』などがあるが、ここで取り上げたいのは『亀が鳴く』という 作品である。主な登場人物は主人公の「私」、彼女 の恋人「ユキオ」と「私」の飼っている亀で、物 語は非常にシンプルである。 3 年間の同棲の末に、 「私」はユキオに別れを宣告され、彼がアパートを出ていくのを見送る。 この期間中に、水槽の中の亀は時々鳴いて、その鳴き声は物語の最もパ トスの高い場面に響く。

この短編小説にも鳴く亀が登場するが、先述した三島の『中世』とは 条件がいくつか異なる。まず、『中世』の亀が大きくて、陸上で生活して いるに対して、川上弘美の亀は水槽の中に入れられており、人間の掌に入る 程度の大きさである。また、『中世』は幽界との結びつきが強く、憑依のよ うな怪異現象も起こる。これに対して『亀が鳴く』では特に不思議な現象 は現れず、物語における虚構性は全て亀の鳴き声に集中している。上記の 引用分から分かるように、その鳴き声は「私」に聞こえるものの、 ユキオには聞こえていないようである。

偶然に「私」が飼うことになった亀は物理的な存在であると同時に、 幻想的な登場人物にも見える。その亀の鳴き声が「私」にしか聞こえない ことからすると、この動物と主人公は精神的な面で一体化しているのでは ないかという疑問が生じる。つまり、亀は「私」の内面世界が外部に投影 して動物の形を取ったものではないかと思われる。人間の女性と爬虫類が 一体化していることは川上弘美の文学において珍しくないことで、『蛇を 踏む』にも見られるトポスである。この小説では、ある蛇女、つまり日本 の昔話にもよく現れる「異類の女性」が主人公の「私」と女性同士の結婚 生活をおくることになる。昔話の「異類姻婚」だと、異類の女性が人間の 男性と結婚するが、後者に前者の正体が分かると異類の女性は男性と別れ て離れていくというパターンは一般的である。『亀が鳴く』の場合、これが 覆されて、ユキオが亀女の「私」から離れていくことになっている。

「私」はどんなことでも全うできない女性で、おそらく精神的な不安 障害を患っている。身の回りのすべてがさだかではない「私」はユキオに 別れを宣告されるが、その時に彼に向けて言う「沈んでいっちゃうよ、私 といると」という台詞が印象的である。これは「私」は自分の不安定な精

<sup>51</sup> 大塚英志、『サブカルチャー文学論』、朝日文庫、2007年、p. 334.

神状態を意識していて、それ以上一緒にいるとユキオも同じ精神障害を病 む危険性があるという意味であろうか。それとも、また別の意義がそこに 潜んでいるのだろうか。

菅野昭正が指摘しているように、川上弘美の小説は「表向きはなるほど さらりと読みやすい短編小説になっているのだが、その向こうに何があ るのか。読後に残る手応えが、もうひとつ明瞭でない」52。この雰囲気を 作り出すのに最も有効な要素は、川上弘美の文体であろう。これについて 島内景二は「川上弘美の小説には、物語とは違って登場人物とは異なる 「語り手」=ナレーターがいない。視点人物というか、「ものを思う 人物」は、「男と女」の女の方である。女の一人語り、あるいは「問わず 語り」の文体である」と述べている53。要するに、ナレーションは女性 主人公の思いに沿って展開し、それに委ねられている。『亀が鳴く』の 場合もそうであり、物語は「私」の思考によって形成され、彼女の内面 世界の法則だけに応えるものである。

ボルヘスと内田百閒をはじめ幻想文学を愛する川上弘美には、もともと 幻想・不条理系の作品が多い。彼女自身も自分の文学が個人的な規則に応 じて発展していく小説であると認めており、それが百閒との共通点だと言 っている。例えば、『百鬼園随筆』の「解説」で、川上弘美は「常識的と いうわけではない。自分で規則を作る。それには必ず従わねばならない。 ただし規則は必ずしも世間の常識とは一致しなくともよい。整合性もなく てもよい。いったん決めたものは、守る。百閒の文章が、非現実的であり ながら決して不協和音を聞くような不愉快さをもたらさないのは、おそら く百閒世界の規則が、その世界では正しく守られているからではないか と、つねづね私は思っている」と述べている54。

確かに、川上弘美は百閒の熱心な読者であり、彼の作る幻想的な雰囲気 と強い類似性をもった作風である。また、島内景二が指摘するように、「 川上弘美は、俳句を作るという。だから、小説の随所に俳句の直接の引用 というか、面影取りがあるように思われる」55。おそらく、川上弘美は百 閒の俳句に頻出する「亀鳴く」に出会い、これに惹かれて自分の作品にも 活かしてみようと思いついたのであろう。これを基に短編『亀が鳴く』を 執筆し、虚構性に溢れた亀の鳴き声を主人公の「私」の「心の鳴き声」と 一致させたと思われる。

5. 結び

鎌倉時代に生まれた「亀鳴く」のモチーフは様々なジャンルを通して 現代人まで届いた。中世の歌では春のイメージとして出発し、江戸時代に


<sup>52</sup> 前掲菅野昭正、『変容する文学のなかで・下』、p. 379.

俳句の季語として扱われ、現代では随筆や小説の題材となるという経路を 歩んできた。今日に至るまで多数の文学者の着想を促し、 柔軟に様々な形に変容されている。また彼らは、その声の ない動物の声を、自分の声にさまざまなメッセージの媒体として 利用してきた。日本の韻文世界において、声帯を持たない 動物で鳴くのは亀だけではない。例えば、鳴く蚯蚓などもある。 しかし、美的嗜好や、それぞれの動物の持つ象徴性などにより、 亀の方が文学者たちに愛され、蚯蚓より頻出するのである。

さらに、「亀鳴く」をキーワードにして、それにアプローチした文学者 たちを比較対照することによって、それぞれの個性や文学に対する姿勢が 端的に見えて来る。小林一茶は慣行に囚われない俳人で、おそらくたまたま 見つけたこの見慣れない季語を、早速取り入れてみたくなったのであろう。 そこには弱者である小動物への彼の嗜好も作用しているように思われる。 さらに、それを一捻りして、「亀」を「すっぽん」に変えて新しい視点を 提出している。

高浜虚子や村上鬼城などといった近代の俳人も「亀鳴く」の挑戦を受け、 俳句に活かしている。前者はそれを若い頃に持っていた「反写生」の 形象とし、後者はこの季語を非常に愛し観念的な句と自然詠の双方に取 り入れている。

こういった近代の成果を基盤に、現代の俳人はますます「亀鳴く」という 不思議な季語に惹かれ、これを用いた句の創作に挑むようになる。鈴木真 砂女はそれによって人生の悲哀や苦渋を客体化し、田中裕明は日本の政界 に対する批判を表現するための手段として使用した。プロの俳人ではない 小川洋子も、「亀鳴く」を通して散文作品で度々追求している男女関係に 対するビジョンを新しい形で表現してみせた。

さらに、近現代では「鳴く亀」は小説や随筆にも取り入れられ、そこで 新しい表現のきっかけともなったのである。三島由紀夫はそれを中世の 比喩として導入し、憑依などといった怪異現象と併せてこのモチーフな らではの虚構性を巧みに活かした。内田百閒は親友の芥川龍之介の自殺 を巡った随筆に取り入れて、創作した挽歌で自分の悲しさを亀の鳴き声 に託して表現する一方、その幻想性やどこか惚けた持ち味など、多面的 な可能性を縦横自在に引き出している。最後に、川上弘美は百閒の作風 を想起させる短編小説の中で、「鳴く亀」のイメージを通して女性の特 異な精神状態を描写した。

ここで取り上げたのはごく一部でしかないが、こういった作品群が今後の 作家を刺激して、「亀鳴く」に挑ませることはあるだろうか。その場合、 どんな新しい形で、どんな新しいことを表現するためにこれを用いて いくのだろうか。こういった疑問に今、答えることはできないが、筆者は 「亀鳴く」に潜在する可能性はまだ多いのではないかと考えている。

# Tales of lilies and girls' love. The depiction of female/ female relationships in yuri manga

Marta Fanasca

**Abstract**: *Yuri* manga are focused on the representation of sentimental relations between girls. Despite still being a niche within the manga landscape, the popularity of this genre in terms of number of productions and fans is increasing, and in the last few years its fame has been expanding outside Japan as well. As a manga genre, *yuri* developed since the mid-2000s. Notwithstanding being a novel genre, *yuri* narratives are deeply embedded into the heritage of the late Meiji-early Shōwa shōjo bunka (girls' culture), and especially into the so-called «*esu kankei*» relationships, girl/girl bonds developing in girls' schools at the time. The aim of this article is double-folded: from one hand, I will highlight and discuss the birth of *yuri* manga, analysing the re-elaboration of the heritage of shōjo bunka and its cultural productions – such as Yoshiya Nobuko's *Hana Monogatari* – into the first examples of *yuri* manga, to demonstrate the intermediality and intertextuality of these media. On the other hand, I will map the development of *yuri* manga through the 2000s, stressing onto the increasing relevance given by these narratives to LGBTQ+ related themes, along with the detachment from the influence of shōjo bunka.

**Keywords**: manga; yuri; lesbian; female homosexuality; shōjo bunka.

要旨: 百合漫画では、少女同士の恋愛関係の描写に焦点が当てられる。いまだニッチな漫画ジャ ンルであるとはいえ、作品やファンの数という点で、その人気は高まりつつあり、ここ数年では日本 国外でも広く知られるようになってきている。漫画の一ジャンルとして、百合は2000年代半ば以降 に発展した。小説のジャンルではあるが、百合をテーマとした物語は明治後期から昭和初期にか けての少女文化を色濃く継承し、特に当時の女学校で発展していた、所謂「エス関係」と呼ばれ る少女同士の関係を源流としている。本稿の目的は、以下のような二重構造になっている。一方 では、百合漫画の誕生に光を当て考察することである。そのために百合漫画の初期作例におけ る少女文化の遺産とその文化的産物——吉屋信子『花物語』のような——の再現を分析し、各媒体 の間メディア性・間テクスト性を明示する。他方では、2000年代における百合漫画の展開を整 理することである。ここでは、少女文化の影響下を離れながら、こうした物語がLGBTQ+に関わ るテーマにもたらす関連性が増大しつつあることを強調する。

キーワード: 漫画、ユリ、レズビアン、女性同性愛、少女文化.

#### 1. Counter hegemonic representations of gender and sexuality in manga

Manga are well-known for being an outlet to portray different embodiments of femininity and masculinity, displaying a wide range of androgynous or sexually ambiguous characters. Topics such as crossdressing and same-sex romance also are not new in this media, and especially in *shōjo* manga. Already in 1953, Tezuka Osamu in *Ribon no kishi* (*Ribon's knight*) introduced Sapphire, the first

FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Marta Fanasca, Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, mfanasca@hse.ru, 0000-0001-7214-5311

Marta Fanasca, *Tales of lilies and girls' love. The depiction of female/female relationships in yuri manga*, pp. 51-66, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.03, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518- 260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

Female-to-Male crossdresser heroine to make her debut on the pages of *Shōjo Friend*, but it was in the 1970s that the real boom of *queer* characters began. In fact, in the 1970s the most iconic FtM crossdresser character, Ikeda Riyoko's Oscar François de Jarjayes, appeared as the main character of *Versailles no bara* (*The Roses of Versailles*, 1973), followed soon by the first representation of a transgender character in *Claudine!* (1978), also created by Ikeda. In the same decade came along the first examples of the later-called Boys' Love genre (focused on male/male romance), Hagio Moto's *Toma no shinzō* (1974) and Takemiya Keiko's *Kaze to ki no uta* (1976).

The first explorations in the realm of lesbian love also date back to the 1970s. In 1971 Yamagishi Riyoko published the first manga addressing a love story between two young women, *Shiroi heya no futari* (*The two of the white room*). Ichijō Yukari published *Maya no sōretsu* (*Maya's funeral parade*) in 1972; one year later Satonaka Machiko's *Ariesu no otometachi* (*Maidens of Aries*, 1973) appeared on the market, followed by *Oniisama e* (*Dear brother*, 1974) again from Ikeda Riyoko. In 1974 Fukuhara Hiroko's *Hadashi no Mei* (*Barefoot Mei*) was published by Shūeisha, and the author came back on the same topic of female/female romance also in 1979 with *Kurenai ni moyu* (*Blazing crimson*).

Contrarily to what happened to the Boys' Love genre, which popularity has steadily increased since nowadays, the topic of girls' love has someway faded through the 1980s-1990s, to reappear from the 2000s onwards. Anyway, manga focused on the representation of sentimental and/or sexual relationships between girls is not a groundbreaking topic explored only in contemporary Japanese manga. Previous representations of female/female relationships were not classified as a special genre but, as forerunner BL manga, were part of the wider *shōjo* manga imaginary, while contemporary stories focused on girls' love appear under the label *yuri*. What differentiates *shōjo* manga and previous representations of lesbian love from 2000s *yuri* manga? What are the characteristics defining a manga as *yuri*?

#### 2. What is *yuri*?

Become known in the first half of the 2000s, the *yuri* manga up to now has nor been the subject of extensive studies, neither has attracted academic attention. A very different situation if compared with its ideal male counterpart, Boys' Love manga. The definition of '*yuri'* itself is still debated and subjected to different interpretations.

One of the first analysis of manga depicting love between women is provided by Fujimoto Yukari (1998). Fujimoto focused on early representations from the 1970s and does not mention the word '*yuri'*, as the early examples she refers to clearly fit within the 1970s *shōjo* manga definition, both in terms of drawing style and narrative tropes.

Studies making of *yuri* manga (one of) their main themes are still extremely scattered. The Japanese scholar Akaeda Kanako undertook an historical approach, underlining the relationship connecting *shōjo bunka* and *yuri* manga and paying special attention to *Maria sama ga miteru*, that the author defines as the «*yuri* manga bible» (Id. 2010: 285). Differently, Nagaike Kazumi (2010) analysed *yuri* manga for its LGBTQ+ contents, stressing the role of this manga genre in offering a media representation of female homosexuality, though (as I will explain later) this connection is slightly controversial. A completely different approach is taken by Kumata Kazuo (2005), who addressed *yuri* manga from the standpoint of the male fandom. Kumata compares *yuri* male readers to female readers of BL, stressing how both groups negotiate their relationship with hegemonic gender roles shifting from a more traditional interpretation of masculinity and femininity to a wish for less stereotyped relational models. Although relevant in terms of reception studies, this analysis is unbalanced as it presents the male perspective over an overtly feminine media, particularly since the female fans' experience has not been fully addressed so far. A similar approach is also undertaken by James Welker (2014), who focuses on the analysis of Kurata Uso's *Yuri danshi* (2011, which can be roughly translated as *Yuri male fan*). Kurata is one of the authors publishing on *Komikku Yurihime* (2005, one of the most important magazines for *yuri* stories), and likely a fan of the genre. This manga represents a sort of introduction to the *yuri* world, its fandom, and its producers but again, by mostly taking a male perspective. While these approaches are obviously relevant, to focus on a minority of the audience of *yuri* manga when the main readers of this genre (namely young women), or female *mangaka* producing *yuri* are still not the object of in-depth studies reduces the relevance of the female experience, which far too often and in too many cases is overlooked in favour of a male-centered investigation. Therefore, *Yuri danshi* might be seen as an autoethnographic study of *yuri* fandom (Welker 2014) but does not really address the role of women as producers and consumers of *yuri* productions. Moreover, academic and practitioners' attention given to the role of male fandom with regards to *yuri* underlines the disconnection of this genre with the actual representation of female homosexuality, stressing instead its fictional nature and the mixed nature of its audience.

Usually, manga genres are defined according to their (supposed) target readers. *Shōjo* manga target female young adults, while *shōnen* manga are intended to be read mostly by male adolescents; *seinen* manga address topics closer to an adult public, and so on. The *yuri* genre instead did not take its name from its readers. The word *yuri* literally means 'lily', and since the early 20th century this flower in Japan has been a symbol of spiritual love and women's (sexual) purity, often juxtaposed to the impure male desire (Watanabe 2009: 263). The word started to be associated with female homosexuality in the 1970s on the pages of *Barazoku* (*Rose tribe*), the first mainstream magazine for gay men in Japan. The editor of *Barazoku*, Itō Bungaku, called the female readers of its magazine as *yurizoku* (*Lily tribe*). Female readers of *Barazoku* had their own column on the magazine's pages called *Yurizoku no heya* (*Lilies' room*), and hence if '*barazoku'* was used to define the male homosexual community, '*yurizoku'* started to be a label for the lesbian community (Welker 2008). However, it must be noted that the word *yuri* as used on *Barazoku*'s pages was not an equivalent to lesbian, but more a way to define those female readers attracted by other women, or interested in reading stories about (female) homosexuality. Nevertheless, the word has attached the inner meaning of female/female sentimental and/or physical closeness.

Interestingly, *yuri* manga are not openly thought for an audience of lesbian women, and rarely address issues relevant for the LGBTQ+ community, such as coming out, gay rights, discrimination and homophobia. Hence, more than representing a lesbian reality, it is more correct to say that *yuri* manga are focused on the description of homoerotic – rather than homosexual – relationships between girls. Age is in fact another distinctive point of this media: the majority of *yuri* manga (and definitely all the most famous titles) do not depict love relationships between adult women, focusing instead on juvenile feelings and love stories mostly experienced in a high school setting.

At this point it is necessary to underline that the relationship between the words '*yuri'* and 'lesbian' is not biunivocal. According to Kumata Kazuo, *yuri* manga are about female homosexuality or they have a clear link with female homosexuality (2005: 73). However, it is also true that if *yuri* can potentially be used a synonym of lesbian this does not hold true the other way round. This is a pivotal point, especially taking into account the idea of identity and identification: the development of a homosexual identity, as largely proven by research in the field of gender studies since the 1970s (Cass 1979), cannot be separated from the step of self-definition and acceptance (Rifkin 2002; Stevens 2004; Shimizu 2007; Adams 2010). The adjective «lesbian» can be used to define a sexual identity, an individual, or a media text. On the contrary, *yuri* define specifically fictional materials, and especially manga and anime (Maser 2015). A lesbian woman does not define herself «*yuri*». Moreover, in *yuri* manga – and especially in the production until 2013 – the word 'lesbian' does not appear, and the main characters of these manga do not define themselves as lesbian. Hence, it is possible to argue that the word *yuri* is disconnected from the real condition of female homosexuality, and that female/female relationships depicted in *yuri* manga can be better defined as homoerotic, rather than homosexual, lacking of the identitarian, social and political values attributed to the word 'lesbian' and lacking of the characters' need to identify with a homosexual identity.

According to Katsuyama Toshimitsu (2016: 13) the word may take a very broad range of meanings: *yuri* defines narratives not only focused on «special relationships between girls» (*onna no ko dōshi no tokubetsuna kankei*), but also stories that are not about romantic involvement between girls, «girls' love» (*gāruzu rabu*; GL) stories, and also works involving characters who identify as bisexual or lesbian. In addition, for Katsuyama everyone can have its own definition of *yuri* (*Ibidem*: 12) and, thus, choose to see *yuri* when and where they so desire. This approach does not help to clearly define what a genre is and what is not, and does not help in marking the difference between *yuri* and *shōjo* manga. Moreover, the assimilation under the same label of manga focused on LGBTQ+ themes and *yuri* is probably too broad, also leading to a problem of misrepresentation of the LGBTQ+ community and its issues.

Again Akaeda provide us with a encompassing definition of *yuri* manga, labelled as media representing intimate relationships between female, and especially girls (2010: 277), where there is not necessarily the need to use the word lesbian.

Drawing on what has been discussed so far, the inclusion under the label *yuri* of pornographic manga and anime focused on lesbian sexuality is striking, too. This is due to the word *yuri* itself, and the meaning of female sexual purity it endorses (Watanabe 2009: 195). Similarly, Kumata (2005) underlines how lesbian pornography in Japan is meant to satisfy the voyeuristic desires of a male audience, while *yuri* productions are not openly thought to satisfy the male gaze, and male fans of *yuri* manga and anime does not consume these media the same way as pornography (Maser 2013; Welker 2014).

To summarise, in this article, drawing on the definition provided by Akaeda and Kumata, and on my personal understanding of *yuri* manga, I will use and promote the word *yuri* to refer to original (not *dōjinshi*) manga (and deriving anime) published from the end of the 1990s-early 2000s, focused on the representations of sentimental relationships between girls which cannot be labeled as pornographic or openly erotic.

#### 3. Features of *yuri* manga

The word '*yuri'* has started to be used to define a specific manga genre in the early 2000s, after the publication of the first title of this kind, *Maria sama ga miteru* (1997, 2003) and of the first magazines clustering different *yuri* stories such as *Yuri shimai* (2003) and *Komikku yurihime* (2005). However, as previously stated, these were not the first examples of manga focused on representing girl/girl love stories, being *Shiroi heya no futari* the first work of this kind. So why cannot manga from the 1970s be considered as *yuri* manga?

*Shiroi heya no futari* and the other above-mentioned titles from the 1970s did not have rupture elements with the *shōjo* manga produced in the same period. They did not represent a genre per se, but a variation (in this case regarding the biological sex of the main characters, which are both female) of a series of already established narrative patterns. Let's briefly analyse the main characters of *Shiroi heya no futari*, the couple Recine/Simone. Recine is a kind and innocent girl, shy and obedient. She has long blonde hair, big starry eyes, and she wears very feminine clothes. Differently, Simone is a rebellious character: she smokes, skips classes, and goes out at night unrespectful of the school's rules. She has long, straight black hair, and she dresses in a more androgynous fashion. Both represent stereotyped characters often appearing in couple in 1970s *shōjo* manga, no matter what kind of romance (heterosexual or homosexual) they experience. This is for instance the case of Candy and Terence from *Candy Candy* (1975), the female characters Misonoo Nanako and Asaka Rei from *Oniisama e* (1975), or Serge and Gilbert, the male couple of *Kaze to ki no uta* (1976). With this latter example, also the trajectory of the two love stories is very similar, with Serge/Recine finding themselves forced to share a room in the dormitory with Gilbert/Simone and being shocked by their unconventional lifestyles. Then, knowing each other day by day, Serge/Resine fall in love

with Gilbert/Simone, but their romance will not find a happy ending: the society will ostracize their bond, and both Gilbert and Simone will face a tragic destiny.

The standard couple in contemporary *yuri* manga is very different from this stereotype, and it is made by the pairing *ojōsama*/*moekko*. The *ojōsama* is a beautiful and elegant upper-class girl; she has very long dark hair, she is an excellent student one or two years older than the *moekko*. The latter is younger, usually shorter, she has a more childish look, with ponytail or similar hairdo, and she is inevitable attracted and charmed by the *ojōsama* charisma. If the *moekko* might recall the 'innocent and shy' characters from the 1970s, the 'beautiful and damned' stereotype falls out of fashion, leaving space to more positive behavioural examples, able to let the *moekko* develop feelings of *akogare*, fascination, or more openly romantic. The coupling *ojōsama*/ *moekko* appears in the vast majority of *yuri* titles and it represents a trademark of the most successful productions, thus becoming *yuri* canon. The repetitive elements allowing only for small variations in this coupling creates its shared intelligibility, providing the reader with a sort of database of information regarding the two characters which can be easily accessed just looking at the characters' appearance. The reader, after having read some *yuri*, becomes acquainted with the information suggested by the outer appearance of the *ojōsama*/*moekko*, and the role these characters play in the story. The stereotypical representation of characters is a way to increase a quick understanding of the narration (Azuma 2007), and also helps in creating a genre.

In terms of plot there is also a marked difference between 1970s female homoerotic *shōjo* manga and contemporary *yuri* titles. *Yuri*'s plots are usually focused on the sentimental relationship which develops between the two main characters. The narratives are characterized by light tones, and very unlikely the story takes a dramatic turn. The main problems faced by the characters are linked to identification and declaration of feelings or coping with jealousy caused by possible love rivals. There are no real obstacles that precludes the development of love feelings, and the story is lived within an enclosed environment, usually the girls' school setting that the characters attend. The rest of the world, under the shape of family, male characters, society, is often completely absent or plays a minor role. The societal judgment does not really affect the happy ending, where the two girls finally become a couple, nor the couple has to confront with homophobia or similar hate reactions for being in love. Different the situation in the text from the 1970s, where the girls unavoidably faced stigma and homophobia for living their love, and the relationship was usually tragically ended with the death/suicide of one of the main characters.

According to Fujimoto (2014), this dark and negative depiction of female homosexuality in the 1970s is due to the idea that women were perceived as complete only in relation to a man. A fulfilling relationship and a full personal development were not possible to be achieved with another woman. Consequently, lesbian love would not allow a happy ending: thus it was depicted as a tragic, painful experience, a form of impossible love. What marks the change in the *yuri* approach is due, I argue, to two main factors: the first one is the different perception of homosexuality in the 1970s compared to the 2000s; the second one is that, in fact, *yuri* manga are not about lesbian relationships.

As for the first point, despite Japan cannot be considered avantgarde in terms of gay rights, still the country has greatly changed through the years. Especially after the 1990s «gay boom» (McLelland 2000), homosexuality is much more an open topic of representation and discussion in different media. Several municipalities in major cities came to recognize same-sex marriages, and gay pride parades represent a yearly appointment that an increasing number of LGBTQ+ community members and supporters enthusiastically join. Although it is not possible to assess the real dimension and impact of the change in the Japanese society's approach to homosexuality, it is possible to argue that a renewed depiction of female/female love in more positive terms might well be linked to a renewed interpretation of lesbianism as well, a view less affected by the patriarchal idea that real happiness for women can only pass through compulsory heterosexuality.

My second point, which I address in the next section, is that *yuri* manga do not depict 'lesbian' relationship, but female/female homoerotic stories strongly linked to the Japanese cultural heritage. Hence I argue that *yuri* manga are not subjected to the same stigma faced by actual (female) homosexuality.

#### 4. Love, friendship or something else? The heritage of «*esu kankei*» in *yuri* manga

To understand this second point it is necessary to discuss female/female homoerotic relationships developed as an accepted and transitory form of love for schoolgirls during the early 20th century, and to connect these early experiences and narrations of female/female relationships with *yuri* titles.

Girls' schools developed in Japan from the Meiji period when the country, following interactions with the United States and Europe, started a process of Western-style modernization which also involved school organization. Higher education became available for the daughters of middle and especially upper-class families, and girls' schools were seen as pivotal in the development of modern women, according to the ideals of the *ryōsai kenbo*, «the good wife, wise mother» (Patessio 2013; Freedman 2019). The school years became a time during which girls could acquire an education but also came to represent a limited space in which the concepts of girl and girlhood took form. It was a time between childhood and adulthood for female students to enhance their intellectual and social life, outside the rigid control of families (Shamoon 2012).

Typical of girls' schools were the so-called «*esu kankei*» (S relationships), emotional bonds between schoolgirls. *Esu* is supposed to stand for the English letter 's', an acronym meaning 'sister', since girls in these relationships referred to each other as *onēsama* and *imōto*<sup>1</sup> . According to Gregory Pflugfelder, *esu kankei* were characterized by «emotional intensity and warm trust» (2005: 139) and by «a sense of youthful enthusiasm and of emotional richness» (175). Deborah Shamoon (2012) defines these relationships as «passionate friendships» and

<sup>1</sup> For other possible interpretation of the term '*esu'* and for a wider discussion on how these relationships were defined see Pflugfelder (2005).

underlines how *esu kankei* were very common among schoolgirls, especially between 1920-1930. They were bonds based on «spiritual love» (2012: 29) and represented a sentimental (and in some cases also sexual) experimentation for young women before to step into the realm of adulthood, characterized by marriage, heterosexual sex and motherhood. Differently from homosexuality, which was seen as a deviated and pathological condition, S relationships represented a stage of schoolgirl's emotional development; they were seen as inherently platonic and hence generally accepted by the society (Suzuki 2012: 26), given that they were supposed to last only during the high school years.

An intense and detailed depictions of the different aspects of schoolgirls' emotional life is provided by Yoshiya Nobuko in *Hana Monogatari* (*Flowers' tales*). Published on the magazine *Shōjo Gahō* between 1916 and 1924, these short stories are a collection of 'passionate friendships' between students, or a student and a young teacher. As Paola Scrolavezza (2020: 215) quoting Suzuki (2006) states, these stories celebrate romantic friendship as a kind of unique love typical of the adolescence time-frame and neatly separated from the adult world: a form of love disengaged with heterosexuality. *Hana Monogatari*, despite letting the readers indulge in the idea that some of the stories were not only romantic but also involved girls' sexuality, it is ultimately a collection of short stories focused on girls' feelings and emotions in the transitory time of adolescence.

Although these emotional (physical?) relationships were experienced from a female perspective, they cannot be read as homosexual, especially taking into account the sociopolitical relevance given to the lesbian definition and experience today. As Scrolavezza discusses it:

[…] dell'amore omosessuale si parla in termini di un'esperienza formativa: nel contesto della fiorente cultura femminile degli anni Venti infatti, il *dōseiai* – letteralmente l'amore per una persona dello stesso sesso – lungi dal rappresentare una sfida alla società patriarcale e al modello dominante di femminilità (il già citato *ryōsai kenbo*, la 'buona moglie e saggia madre'), è socialmente accettato come una sorta di apprendistato sentimentale in vista del matrimonio (2020: 219).

The S relationships configured thus an alternative and temporary reality where girls were allowed to dive in a world of emotions shared among peers, experiencing a different form of love not tied to the expected social duties for women (Dollase 2003). Moreover, differently from marriages which were mostly arranged by the family and oriented to reproduction, these love stories were of a purely romantic nature, and entitled girls an high degree of freedom in terms of choosing their partner, and of the physical involvement desired. However, S relationships were not a way to define one's sexual identity, nor girls in these bonds refrained from entering into heterosexual marriage at the end of the high school2 .

<sup>2</sup> Relationships running outside the accepted track of S relationships were actually opposed by the society. They were called *ome* and were presented especially by the press in an extremely negative light. During the 1920s there were different cases of schoolgirls' *shinju* (double suicide

*Maria sama ga miteru* (hereafter *Marimite*) is a franchise started as a light novel (1998) then turned into a manga series (2003) and in a three seasons animation (2004). It tells the story of a group of schoolgirls in a prestigious private Catholic school. In the school, students share a sort of tutoring scheme where senior schoolgirls choose among the fresher students a 'younger sister' (*petite soeur*) to take care of and guide during the high school years. This mutual and exclusive relationship is officialized through the exchange of personal rosaries (every student owns one). This bond is based on feelings, since students choose or accept as sister only those who they admire or have affection for. The rosary exchange is possible only if feelings are reciprocated.

In *Marimite* there is not a real plot: the story is focused on the students belonging to the Students' Council and on the relationships between them. *Marimite* is considered the first *yuri* title and from the very beginning the word *yuri* and the lily flower are openly quoted: the name of the high school is Lillian Institute and the Students' Council is called Yamayurikai3 (*Mountain Lily*). Despite the plot is focused on the interactions between the students in the Yamayurikai, none of these relationships involve the physical/sexual sphere, nor they are defined in terms of love, while we can better talk of *akogare*. Students are attracted by their 'sisters', they can face feelings such as romantic attraction or jealousy in relation to their classmates, or they long for the attention of a certain *senpai*, however we do not witness kisses, sex scenes, or love confessions: the feelings girls nurture for each other can be guessed, but they are never openly defined. This platonic depiction of love closely recalls of the *esu kankei* as they were understood by the Japanese society.

As already noted by Anna Specchio, manga and literature share several contact points, and the countless contaminations between these two media can be divided into two main categories: 1) literature in manga and 2) manga in literature (2019: 58-59). *Marimite's* franchise reflects the heritage of *Hana Monogatari* as the story portrays passionate friendships and closely recalls the *shōjo bunka*'s cultural milieu as depicted by Yoshiya, belonging thus to the second category. The story unfolds in the enclosed setting of the girls' high school, and very little of the external world is allowed in this secluded haven for girls. The relationships between schoolgirls are intense, emotional but never physical; it is also controversial to define them in terms of romantic love. Male characters are almost entirely absent, and when they appear, they often occupy the role of a fiancé chosen by a girl's family for a perfect marriage waiting for schoolgirls at the end of their three years at Lillian.

General references to flowers, stressing the connection with *Hana Monogatari*, are countless: different chapters/episodes have as titles flowers' names and

<sup>3</sup> 山百合会.

for love). Facing the impossibility of living their love openly, few girls decide to kill themselves together. These stories were largely spectacularised by the press at the time and instrumentalized to create negative stereotypes about female homosexuality (Pflugfelder 2005: 150-162).

some pivotal scenes take place in the school's greenhouse. The already mentioned Students' Council Yamayurikai consists of three representative students from the third year, named after rose species: Rosa Chinensis (red rose), Rosa Gigantea (white rose), and Rosa Foetida (yellow rose). These senior members meet in the *bara no yakata*<sup>4</sup> (Rose mansion) and they are called roses. Roses are elected by students, and any student attending the Lillian Institute can candidate herself for this position. However, it is very common for the *petite soeur* of a rose to run for the election and to be elected. The *petite soeur* of roses are called *rose en bouton* or *bara no tsubomi*<sup>5</sup> (rose bud), and they are usually second year students. Through the exchange of rosaries, the *roseen bouton* can also have their own young sister among the first-year students, who are called *en bouton petite soeur*.

To stress the connection between *Marimite* and *Hana Monogatari*, and the similar way these two texts relates to female homosexuality, emblematic is the case of one of the characters in *Marimite*, Satō Sei. Sei is very different from all the other characters: she is loud, she speaks a less polite Japanese, she often plays tricks and jokes (also slightly sexual) to younger students, often teasing them. She is definitely a non-conformist compared to the standard of Lillian Institute's students. Sei is the only character to experience a non-platonic relationship with a schoolmate. A relationship not ratified by the rosary exchange, but based on reciprocal attraction. In a flashback, we also have the only scene (although not openly showed) of a passionate and not platonic kiss between Sei and her lover. While the common bonds between younger and older sisters are based on *akogare*, and are supported by the school because they do not represent a threat to the school's and society's heteronormative order, Sei's unorthodox relationship is strongly opposed by the School directorate as it clearly is a lesbian love story. Facing the opposition of the school, the two girls decide to run away together to be free to live their love. However, instead of providing the audience with a possible happy ending (or with a tragic end), Sei's partner will give up to the idea of running away with her and will refuse to meet her again, putting an end to their relationship.

Sei's love story represents the difference between female homosexuality and *yuri* relationships molded on the *esu kankei* model. There is another element that stresses the connection between Sei's storyline with *Hana Monogatari*'s heritage. In fact, Sei is the Rosa Foetida *en bouton*, so she belongs to the yellow rose group. In *Hana Monogatari* there is one story titled *Kibara* (*Yellow rose*), which is also the one in the collection more openly focused on the romantic and sexual love story between a student, Urakami Reiko, and a young teacher, Katsuragi Misao. Katsuragi, to escape from her family willing to see her married soon after her graduation, decides to become a teacher and is appointed in a high school for girls. On the day she is leaving Tokyo for her new workplace, while on the train, her attention is caught by a beautiful young girl riding on

<sup>4</sup> 薔薇の館.

<sup>5</sup> 薔薇のつぼみ.

the same train, Urakami Reiko, who will eventually be one of her students. As time passes, the two become very affectionate to each other and develop strong, reciprocal feelings. They plan to go to Tokyo together, and after Reiko's graduation, to attend a college in the United States. However, Reiko's parents ask Katsuragi to convince their daughter to accept a marriage already organized years in advance, and Katsuragi finds herself torn apart by her feelings for Reiko and the best choice for the young girl's future. In the end, Katsuragi convinces Reiko to accept the marriage proposal, and then leave the girls' school to go to study in Boston alone, soon disappearing from her family and friends. Two years later Katsuragi is spotted by an acquaintance in Colorado: she looks gaunt and gloomy, and works in the basement of an anonymous center for immigration. Understanding to have been recognized, Katsuragi will run away again, to live in isolation and loneliness.

A purely lesbian love, unrespectful of the heterosexual social order, is presented both in *Marimite* and in *Hana Monogatari* as impossible and ultimately wrong, leading only to a life of sorrow. Sei and her narrative arc symbolize the difference between an emotional relationship linked to an imaginary well rooted and accepted in the Japanese culture, and homosexuality. To support this view, and how homosexuality is a concept alien to the tradition of the S relationship (and thus *Marimite*), Sei is depicted not as Japanese but as American. The emotional and physical relation she experiences is not an *esu kankei*, nor it develops from the heritage of the Japanese *shōjo bunka*. It is a form of love that contrasts the heteronormative, patriarchal order of the society, an egoistic feeling based on (sexual) attraction, a quasi-alien concept, linked to different instances which are not those promoted and supported by the *Marimite* storyline and ideals.

To conclude, *Marimite* is the first *yuri* title and it is not about female homosexuality. It explores girls' feelings during the adolescence, following a narrative style that reflects the heritage of *shōjo bunka*'s girl/girl relationships, a *yuri* genre trademarks. Hence, as argued at the end of the previous section, *yuri* manga (especially titles published until 2010) do not represent lesbian relationships, but girl/girl love stories more or less closely linked to the concept of *esu kankei*. For this reason *yuri* stories are not marked by negative and dark endings (as manga from the 1970s), nor they are affected by the stigma still attached to female homosexuality.

#### 5. The recent developments of the *yuri* genre

Even though the *yuri* titles that followed *Marimite* slightly deviate from its format, presenting more openly physical love relationships between the main characters, it is still arguable the definition of *yuri* stories as LGBTQ+. During the second half of the 2000s several different titles with a similar plot debuted on the market. For their school setting, and for the stereotyped characters presented, they fully belong to the *yuri* category. At the same time, these new titles also include interesting novelty elements. The most representative example from this second turn in the *yuri* production is *Strawberry Panic!* (Sakurako Kimino and Namuchi Takumi 2005).

In this case also the setting is a prestigious girls' school. The main couple reproduces the *ojōsama*/*moekko* pair (Hanazono Shizuma/Aoi Nagisa). Differently from *Marimite*, the relationship between Shizuma and Nagisa is clearly a love story, which is explored also in physical terms: we have different kiss and sex scenes throughout the story, even though not explicit. Moreover, the ending shows the two girls becoming a couple. However also in this case it is difficult to talk of a lesbian relationship, and again the definition of homoerotic seems more fitting. The two girls do not identify with nor they use the word 'lesbian', and again we have a love relationship between two girls, in a setting secluded from the outside world and society. There is no contextualization of a homosexual relationship within the wider frame of its reception by the adult and external world. Topics such as the development and acceptance of a lesbian identity, coming out or gay rights are not addressed, confining the different love stories in *Strawberry Panic!* to a depiction of homoerotic attraction between girls. The point that differentiate this work from 1970s manga and also from *Marimite* resides in showing a female/female relationship, also based on sexual attraction, as actually possible.

The reasons behind the choice of presenting a happy ending, and to show more physical expressions of girls' love can be sought in the wide readership *yuri* manga address. Differently from *shōjo*, *shōnen* or *seinen* manga, *yuri*'s target readers are more variegated. *Yuri* are mostly read by women, but not necessarily lesbian women. Nagaike Kazumi, in analysing *Komikku Yurihime*, states that «The female homosocial (not necessarily homosexual) qualities that *Yurihime* represents seem to attract not only readers who are self-identified lesbians, but also heterosexual women» (Nagaike 20106 : n.p.). According to an informal survey undertaken by Sugino Yōsuke at *yuri* events (quoted in Welker 2014: n.p.) «over half of *yuri* readers are female, among whom are a significant minority of self-identified lesbians and bisexuals, along with transgender or otherwise genderqueer people7 » which lets us assume that the majority of readers are women but less than half of the audience is also made of male fans.

As already highlighted by Gretchen Jones in her investigation of Japanese ladies' comics, the representation of sexual scenes in manga for women can be read as an expression of increased agency of female readers, which shift from being sexual objects to sexual subjects (2002). Being the *yuri* manga mostly read by women it is possible to apply a feminist perspective to the interpretation of sexuality as it appears in this typology of manga. Sex scenes involving only women can be read as a rebellion against the stereotype of representing female sexuality as intrinsically heterosexual and male dominated, thus em-

<sup>6</sup> https://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2010/Nagaike.html (12/20).

<sup>7</sup> https://jmpc-utokyo.com/keyword/yuri/ (12/20).

powering the female readers. It is also possible that sex scenes can be enjoyed also by male readers.

As for the choice to provide fans with a happy ending, this represents a way to gain the faithfulness of different segments of the audience. According to Verena Maser (2013), *yuri* are read also by men who seems to prefer romantic stories between young girls over the depiction of overtly erotic scenes. Happy endings can thus potentially attract also those readers interested in romantic stories. Therefore, the choice to present *ecchi* scenes, or to provide readers with a romantic finale are ways to satisfy the possible requests of a mixed audience made of both women and men with different sexual orientations.

The tendency towards more realistic love stories in lesbian terms increases with the *yuri* titles produced from 2010 onwards. This new trend is well represented by titles such as *Citrus* (Saburouta 2012) and *Yagate kimi ni naru* (*Bloom into you*, Nakatani Nio 2015), recently translated into different European languages including Italian. If *Marimite* represents the first stage of the *yuri* manga, characterized by platonic love stories based on *akogare* more than love, which evolves in *yuri* title from 2005 onwards, where love is the feeling portrayed and it is also physically expressed, then *Citrus* and *Yagate kimi ni naru* (hereafter *Yagakimi*) represent the third evolutionary stage of *yuri* manga.

In this third stage too the stories develops in (girls') high schools, and again the main characters stick to the *ojōsama*/*moekko* stereotype. However, differently from all the previous examples, the stories start to be embedded into the reality. Where previous *yuri* manga were mostly taking place within the school's walls, giving the idea of a private world separated from the outer reality, where few if no adults, men or outsiders were in fact allowed to enter, the action in *Citrus* and *Yagakimi* is fully blended in a much wider and realistic setting. *Citrus* offers a detailed and faithful representation of nowadays Tokyo. The characters appear in situations that can be experienced by any high school student in Japan: they go to karaoke or manga cafés, they shop in famous department stores, or they have a school trip in Kyoto. The dreamy atmosphere of a high school setting, seemingly belonging to another era steps out in favour of a more realistic depiction of daily life -which is easier to relate with. Consequently, also the love story gets out from the school's precinct and it is experienced in a wider world.

This is a fundamental change compared to the previous titles. The relationship between the two girls seems not to be only a 'phase' linked to the homosocial context where they live and which the girls come through in their adolescence as a part of their emotional development. The attraction for a same-sex person starts to be defined as something that exists in a wider world, and that involves other people and not only two girls in love. In *Yagakimi*, one of the teachers in the school the characters attend lives with her girlfriend. The story thus discusses the problems arising from having a lesbian relationship and the need to keep it hidden to avoid problems at work. The teacher's girlfriend run a coffee shop, and from the counter she dispenses advices to one of the characters who is trying to define her sexual identity, using her own experience as an example. Furthermore, the relationship between the two main characters, Yū (*moekko*) and Nanami (*ojōsama*) is a matter of discussion between Yū and her older sister, who clearly hints at the possibility for the two to date and being a couple, repeating different times that a relationship between two women is a normal thing nowadays. In this case we do not have a relationship between two girls that is experienced only by them, but a more faceted concept of homosexuality as a situation and a relationship model that different characters confront with, either experiencing it in first person or confronting themselves with those who experience it.

A more realistic representation of a lesbian relationship, detached from the S relationship model, is also the one between Mei (*ojōsama*) and Yuzu (*moekko*), the main characters from *Citrus*. Several times the story addresses topics such as how to present a homosexual relationship to other people or to come out with parents, as well as the possibility for a gay couple to marry, which is one of Mei and Yuzu's main concerns but also a problem often experienced by actual homosexual people. In this sense, for the first time in a famous *yuri* title we witness a happy ending which also coincides with the wedding ceremony of the two main characters.

Both in *Citrus* and *Yagakimi* the link with *Hana Monogatari* and the heritage of *shōjo bunka*'s *esu kankei* is less direct though still present8 , and these two titles also present a series of cross-references with previous *yuri*. These kind of metatextual links demonstrate how *yuri* is clearly a manga genre per se, defined by its aesthetic and narrative tropes. A genre that, starting from a well-known previous cultural example, is creating its own system of metatextual references, canons and stereotypes.

#### 6. Conclusion

Excluding *shōjo* manga from the 1970s, the contemporary Japanese manga production focused on the representation of female/female relationships can be divided in three different streams: the classic *yuri*, where more than love are represented feelings (often *akogare*) and teens' emotional turmoils, and where relationships between characters more closely adhere to the 'passionate friendship' stereotype, limited to the time/space frame of the female high school the characters attend. The second kind is the new wave of *yuri* manga (the one identified as the third stage of development of *yuri* manga in the article), titles that even though keeping a connection with the heritage of the past and of the *shōjo bunka* also introduce elements of novelty (such as kiss/sex scenes), offering a less idealized depiction of love between girls, and integrating issues more closely related to the reality of lesbian couples.

There is a third strand of women's love representations in manga, namely titles that can be more clearly defined as LGBTQ+. Here the heritage of *Hana* 

<sup>8</sup> For instance, in *Citrus* the two girls become 'sisters' since Yuzu's mothers marries Mei's father, and the idea of sisterhood as a metaphor for a female/female relationship is hinted by other characters in the story.

*Monogatari* and *esu kankei* is completely absent, the relationships portrayed are not necessarily between two schoolgirls, but characters belong to a wider age range, and the problems they face are a more realistic depiction of the issues experienced by lesbian individuals and couples. Titles of this kind are, for instance, *Love my life* (Ebine Yamaji 2006), *Sabishisugite Rezu Fūzoku ni Ikimashita Repo* (*My lesbian experience with loneliness*, Kabi Nagata 2016), or *Oya ga Urusai node Kōhai (*♀*) to Gisō Kekkon Shitemita* (*I Married My Best Friend To Shut My Parents Up*, Kodama Naoko 2018). In all these titles homosexuality is presented with its name, and the topics addressed cover different issues that homosexual individuals may experience in their life. Despite being interesting to discuss also this third example of manga representing female homosexuality, especially in terms of adherence to reality and reception from the (lesbian) audience, this is out of the scope of this article, but it will be material to be addressed in future research.

To conclude, I would like to stress that it is not the aim of this paper to judge which one of these three narrative strands is more representative of the lesbian universe or has the right to be defined as representative of female homosexuality. Being manga ultimately works of fiction, not necessarily they need to portray the reality. Perhaps it is more useful to identify different narrative styles to attempt a categorization, but keeping in mind the impossibility of providing a unique definition of the experience of female homosexuality, homoeroticism, or women's same sex love experiences; as I strongly believe that to approach *yuri* manga it is necessary to keep in mind that love, both in fiction as in the reality, may take many different shapes.

#### References


Katsuyama Toshimitsu 2016, *Yuri no sekai nyūmon*. Genkōsha, Tokyo.


Rifkin Lori 2002, *The Suit Suits Whom?*, «Journal of Lesbian Studies» 6(2): 157-174. Scrolavezza Paola 2020, *Yoshiya Nobuko: i semi della cultura shōjo in un giardino di parole*, in *Storie di fiori.* Postfazione, Atmosphere Libri, Roma: 215-229.

Shamoon Deborah 2012, *Passionate friendship: the aesthetics of girl's culture in Japan*, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu.

Shimizu Akiko 2007, *Scandalous equivocation: a note on the politics of queer self naming*, «Inter‐Asia Cultural Studies» 8 (4): 503-516.


Suzuki Michiko 2006, *Writing Same-Sex Love: Sexology and Literary Representation in Yoshiya Nobuko's Early Fiction*, «The Journal of Asian Studies» 65 (3): 575-599.

Suzuki Michiko 2010, *Becoming Modern Women: Love and Female Identity in Prewar Japanese Literature and Culture*, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.


# 転向を語ること ─ 小林杜人とその周辺 Converters Tell Their Stories: Kobayashi Morito and His Networks

Tsuboi Hideto

**Abstract**: After the *March 15 incident* on Japanese Communist Party members in 1928, many activists converted in prison, and *conversion period* (tenkō jidai) appeared. The converted people (tenkōsha) then wrote notes in which they described the ideological and spiritual changes that occurred during their imprisonment. The change was prompted by the teachings of Buddhism, mainly Jōdo Shinshū, and the presence of chaplains (kyōkaishi) who mediated the teachings. The tenkōsha abandoned their faith in Marxism, returned to Japanese traditional familism, became devoted to the Emperor of Japan, and some started to practice agricultural fundamentalism. In this article, I will focus on a person named Kobayashi Morito (1902 -1984), who wrote about his own experience of conversion in *Until He Left the Communist Party* (1932) and also edited the notes of other conversion people and published them as *Notes of a Converter* (1933) and *Thought and Life of the Converted* (1935), and will analyze the stories of conversion experiences of various tenkōsha, reexamining how they accepted conversion, and at the same time focus on the contradictions and conflicts that occurred there.

**Keywords**: conversion; Marxism; agriculture-based national ideology; Kobayashi Morito.

要旨: 共産主義者に対して大量弾圧が行われた1928年の三・一五事件以降、獄中体験から多 くの転向者が生まれ、「転向時代」が現出した。転向者たちは手記を書いて、その中で獄中にお いてどのような思想的・精神的変化が起きたのかを語っている。その変化を促したのが浄土真 宗を主体とする仏教の教えと、それを仲介した教誨師の存在だった。彼らは仏教を導き手として マルクス主義への信奉を捨て家族主義に回帰し、天皇への帰依へと向かい、一部は農本主義的 な実践に入っていった。本稿では1930年代前半期に自身の転向体験を『共産党を脱する迄』に 書くとともに他の転向者の手記を編集して『転向者の手記』『転向者の思想と生活』として出版し た小林杜人(1902-1984)という人物を中心に、様々な転向者の転向体験の語りを分析し、彼らが どのように転向を受け入れていったのかを再検討し、同時にそこに生じていた矛盾や葛藤にも注 目して考察を加えるものである。

キーワード: 転向、マルクス主義、農本主義、小林杜人.

#### 1. 『転向者の手記』と小林杜人

『転向者の手記』という本がある。1933年10月に大道社という出版社か ら刊行されている。大道社というと宗教家の川合清丸が主導して1888年に 設立し1880年代から主として仏教書の刊行を行っていた日本国教大道社が ある。日本国教大道社という組織の目指すところは川合の『日本国教大道 社設立主意』(大道社、1891)に記されているように、神儒仏(神道、儒

Tsuboi Hideto, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Japan, hidetot@h3.dion.ne.jp FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Tsuboi Hideto, 転向を語ること ─ 小林杜人とその周辺 */ Converters Tell Their Stories: Kobayashi Morito and His Networks*, pp. 67-88, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260- 7.04, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

教、仏教)の三道を結集して〈国教〉を樹立することにある(川合はこの 三道の役割をそれぞれ産科医、外科医、内科医という医者の比喩で説明し ている)。その中でも神道と仏教の統一戦線に力点が置かれている。これ は大日本帝国憲法における〈信教の自由〉認定以後の、キリスト教など 〈異教〉に対する排斥をバネにして宗教を基軸にナショナリズムを国粋主義 として再設計するという文脈の上にある。日本国教大道社は出版社名とし ては1900年代までは存続し、雑誌『帝国民』を創刊した1918年以後は大道 社として出版活動をしていたことが刊行物の奥付から確認出来る。ただ、

『転向者の手記』が刊行された1930年代、同じ社名の出版社が複数あり、 現時点ではそのいずれが日本国教大道社由来の大道社とつながっているの か、つながっていないのかの確認は取れていない。

『転向者の手記』には表紙にも扉頁にも編者(著者)名がなく、奥付に 〈編輯兼発行人〉として早乙女勇五郎の名前がある。その住所は発行所の 大道社と同じ神田区三崎町である。この早乙女という人物については一時 政教社に関わっていたことと、日本家禽協会、大日本家禽会等が刊行した 鶏を中心とした家禽の審査基準に関する著作の編者になっていることぐら いしかわからない(同一人物かどうかも確認できない)。その大道社と早 乙女だが、この『転向者の手記』のほぼ一年前、1932年11月にも『共産党 を脱する迄』という関連する本を刊行している。そちらは著者は「小野陽 一」と明記されており、その自序の最後には「恩師、藤井恵照師早乙女勇 五郎氏夫妻」に対する謝意が記されている。ここで早乙女とともに名前を 挙げられている藤井恵照についてはこの後にも何度か触れることになる。 さらには、『転向者の手記』の二年後、1935年9月にも早乙女/大道社は 小林杜人編著『転向者の思想と生活』という本を出している。四年の間に 三冊もの転向に関する本を刊行しているのである。

実はこの三冊の本のうち最初の『共産党を脱する迄』の著者小野陽一 は、『転向者の思想と生活』の編著者小林杜人の筆名で、同一人物であ る。さらに言えば、『転向者の手記』は早乙女が編者になっているが、 表題通り転向者の手記を集めた最後は小野陽一が自身の手記「マルキス トは獄中如何に宗教を体験したか」を書き、さらにそのすぐ後に本名の小 林杜人で「転向者は何処へ行く」という同書の総括にあたる文章を書いて いるのだが、このことから同書が実質的には小林を主力として編集されて いることが推察されるのである。(なお、小林の没後に編まれた『「転向 期」のひとびと 治安維持法下の活動家群像』[新時代社、1987]で戦後 における小林の回顧を読むことができる。本稿でも適宜参照している)

『転向者の手記』にはあわせて9名の手記(小野/小林を別に数えれば 10名)が掲載されていて、巻頭に「執筆者スナップ」として著者たちの 略歴が紹介されている。〈小野陽一氏〉については次のように記されて いる。

 長野県埴科郡雨宮縣村に生る。初め水平運動に参加し、後日本農 民組合長野連合会を創立、次で労農党中央執行委員に選任され、

68

三・一五事件に連坐して豊多摩刑務所に受刑中、如来の悲願に摂 取され、昭和六年十二月出獄、目下起訴猶予者並に執行猶予者、 思想犯保護事業団体たる帝国更新会に在りて、更新報恩の生活を なしつゝある。「共産党を脱する迄」の著あり、本名は小林杜人。

この短いプロフィールは小林(1902-1984)という人物の前半生がど のようなものだったのかを簡潔に教えてくれる。その半生の時間はコミ ンテルンの二十七年テーゼと三十二年テーゼが日本共産党にもたらした 衝撃、そして小林多喜二が小説に描いた1928年3月15日の三・一五事件 以後の共産主義弾圧と1933年6月の佐野・鍋山転向声明という、戦前の 共産主義運動が味わった暗黒の時代を逆照射するものでもあった。何よ りも転向の当事者として、そして自らの転向の後には後進の転向者たち を誘導し更新させる立場に身を置いたこの人物は、〈転向〉という戦前 および戦後の日本に固有の社会政治的な現象を考える上で重要な意味を 持つ存在である。

〈転向時代〉は共産主義運動史にとっては暗黒時代以外ではないのだ が、個々の転向者の視点から見直せば、それは極めて多様な精神史が輻 輳する時代であったと言えよう。転向とはまさにそれぞれの個人史の折 れ目、彼らの生の時間の連続/断絶の試金石であり、転向者たち一人一 人の運動/転向と転向後の活動をする意味を持っていた。そしてそれは 無数の個人史と併走する日本という地域の公共的時間における戦前戦中 と戦後の間の節合と照応しないではおかない。〈転向〉について考える ことは〈戦後〉の成り立ちとその継続を基礎づけるものを考えることに 他ならないのである。

小林杜人は転向経験とその語りにつきまとう後ろめたさや否定的な印象 を〈転向〉概念の刷新によって止揚しようとした点において転向時代を象 徴する存在と言ってよいのだが、彼は佐野学や鍋山貞親といった共産党の 指導者や、中野重治のように転向の経験を〈抵抗〉に転換するような表現 者とは違って時代の表舞台に立つことはなかった。しかし、彼のようにバ ックヤードに位置取りし、〈転向〉それ自体を純化して背負いつづけた人 間とその周辺について考えることは、思想史の正史とは異なった視角から 転向の問題を掘り下げる契機を提供してくれると考えられる。小林の転向 経験の持つ意義は彼個人の思想変容の次元に留まらない。彼が転向者の社 会復帰に関わっていたこと、そしてそこに大きな比重を占めるのが、農業 生産に基礎づけられた地方生活者との紐帯、そして仏教の介在という二点 が大きな要点として浮かび上がってくる。

#### 2. 小林杜人/小野陽一の語り

小林の転向とその告白録(*Confession*)たる『共産党を脱する迄』の出版 は佐野・鍋山の声明発表に先行するが、同書自序に記されている「国際共 産党日本支部としての日本共産党の政策を支持することが、日本の国情に 融合しないものであることを明かにしようとした」という転向の動機は<sup>1</sup> 、 佐野・鍋山ら共産党指導部の転向の動機説明と共有する部分が大きい<sup>2</sup> 。 「コミンテルン日本支部」としてコミンテルンの指示に従属する地位を拒否 する、端的に言えばナショナリズム(国情)の肯定と強調によってインタ ーナショナルな共産主義運動からの自立を訴えるというのがその論理であ る。その核心にあったのがコミンテルンが決定した〈君主制の廃止〉への 反応にあったことは周知の通りだが、私が小林杜人の転向が重要だと考え るのは、彼が党中枢の指導部の人間ではなく、地方の労農運動の現場にい たこと、そして自身の転向の媒介となった仏教への帰依をもとに帝国更 新会という組織の中で後続の転向者たちの受け皿になったことである。

因みに『共産党を脱する迄』の語りは主人公を〈小野〉と三人称で記し ている。仮名である〈小野陽一〉という著者名による「信濃の山国の一農 民青年の三十年の生活記録」(自序)が〈私〉ではなく自身の名字で語 られるという体裁にはなにやら物語めいた雰囲気が漂う。先駆的な転向 研究の一つであるパトリシア・スタインホフ(Patricia G. Steihoff)の*Tenko*(1991)は執筆に際して小林杜人への聞き取り調査も行っているが、巻 末の文献表では小林の編著二冊とは区別して、『共産党を脱する迄』を椎 名麟三や島木健作の小説作品と一緒に"Fiction"に分類している<sup>3</sup> 。内容的に は自伝的回想である作品が主人公を〈小野〉という呼称で三人称化(相対 化)して虚構的な装いを行うことで、〈転向者〉に向けられる読者の好奇 なまなざしに応じることが出来たのである<sup>4</sup> 。

一人称ではなく三人称による〈告白録〉。この告白の独特な人称の様式 こそが〈転向〉の語りを倫理的に卑怯な行為として自己否定する〈懺悔


録〉に落とすのではなく、病を癒やして社会復帰する一種の〈更生記〉 の語りとして機能させているのだ。これは冒頭から掲げた小林の編著 『転向者の手記』における小野陽一/小林杜人という呼称の使い分けにも 通ずる、話法の無意識的転位あるいは無意識を仮装する語りの詐術とも 言うべきものではないだろうか。

水平社の運動、全日本無産青年同盟、労農党地方支部のリーダー、農民 運動に従事、共産党からの接近と入党……。検挙、入獄に至るまでの〈小 野〉のこうした長野における活動歴は、まさしく佐野・鍋山ら党のスター たちとは対極的な、地方に根を張った現場の人の歩みを示している(とは いえ小林の人脈は広く、水野成夫から高倉テル<sup>5</sup> まで多様な共産主義者/ 転向者コネクションを持っていた<sup>6</sup> )。彼自身の家庭も小作農と製糸労働者 を家族から送り出すことで成り立っていた。こうした直近な人々の貧苦と 社会矛盾に対して無視することの出来ない真摯な意識が彼を共産主義に駆 り立てたのと同時に、その共産主義からの離脱にも向かわせたことが、こ の〈作品〉からもうかがい知れる。

不眠に苦しみ自殺未遂に至る獄中生活から彼を救ったのが教誨師の〈F 師〉という僧侶だった。このF師のモデルこそ、小林杜人を転向に導き、 転向後は小林が帝国更新会において思想犯の〈保護〉と更生の仕事に従事 させる動因を作った教誨師、藤井恵照にほかならない。『共産党を脱する 迄』にはまさに、〈小野〉が自らの心身の危機を克服して、農民解放を実 行するためにはコミンテルン主導による世界化された共産主義は無効で、 日本という国家の固有性に根ざさなければならない、そしてその国家は農 村主体の、さらには家族共同体を基盤としたものでなければならないとい う発想の転換(まさしく〈方向転換〉)へと進んで行く過程が語られてい るのだが、ここで注意しておきたいことは、〈小野〉がF師の勧めによる 『正信偈』読誦のみならず、岡田式静坐法や二木式腹式呼吸法、西式健康 法など<sup>7</sup> 静座と腹式呼吸のトレーニングを実践し、咀嚼法も加味した菜食中 心主義的な食生活そして薬物を用いない自然療法を続けることで身体の健


康の回復をはかったことが、仏教(浄土真宗)への帰依そして共産主義の 廃棄と連動していることである。

念仏、静座、腹式呼吸、身体訓練、菜食主義、自然療法……。仏教の教 えがナチュラリスト的な心身のと一体化した小野/小林の〈転向〉の思想 は一つの〈農〉の思想、あえていえば農本主義思想の一変形として典型的 なものであることが見えてくる。そしてこの仏教と〈農〉、ナチュラリズ ムとの連合思想は世界同時性を標準化する共産主義のインターナショナリ ズムと決定的に背馳することになる。ナチュラリズムへの覚醒は一国主 義=ナショナリズムの信奉へと加速をかけるのだ。小林はマルクス主義 の階級闘争はこれを「闘争主義」として否定し、仏教の「合掌の世界」 をそれに対置、地主/小作間の闘争(小作争議)も調停に向けて抑制さ れるべきこととされる。「良き国民として生きるか、階級を中心とした 戦士として生きるか」という二者択一が用意されて<sup>8</sup> 、そこからはまさに 一気に四年間の獄中生活の清算が始まるのだ。この反「闘争主義」は労 働者単位の〈都市〉に対抗して空間としての〈農村〉とその主体である 〈農民〉を前景化させもする。こうした〈転向〉思想を最も集約した部 分を次に引用しておく。

 根本的に云へば、マルキシズムは、労働者を中心としたもので、 農民にはその指導権は与へてゐないのだ。小野は農村は決して都会 に従属するものでなしに農村それ自身の建設によって、建て直され ねばならぬと信ずる。

 小野は今こゝに無条件に国民としての自分を承認し、国家の歴史 的発展の過程を正しく認識して、歴史の進路を誤らしめぬ様進ま なければならぬと思ふ。かくして国家のために一命を致そうと決 心したのだ。

 かくて身心健康法に精進した結果、昭和四年の十二月から、小野 の健康は立直つて行つた。此に至るには、仏の信仰が確立し、同時 にマルキシズムに対する清算もなされて、ひたすら甦生の一路に歩 んだためであつた。

 俺は日本国民として断然生きる!俺は人が何と云はふとも、この 信念は決して枉げない。如何にしてマルキシズムが、有産者社会を 批判する範囲に於ての批判思想として、正しいものであつても、そ れが我が国体、国民性と合致せぬ以上、しかも自分は日本民族の一 人である以上、国家過程に於て、マルキシズムと別れることの正し さを認識した。

 然して彼は、今後救ひを中心とした日本国民として、生きたいと 念願したのである<sup>9</sup> 。

法について:技法の分析」(『体育学研究』第50巻第2号、2005)、「二木式 腹式呼吸法について」(『体育学研究』第51巻第3号、2006)を参照。

<sup>8</sup> 前掲書、p. 131.

<sup>9</sup> 前掲書、p. 172.

マルクス主義への違和感はここにも見られるように、それが(農村を 搾取する)都市とその単位たる労働者をしか基準にしていないことに現 れている。長野での労農運動からも、小林は土地に根ざした農民運動を 基底にした、共産党でいえば労農派に共感する運動家であったと言えよ う10。小林の思想を「篤農=中堅耕作を主な担い手とした農本主義に特徴 的なもの」といち早く位置づけてみせたのは、思想の科学研究会編『共 同研究 転向』における藤田省三であった11。『共産党を脱する迄』にも 共産党参加以前の〈小野〉について「小野は長野県の運動を、左翼小児 病的思想運動の息から脱却せしめ、之を大衆のものたらしむるために準 備を進めつゝあつた」と記述があるように12、小林自身が共産主義の急進 的教条主義には最初から批判的立場を明らかにしていた。もちろん小林 杜人が〈小野陽一〉の名前で書いた自身の〈転向始末記〉は体験の事後 的に語るものである以上、いくらでも経験は書き換え(虚構化)可能だ。

しかし、右の引用部分でも、叙述の主格は〈小野〉から途中で自由間接 話法のもとで一人称の〈俺〉にかわり、最後に〈彼〉に戻しており、この 著作は出獄して社会復帰する幕切れのあたりで、〈小野〉が著者の小林杜 人と混同されるかたちで語り手と主人公の間に混乱を生み出している。例 えば「凡夫の信心は虚仮不実なものだ。従つて如来廻向の真実の浄信を得 てのみ、一切が浄化されるのであつた。それについて今少し実感を述べて 見やう。/小野は先づ、それを肉親の上から考へて見よう」という箇所。 こうした語り手/主人公の分節の混乱は、『転向者の手記』において、わ ざわざ手記を〈小野陽一〉名義で書き、すぐその後に〈小林杜人〉名義で 別の(〈小野〉を含む)他者の転向手記を総括する文章を書くという迂遠


な手続きを踏んでいることとも重ねて考えるべきことがらだが、見方を変 えれば、虚構的存在の、つまり名前を変え正体を隠した転向者が実名でカ ミングアウト(告白)するに至る過程そのものが露頭しているのだと解釈 することも出来なくはないだろう。

#### 3. 全体的転向 ──〈転位〉としての転向

本稿の冒頭に掲げた『転向者の手記』と『転向者の思想と生活』は小 林/小野単独の告白録たる『共産党を脱する迄』とは異なり、他者の転 向記の集成である。ただ、『転向者の手記』は編者名は発行者の早乙女勇 五郎となっているのだが、上述の通り小林杜人は最後に総括文を書き、そ の前に小野陽一名で自身の転向について語っており、名前を変えての自己 体験の他者化を行った上で、その他者の転向体験を集成編集し総括すると いう段階を踏んでいる。

『転向者の思想と生活』の場合は小林は編者としての役割を全うしつつ も、第一部「日本国民の自覚に立ちて」では自身の体験をもとにした転向 の思想を語り、第二部で24 名26篇の転向記を掲載するという体裁をとって いる。そこに手記を寄稿している転向者も小林/小野と同様に筆名を用い ていることが後に明かされている13。しかも注目すべきことに、同書第二 部の前半「生活篇」の最初を占める「更生々活にいそしむ人々」という 他者による転向記は当人の執筆になるのではなく、すべて小林が語り手と なって彼らに取材し、その証言を編集し語り直しているのである(「生活 篇」の残りと第二部後半「感想篇」はいずれも当人の手記を掲載)。そこ では当事者の主体は〈君〉として二人称で(時に〈彼〉などの三人称を交 えて)語られる。このことは、1932年から1935年にかけて小林が関わった 『共産党を脱する迄』『転向者の手記』『転向者の思想と生活』という三 つの著作の間で自らの主体と他者の主体の語りが微妙に変化しており、そ してその変化が小林杜人という人物の転向者としての位置取りの変化と対 応をしていることを示しているのではないだろうか。

転向とは、少なくとも戦前戦中においてはある種の虚構(匿名)の語 りを必須としていたとも言えるだろうか。そのなかで小林杜人が匿名、 匿名/実名の二重使用から実名へとカムアウトしていった背景には、彼 が〈転向〉を個人の問題にとどまるものとしては考えていなかったこと

<sup>13</sup> 前掲小林『「転向期」のひとびと』は、「私の行路」という文章を書いてい る庄司徹が共産党労働者派で、小林と同様労農党の運動から共産党に入った 村山藤四郎のことであると明かしている。村山/庄司はこの文章で、君主制 廃止などコミンテルン指導下の共産党批判に一元化して論理的には単純な 小林に比べると、マルクス主義の唯物史観をより綿密に検証しようとしてい る。その末尾には次の印象的な言葉が記されている。「正直のところ、マル クス主義者に対して、冷たい批評などを加へたくはありません。これは凡て の転向者のいつはらざる心情だらうと思ひます。今日なほ転向しきれない者 も一人残らず転向出来るやうにといふ念願と共に。」(同書、p. 274).

が大きく関わっていたと思われる。それを藤田省三にしたがって肯定的 に捉えるならば「誠実主義によって私的な働きと社会的な働きとが直通 させられているこの思想が明治以来の日本社会を底から支え,危機がお とずれる度に,それの建て直しのエネルギーを提供したものであった」 と言い換えられるのだが14、個人(私)と共同体(社会)とに通路をつく る意識は、同時に小林の転向の思想をますます翼賛的な方向に推し進め ていかざるを得なかったのである。

『転向者の手記』巻末に小林が実名で書いている総括文「転向者は何処 へ行く」は同書の巻頭に手記を掲載した山口隼人を訪問したときのことを 書いている。転向出獄後は郷里の群馬、榛名山麓の箕輪で「新農村共同経 営」を実践する山口は小林とは同じ豊多摩刑務所で知り合い、二人はとも に親鸞の教えに目覚めて転向した関係にある。山口は自身の手記ではマル クス主義を捨てても社会運動を継続すると言い、「国よりは村を、隣人よ りは我が家庭を先づ」救済するという意志のもと、「下からの社会運動」 として「家族的組合」の運動を行い「共同食堂、共同風呂を設け、家庭生 活の各方面に改革を加へ、婦人の労働戦線に立つ機会を作り、事業を成る べく拡張して、村内の余剰労働を出来るだけ吸収しようとする」と記して いる15。巻末の文章を見ても、小林がこの山口の組合運動に寄せる共感は深 い。親鸞の教えとの出会いに導かれた山口の転向を小林は「本質的革命」 と呼ぶ16。(しかもその農村改革は地主対小作の「闘争主義」の上にでは なく階級闘争をのりこえた両者の融和として実現するとされるのだ。)

山口と小林による「労働戦線」「余剰労働」そして「革命」といった 用語使用も含めて、ここには転向によってこそ彼らの本源的な思想が実 現されると言いたいかのようである。『共産党を脱する迄』もそうだっ たのだが、あえて言うなら少なくとも『転向者の手記』までの小林は、 転向前後での自らの社会運動家としてのアイデンティティ(連続性)を 手放すことなく、自身と同朋たちの転向を〈非転向としての転向〉とし て転位してみせているのだ。

『転向者の手記』の二年後に刊行した『転向者の思想と生活』におい てもそうした連続的自画像を描くことに執着している。この二冊は1933 年6月の佐野・鍋山の転向声明以後、小林のいう「転向時代」に刊行され たものではあるが(最初の著作『共産党を脱する迄』はそれより半年以

<sup>14</sup> 藤田、前掲論考、前掲『共同研究 転向』上巻、平凡社、1959)、p. 51。また これに類似した視点から福家崇洋は「小林の主観としては,かぎりなく末端 に近いところにありながら,転向者と公権力、転向者と一般社会を媒介する なかで、転向者の居場所を作り出そうとした」という評価を与えている(福 家、前掲論考p. 46)。なお、藤田はこうした視点をもとに「農本主義を思想的 に把握できなかったマルクス主義の弱点」を析出するという、きわめて重要 な論究を行っている(同書、p. 52)。

<sup>15</sup> 『転向者の手記』、pp. 39-41.

<sup>16</sup> 前掲書、p. 259.

上さかのぼる)、その二年の時間差は小林の境遇においても日本の社会 においても、その変化は小さくなかったと言えるだろう。もはやそこに は榛名山麓の農村で家族的な〈小さな共産主義〉を実現しようとする山 口隼人の組合運動に共感する小林の姿は見出しにくい。天皇を頂点にい ただく国民主義、しかも資本主義を否定するのではなく、資本主義とそ の発展を絶対天皇制を前提に支持する立場が鮮明に打ち出される17。そこ では革命への意志は当然放棄され、佐野・鍋山らの一国社会主義は日本 的な家族的国体観念、彼の言葉でいう「親和的な家族全体主義」によっ て塗り替えられるだろう。そこでは〈転向〉の概念も急進的にヴァージ ョンアップされることになる。

こともあろうに小林は「あらゆるものは転向する」という節を立てて、 転向現象とは日本精神に目覚めるところに生起するものなのであって、そ れは共産主義者のマルクス主義否定の次元だけの問題ではない、「今日 日本の各層が、全面的に批判され、再検討され、一大転換期にある」、 そうした全体的な転向を前提とすれば、「共産主義者の転向は、日本の 全体的転向の一環」にすぎないということになる18。この「全体的転向」 の考えにおいては「資本主義が日本的なものとして、転向しつゝある」 とまで言うのである19。

さらに「教育も、日本的に転向しつゝある」と付け加える小林は20、日本 においては西欧の自由主義、資本主義そしてマルクス主義の波動を受けと めてそれを「日本的に」批判、濾過、発展させていると述べて、〈転向〉 をさながらブラックホールのようにあらゆるものを飲み込み、それを消化 してわがものとして摂取するありかたとして読みかえていく。そこでは 〈転向〉とはまさに〈転位〉と呼んでもよい概念となっているのである。

〈転向〉とはもはや仲間を裏切る後ろめたい背徳行為などではなく、日 本およびその版図に住まう者が自らを国民化するためのポジティヴかつ普 遍的な通過儀礼として転位されていくのである(だから小林は〈内鮮一 体〉を根拠に朝鮮人の転向者にも視線を注ぐ)21。この極端な論理展開に


は、党や細胞他の組織や共同体などの問題である前に個人の〈弱さ〉や 生き方の問題に帰せられる〈転向〉を公共的な次元に引き上げようとす る小林の意図がはっきりと見て取れる。

#### 4. さまざまな転向者たちの語り

『転向者の手記』と『転向者の思想と生活』に集められた(小林本人以 外の)転向記の筆者(証言者)には幾つか重なりが見られる。小林は『転 向者の手記』の山口隼人、林勉、村井久四郎はそれぞれ『転向者の思想と 生活』の山口隼郎、東海林勉、岩永七郎のことだと明かしている。両書刊 行の二年の間に小林も含めてこれら転向者たちの境遇には少なからぬ変化 があったことは想像するに難くない。先に『転向者の手記』での手記につ いて言及した山口隼人(隼郎)についていえば、『転向者の思想と生活』 第一部で小林は転向者が農村開拓と農村における(小林にいわせれば階級 闘争を止揚した)「共同社会」の構築に努めている事例を挙げ、特に山口 のことを取り上げて「産業組合の事業に献身して確固たる基礎を造つてゐ る」と称えている22。だが、二年経過しての群馬における山口の農村改革 の活動は、彼が構想した「共同経営組合」の挫折によってまさに方向転 換を余儀なくされていたのである。

そこには地主と小作によって構成されていた組織の階級差意識による分 断や利益分配の原則が反発を招き共同経営の理想が破綻したことが示唆さ れている。その山口が活路を見出したのが「産業組合」(「農村組合」と も)の活動だった。この背景には、詳述はされていないが、おそらく1933 年から1935年のこの時期、政府によって産業組合法が改正され、山口が行 おうとした小さな部落単位の共同経営組合を飲み込むような全国組織化の 波が群馬の彼の地元にも訪れていたことがあろう。特に産業組合青年連盟 の動きは農村自治の熱気を持ったものだったが、山口がそれにどのように 呼応したのかはわからない。ただ、ここでも山口は農村改革を主導する指 導者の養成が必要だと小林に語り、それを「農村オルグ」と名づけている のである。こうした用語の選択には先にも述べた〈非転向的転向〉の姿勢 がなお垣間見られる。

小林はといえば、獄中で彼を〈改心〉に導いた教誨師・藤井恵照が東京 本部長を務めていた帝国更新会思想部に招かれて、『転向者の手記』刊行 の少し前からそこでの仕事に専従していた。1926年に藤井と当時司法省官 僚であった宮城長五郎(治安維持法成立に関与)によって設立された帝国 更新会が思想犯受け入れを始めたのは、1931年12月25日に仮釈放で出獄し た23小林を受け入れたのが最初だった24。1934年12月には同会の思想部が独 立して帝国更新会思想部が成立し、小林はそこで「転向者」保護の活動」 を展開していくのである25。

『共産党を脱する迄』から『転向者の手記』そして『転向者の思想と生 活』と出獄後に矢継ぎばやに〈転向本〉を刊行した小林杜人の中では、そ の数年の間に〈救われる者〉から〈救う者〉への転換が着実に進行してい たということなのだろう。山口隼人(隼郎)の例とはまた別のかたちで、 小林の場合も、検挙される前の農村運動の理想を転向後も連続させようと したと言えよう。しかし、本来〈断絶〉であるはずの転向を〈連続〉へと 反転させる小林の論理構造は、小林固有の異色のものでもなんでもなく、 世界的にみてきわめて日本的な現象であると言われてきた転向そのものに 内在する構造だったように思われるのである。

『転向者の手記』には一人だけ女性の手記が掲載されている。筆者名は 古島ゆき。秋田県出身で東京女子高等師範学校(家政科)在学中に学内運 動に関わり市ヶ谷刑務所に拘禁された。貴族出身の一人の女性が奈落の底 に落ちていく小説を読んで刺激を受けた彼女は共産主義に目覚めて、それ まで理想としてきた良妻賢母主義を捨てて共産党に入党。二度目の検挙の 時の尋問で党の秘密を喋ってしまったことに煩悶の日々を送る中で母親の 愛情と教誨師の導きで仏書に触れ念仏を唱えるようになる。古島は半年の 獄中生活で二重の〈裏切り〉を行った自己を振り返る。

母を欺き、家に背いて共産党に走つた私、理由はとも角、更に再 転して共産党員としての同志を裏切つた私、いな裏切らねばならぬ 私です。凡ての人に許しを乞ひたい、そして只許されて生きたい! その他に現在の私の行くべき道があらうとは思へませんでした。 傷つき汚れた凡ての人間を、そのまゝに受け入れ、そのまゝに 抱擁してくれるものが、仏であるとしたならば、現在のやうな罪 に喘ぐ私は、只管御仏の救ひにお縋りする外ないと思はれて参り ました26。

『転向者の手記』は「数ある転向者中、真に宗教に蘇つて一路更生に躍 進した27」人々に執筆を依頼して成り立った手記集なので、そこに宗教、 正確には仏教、それも浄土真宗の教えとそれを誘導する教誨師の存在が 大きく影を落としていることは言うまでもない。このことにはこの著作



<sup>25</sup> 前掲、殿平論考、p. 258.

の実質的な編者と思われる小林杜人が教誨師藤井恵照の導きで転向した ことが当然反映している。

古島の手記も「大悲の御手に縋るまで」という表題にあるように仏教の 教え導きへの感謝を強調している28。古島の転向にも小林のように教誨師が 介在しており、『歎異抄』や清沢満之の著作に触れているのだが、仏教の 教えの内実は彼女にとっては実はそれほど重要ではなかったのではないか と思われる。古島は出獄後に家庭と社会に復帰できたことを浄土真宗に言 う「如来大悲の恩徳」として感謝を綴っているのだが、同時に「以前の私 でしたら、何ものをも投げ棄て、この宗教の宣伝に一生を捧げる、などゝ 決心したかもしれませんが、つくづく自分の弱さといふものを知つた現在 の私は、嘘にもそんな夢は持ち得ません」と率直に告白するのである29。こ れでは親鸞の言う「如来大悲の恩徳は、身を粉にしても報ずべし」という 教えにも反するだろう。彼女の場合、親や仲間を立て続けに裏切ってきた ことが自身の「弱さ」に由来すると考えるがゆえに、他律的世界しかもは や受け入れられなくなっていたのかもしれない。

#### 5. 〈宗教は阿片〉──宗教批判は克服されたのか

古島の語った、母を欺いて共産主義者になり、獄中では転向して共産党 同志を裏切る二重の裏切り、〈裏切りの連鎖〉は、彼女だけに限らず多く の転向者が共有していたトラウマであっただろう。そしてそこに救済の手 を差し伸べてきたのが仏教だった。しかも仏教の教えは小林が唱える大家 族主義と天皇制絶対主義あるいは農本主義と芋づる式につながり、その組 み合わせは様々とはいえ、〈仏教〉〈家族(特に母)〉〈天皇〉〈農〉の 四つがいわばセットで提供されたものだった。とはいえ、古島の手記に限 らず転向者の人々による語りの記録がすべて彼ら彼女らの心中をいつわり なく表していたと考えることが出来ないことも、また事実であろう。そも そもこれらの手記の全ては彼ら彼女らが自ら望んで書いたものとは考えに くい。中には手記を書くことに躊躇いを覚えた者もいただろう。転向の手 記は一種の自白書であり告白録=懺悔録であり、再犯を行わないという誓 約書の役割も果たしたからだ(後記、角田守平の回想も参照)。そうした 形の見えない権力の抑圧に小林杜人や帝国更新会の人々が加担していたこ とは、これは否定することが出来ないであろう。

<sup>28</sup> 教誨師の役割を基軸に転向の問題を考察しているアダム・ライオンズ(Adam Lyons)は古島の転向体験の物語化を転向プログラムの代表例として位置づ け、「(教誨師の介入による転向プログラムの)矯正システムは、政治参 加を個人的な救済願望に置き換える戦略である、社会的孤立と宗教の導き の組み合わせにもとづいていた」と捉えている。Lyons A. 2019, *From Marxism to Religion: Thought Crimes and Forced Conversions in Imperial Japan*, «Japanese Journal of Religious Studies» 46 (2): 210.

<sup>29</sup> 前掲書、p.73.

転向というイヴェントは形式的に見れば、それまでの〈いつわりの自 己〉から〈真正の自己〉への回帰またはアップグレードなのだが、その 舞台裏には他者(家族、同志など)そして自己自身に対していつわること や裏切ることが複雑な時間系列の中で波打つように起こっていたからだ。 古島の転向においては仏教の教えはそのきっかけを超えるものではなかっ ただろう。そして転向にまつわる三点/四点セット(仏教/家族/天皇/ 農)がどの程度までその後の彼女の生活の実践と規範に根を張っていたの かは辿ることが出来ないのである。

殿平善彦は1937年の司法保護統計(「昭和十二年中保護観察処分者の思 想状態調」)の「転向動機」の統計30から「公的な動機」(「信仰上」 「理論の清算」「国民的自覚」)が39.8パーセントであるのに対して「私的 な動機」(「家庭関係」「身上関係」「拘禁による後悔」)が54.3パーセ ントに上ることをもとに、それが「転向動機が一般に極めて単純であった 事を意味する」と指摘し、それを「天皇制権力」が拘禁者に対して「無制 限に転向をせまり続け」「あらゆる手段で努力を傾けた無惨な結果」だ と述べている31。この統計の数値のもとになった拘禁者/転向者の個々の 〈告白〉にどの程度の客観性があるかについては考慮する必要があるが、こ

れを前提にすれば、転向者の多数は、小林が〈物語〉化しているような、 天皇主義、大家族主義あるいは農本主義といった思想を信念をもって選び とる〈国民化〉儀礼としての主体的な転向思想などとはつながりが薄かっ たということになる。

但し、ここでの転向動機の〈公私〉の区分は必ずしも明確ではないだ ろう。とりわけ「信仰上」という動機を「公的な動機」と見なすことに は注意を要する。獄中で教誨師が差し向ける言葉や仏書の誘導は、尋問 や拷問によって繰り返される心身への暴力に耐えかねて自身の思想と運 動の仲間を裏切る口実を転向者らに与えたことは間違いないだろうから だ。「彼らが転向に於ける新たな自己確立を真宗に求めたにもかかわら ず、真宗信仰は、彼らに自立的宗教的主体性を何ら提供することができ なかっただけでなく、天皇制イデオロギーの奉仕者としての「主体性」 を提供しえた」のである32。

後続の『転向者の思想と生活』にも仏教の転向への介入の大きさを裏 づける手記が幾つかある。例えば池ノ内三雄は二度目の検挙拘禁の際に 浄土真宗ではなく日蓮宗への信仰を媒介に転向したが、自身が熱心な日 蓮宗徒でもあった母親の母性愛と日蓮宗の信仰とが渾然となっているこ とを示している33。小林の紹介では池ノ内は転向後は日蓮宗の教えに基づ

<sup>32</sup> 殿平前掲論考、前掲書、p. 265.

<sup>30</sup> 受入総数は男女合わせて1,333名。うち非転向はわずかに63名で、転向者総数 はそれを引いた1270名となる(男女比は男は1,205名、女が65名)。

<sup>31</sup> 殿平前掲論考、前掲書、p. 261.

<sup>33</sup> 池ノ内三雄「仏陀の大慈悲に浴して」、小林編『転向者の思想と生活』、pp. 353-365参照。

いて更生を期した施設「妙法苑」を浦和に開き、「理想的農法」の実践 に取り組んだ34。池ノ内の場合は〈仏教/家族(母)/農〉を典型的に組 み合わせた転向だった35。

出原優という転向者の場合も転向後、郷里の岡山で〈土いじり〉の農業 生活に勤しむという点では池ノ内と同類である。「私は「農」を通じて、 私の帰依し信仰する御仏を表現して行く。大地に振り下ろす一鍬一鍬の中 に南無阿彌陀仏の信仰を織り込んで行く36」という手記に語られた言葉にも 明らかだろう。獄中で仏教者となり京都に顕真学苑を興した梅原真隆に傾 倒した出原の場合は池ノ内以上に宗教との関わりは深い。転向に至る獄中 においてマルクス主義と宗教とが彼らの精神生活の基盤として入れ替わる 現象は、〈宗教は民衆の阿片〉という、小林杜人の編著の中でもたびたび 転向者が引例するマルクス(『ヘーゲル法哲学批判序説』)の言葉が象徴 的な意味を帯びてくる位相に成立している。マルクスはこの言葉を書きつ けたその直後に〈宗教批判〉について次のように記している。

民衆に幻想のうちだけの幸福感を与える宗教を廃棄するというこ とは、民衆に現実の幸福を与えることを要求するということであ る。民衆に、みずからの現実の状態についての幻想を放棄すべき であることを要求するということは、幻想を必要とするような状

#### <sup>34</sup> 池ノ内、前掲文、前掲書、pp. 116-117.


況を廃棄することを要求することである。だから宗教批判とは、 嘆きの谷への批判の萌芽である。歎きの谷に聖なるものという仮 象[光輪]を与えるものこそ、宗教だからである。[中山元訳、 傍点原文]37。

宗教と思想とは、いずれもが現実変革というモメントを内在させている 点において本源的に相同的関係にあるが、それが差異性へと進み対立へと 転回していく帰結として、両者は排中律的関係として受けとめられること になる。とりわけ転向においては仏教、就中、他力本願や悪人正機説等に 代表される浄土真宗の教えはマルクス主義唯物論とは取り替えのきかない 関係にある。中でも家族の絆、家族の恩愛の自覚という点は、両者の間で は決して折り合えないものとして転向記では共通して綴られることにな る。浄土真宗を媒介にしてのマルクス主義の克服と社会復帰である転向の 過程を、小林杜人は「合掌の世界」による「闘争主義」の克服として描き 出し、それを未来の転向者に差し出したのだと言える。

〈宗教は民衆の阿片〉とは現実生活の次元に幸福をもたらすことのな い宗教を批判する言葉なのだが、小林および藤井恵照ら帝国更新会に代 表される転向を誘導する宗教の位置に立ってみれば、マルクス主義(共 産主義)こそが〈現実という不幸〉の次元にあるものなのであり、仏の 導きによって、それと連繋したところの天皇制への帰心に転じることに よって〈現実という不幸〉を〈現実の幸福〉(wirkliches Glück)へとす り替えることが出来るのである。もちろん監獄の外部からも日本赤色救 援会(国際赤色救援会[モップル]支部)などの救援の手がなかったわ けではないが、それは監獄内部に満たされた「合掌の世界」の前には余 りにも無力だったのである。

『転向者の思想と生活』に「陛下の赤子たる自覚に立ちて」という手記 を寄せている角田守平(儀平治38)は東京帝国大学法学部を卒業した後、 その日本赤色救援会で弁護士として共産党事件被告たちの弁護活動に従事 した人物である。1930年には豊多摩刑務所に収容されていた徳田、志賀、 佐野、鍋山らを訪問、激励しているほか、翌年には満洲の大連刑務所、京


城の西大門刑務所にも行っている39。自身も検挙された角田が家族や親族 からの転向の勧めを拒否し続けるが結局転向してしまうのは、表題にあ る「陛下の赤子たる自覚」にもとづくものだという。

教誨師による浄土真宗への導きのことや転向後は「郷党の恩」に報いる ために郷里に帰郷したことも記しているが、角田の場合は手記を読む限り 「転向動機」ははっきりと天皇への帰依に中心化されていると言える。 「我々は過去に於て共産主義者であつたといふ事実にすら拘泥せず、陛 下の赤子たる自覚に立ち日本国家に凡てを投託し得る大安心を得ること により、飽迄明朗潤達な気持になり度いものです」という言葉がそれを 物語っているが、これもよくよく読んでみると「転向動機」としては不 合理性を含んでいる。

「陛下の赤子たる自覚」を持つことで「日本国家に凡てを投託し得る」、 それが「大安心」をもたらし「明朗潤達な気持」を与えてくれる(そして その安心や明朗闊達な気持ちが共産主義者としての過去との同一性のトラ ウマを消し去ってくれる)という論理展開だが、本来はこれは全て逆進行 で成り立つ論理なのではないだろうか。(〈現実という不幸〉と闘った) 共産主義者の過去を忘れたい(消したい)、そして安心と明朗闊達(現実 の幸福)を得たいがために国家に服従する、すなわち天皇への絶対帰依を 受け入れる(自覚する)というように──。因果あるいは目的と手段を転 倒させた角田の事例もまた転向者が転向を決断する精神的過程のメカニズ ムの典型を提示しているはずである。

角田は後年『わが告白』という回想録の中で転向に至る自身の精神的過 程について語っている。それがこの手記の論旨と完全に同じにならないの は当然のことである。まず後年の回想では「陛下の赤子」などという表現 や皇室への帰依に関わる文言は一切ない。角田は「治安維持法違反で逮捕 された共産主義者は手記を書くのが例であった」とし、黙秘権を行使した 彼は最初は手記を書くことを拒んだが、転向を決意してからは警察署内 で40日をかけて手記を書いたという。「これを法律的にいえば自白書で あり、宗教的にいえば罪の告白である。過去の思想ならびに行動と訣別 するためには必要な過程でもあった40」。ここに言う「手記」はもちろん 『転向者の思想と生活』掲載の手記と同じものではない。日本的特性、特 にその家族制度を無視し否定したコミンテルン主導の共産主義への強い懐 疑は、『転向者の思想と生活』の手記には記されていない。また角田は藤 井恵照にも恩顧を受けて島地大等らの仏書にも親しんだが、聖書に触れた ことでプロテスタントの信仰に入った41。出獄の2年後には前橋の教会でカ トリックに改宗し、以後はキリスト者として生を全うしている。

<sup>39</sup> 角田儀平治『わが告白』(聖ヨゼフの家、1982)、p. 35参照。

<sup>40</sup> 前掲書、p. 23.

<sup>41</sup> 「私は共産党員として逮捕され、プロテスタントとして出獄した」。前掲 書、p. 22.

さて、『転向者の思想と生活』にも『転向者の手記』における古島ゆ きと同様、一人だけ女性の書き手による手記が掲載されている(女性の 手記が少ないのは、先に挙げた1937年の司法保護統計での女性の比率が 5パーセント程度なので不自然とは言えない)。「マルキシズムに救はれ なかつた私」という手記を書いている松原千代という転向者だ。教職に ありながら上掲の角田守平と同じく日本赤色救援会の一員として活動し て検挙されている。

彼女の場合も転向後の精神のケアを受けた点で、小林と同じく「F師」 こと教誨師の藤井恵照が介在し、藤井が与えた仏書を読みふけることで 精神の安定を取り戻したという〈物語〉がそこには用意されている。し かしながら、身寄りの少ない孤独の中での獄中生活が精神を病むなど辛 いものだったと語られる一方で、松原の手記には、他の男性転向者たち の転向前後の記述に見られるような思い詰めたような狂熱的な高ぶりは 稀薄である。むしろ冷静に自身と周囲の状況を観察するリアリズムのま なざしが勝っている。

例えば出獄後に久しぶりで見た娑婆の世界を評して「驚いたのは、私が 獄中で考へてゐた時よりも世は遙かに凄じい転向時代であつたことです42」 と述べている。転向は監獄の中だけで起きていたのではなく社会に広く行 き渡ってしまっている、と見ているのだ。あるいは「社会は相変らずゴツ タ、スツタの連続ですが、我々転向者が、どんな思想的内容で転向したに しろ社会悪に対する一度開いた眼が、急に閉ぢられる筈もないのでありま して、随つて、社会改良とか変革とかに対するマルキシズムに代る積極的 意見を持たぬ私は、悩みも相当深いものがあるのです43」と、転向後も社会 を変えるという視点を失わず、マルクス主義に代替する思想が見つけられ ていないと率直に語るのである。ここには前に述べた山口隼郎(隼人)と はまた別の意味での〈非転向としての転向〉が垣間見られるのである。

松原は自身の宗教体験を語りつつも「宗教的信念は或ひは、政治や経済 の組織変革の上には、直接の動力とはなり得ないでせう」とも述べる。 もちろん彼女の意図は唯物論は社会を変革できても人間をフォローする ことは出来ない、というところにあるのだが、同時に宗教が〈現実とい う不幸〉に対して無力であることも認めているのである。それに人間に 主体性を置く松原は、「人(Mensch)が宗教を作るのであって、宗教が 人間(Menschen)を作るのではない」(*Der Mensch macht die Religion, die Religion macht nicht den Menschen.* )というマルクスの考えからいまだ遠く 離れてはいない。

「宗教は阿片なり」と一言で片付けてしまふマルキシストから見た ならば、転向者のかうした言葉は、苦しまぎれの逃口上だとも、独 善主義への転落だとも云ふでありませう。「背教者」であり、或ひ

<sup>42</sup> 前掲書、p. 319.

<sup>43</sup> 前掲書、pp. 319-320.

は「独善主義者」であるかもしれない私も、たゞ感謝すべき事は社 会生活の基調を報恩行に見出したことであります。

顧りみますと、マルキシストとして奔命した闘争の生活も、不安懊 悩に日を送つた牢獄の生活も、すべては私を一歩前進させるための 有り難い因縁でありました。私は無理のない気持で、今かう思ふの であります44。

松原千代の手記の、これが結論である。ここにもまさに「宗教は阿片な り」というマルクスの言葉が引かれているのだが、「背教者」「独善主義 者」という(非転向あるいは未転向の)仲間たちから差し向けられるだろ う視線を受けとめようともしていることがわかる。そして共産主義者とし ての運動の時間も獄中の懊悩の時間も、彼女の中では決して否定されてい ない。これはいわゆる偽装転向でもない。いや、そもそも彼女は転向すら していなかったのではないか

転向者の更生と社会復帰を主眼に置く編者の小林杜人はこうした転向/ 非転向のあいまいさを見抜いていたのかどうか。ただ、少なくとも転向を 徹底させその〈再犯〉を予防する側はリアリスティックな眼で転向者を見 ていたことは確実である。「昭和十八年八月 思想研究資料 特輯第九 十五号」として司法省刑事局から出されている極秘資料「左翼前歴者の 転向問題に就て」45で東京掲示地方裁判所判事の樋口勝による「左翼前歴 者の転向問題に就て」という大部の論文がある。樋口の関心は一にかか って転向を表明した左翼思想犯のその転向が真正の〈転向〉たり得るの かという疑問にあった。

樋口によれば転向は「マルクス主義を日本化」することや社会民主主義 や自由主義等に転化する次元であっては断じてならず、「マルクス主義的 意識そのものゝ全面的棄滅」「西欧的近代意識(……)そのものゝ端的な る破却」でなければならない46。このような立場から彼は何よりもどのよう な状態をもって転向はなされたのか、偽装転向はどのように防ぎ得るのか という泥沼のようなシニシズムにはまっていく。「共産主義を信奉しても 所謂共産主義者とは思つて居りませぬ\*47」と公判廷の訊問で答えた思想犯 の言葉などは樋口の立場にとっては鵺のように不可解で脅威を与えるに十 分であっただろう。取り締まる側のこのような〈不安〉を取り除けるのは 「日本臣民として皇国の道義の自覚に徹する」という〈超越〉しかなかっ たと言えよう48。この空虚な〈超越〉への自己投企において転向者と国家 権力とは皮肉にも通底していたのである。

<sup>44</sup> 前掲書、pp. 320-321.

<sup>46</sup> 前掲『左翼前歴者の転向問題に就て/生活主義教育運動に就て』pp. 8-9.

<sup>47</sup> 前掲書、p. 67.

<sup>48</sup> 前掲書、p. 9.

<sup>45</sup> 復刻版、社会問題資料研究会編・社会問題資料叢書第1輯『左翼前歴者の転向 問題に就て/生活主義教育運動に就て』(東洋文化社、1972)を参照。

6. 残された課題 ─ 浄土真宗と教誨師その他

ここまで小林杜人自身の手記と彼が編集に関わった転向手記集を見てき たが、最後に今後の課題について述べておきたい。まず転向者の内面過程 に浄土真宗が大きく介在していることをどう見るかという大きな課題があ る。一般に仏教と国家主義とのつながりということでは、宗教政党の力で 憲法を改正して日蓮宗を国教化し神権政治を目指した49田中智学を始めと して井上日召、北一輝、石原莞爾の事例など、日蓮宗の関係者が想起され るが、それとは別に浄土真宗教団の戦争責任についても戦後議論がなさ れてきた。さらに中島岳志『親鸞と日本主義』(新潮社、2017)のよう に親鸞思想がどのように国体論と接合されていったのかを思想の内実に 入って捉えようとする批評も生まれている。

しかし、転向論の文脈で浄土真宗のことが問われべきは何をおいても 藤井恵照ら教誨師の存在であろう。教誨師については前掲の殿平嘉彦、 副島望、萬田慶太らの論考に加えて前川亨50にすぐれた研究成果がある。 殿平が指摘するように監獄における教誨活動は事実上浄土真宗の東西本 願寺によって独占されていくようになるのだが、前川は両教団の自己批 判の不徹底を批判した上で、戦後に至る宗教教誨による「矯正のテクノ ロジー」のあり方を問題化している。

右の中島は小林杜人や山口隼郎のことも取り上げているのだが、その山 口や上掲の松原を始めとして、これまで見てきた手記の中で転向者の何 人かが教誨師の導きで出会った島地大等の『思想と信仰』(初版1928) の影響の大きさについて語っていること、しかも『転向者の思想と生活』 の松原千代と岩内隆平(転向後、下中弥三郎が創設した国家主義団体、 新日本国民同盟で活動)という人物が、p. 500を優にこえるこの大著の中 から巻頭の「仏教の同胞思想に就て」という文章を共通して取り上げて いることは興味深い。

島地の称える「同胞思想」(ブラザーフード)は『梵網経』の「一切の 男子は是れ吾が父、一切の女子は是れ吾が母」「六道衆生は皆是れ吾が父 母なり」といった一節を前提にして、「神秘的家族主義」という独自の大 乗的家族主義を打ち立てるのだが、これは他民族や異教徒をも包含する大 乗思想を反映しており、「全人類は均しく事実上の父であり母であると見 る51」という発想は台湾や朝鮮への同化主義的植民地統治や満洲の五族共 和政策にもつながる要素を持っており、これは〈内鮮一体〉のもとで転 向思想を発展させようとする小林杜人の志向と一致する。

<sup>49</sup> 近江幸正「ファシズムと仏教──国家主義思想としての日蓮主義──」、前 掲、講座日本近代と仏教8『戦時下の仏教』、p. 135参照。

<sup>50</sup> 前川亨「教誨師の光と影: その思想史的考察」(『専修大学法学研究所所報』 第53号、2016・12 )

<sup>51</sup> 島地大等『思想と信仰』(復刊・仏教書林中山書房、1978)、p. 16.

島地は1927年に亡くなっているので、その膨張的家族主義が転向者に 影響を与えたのはあくまで著作を通じてであったが、それは転向後の転 向者の思想を大東亜新秩序や総力戦の体制に紐付けした可能性はあるだ ろう。そして言うまでもなく島地らの思想を彼らに引き合わせた藤井恵 照ら教誨師の役割についても検討される必要がある52。藤井の場合、教誨 師の仕事を1902年から1940年までの長きにわたって勤め、思想犯ととも に死刑囚(その数200有余名53)の教誨を担当した。死刑囚の中では〈鈴 弁殺し事件〉と呼ばれたバラバラ殺人事件の犯人に教誨師として接し、 著書『死刑囚物語』(百華苑、1951)の中でも仏教の信仰を厚くした彼 がいかに美しく執行の日を迎えたかを共感をもって物語化している。死刑 囚に接する藤井の回想を見る限り、そこには獄中にある者の言葉に耳を傾 け、間近にある死に静かに向き合わせる善意ある仏教者が物語化されてい るとしか言いようがない。しかし教誨師一般について言うならば、前川亨 が西本願寺の教誨師向けに発行している書物にある戦前の教誨活動の絶賛 と自己弁護に対して「国家主義イデオロギーの注入に教誨師が積極的な働 きをしなかったというのは事実に反する54」ときびしく批判していること には留意しておくべきであろう。

教誨師が国家権力の管理下の監獄において思想犯を仏教の教えで善導 し、共産主義思想をそれに塗り替える役割を果たしたことは明白で、死刑 囚に対して果たしたことと同一に考えることは出来ない。小林杜人ら転向 者の尊敬を集めた藤井らの教誨事業そして小林も関わっての帝国更新会や 両全会などにおける更生保護事業に対する評価の方法も課題となろう。

小林の没後に刊行された前掲『「転向期」のひとびと』には、転向後 の帝国更新会での事業、そして転向者の「指導的精神55」の研究のために 帝国更新会と藤井恵照の支援を得て創設された国民思想研究所での活動 などについて回想されているが、これらの活動が彼の〈転向の思想〉を どのように具体化していったのかについても考察を拡げる必要がある。

同書には国民思想研究所から1935年8月に創刊された機関誌『轉生』創 刊号の目次が掲載されているが、そこには小林のほか庄司徹(村山藤四 郎)、西光万吉(全国水平社の創立者。水平社の運動には小林も長野の労 農運動時代に関与していた)、池ノ内三雄、金錬學、角田守平といった、 これまで取り上げてきた『転向者の手記』『転向者の思想と生活』に手記


<sup>52</sup> 前掲萬田論考にも「『思想と信仰』の意図は教誨にはなかった。だが、藤井 恵照によって転向者たちに読むことが勧められ、帝国更新会の思想的バック ボーンとなっていく」という指摘がある(p. 33)。

の執筆者が結集している56。翌年の1936年に同誌は『国民思想』と解題さ れて1941年4月の終刊号まで刊行を続けた。『「転向期」のひとびと』は 『国民思想』掲載の論説等を抜き出して紹介しているが、その執筆者を見 ると、上記の転向手記集に執筆し帝国更新会に所属した転向の同朋らとと もに、転向者と(表向きかもしれないが)その賛同者の巨大なネットワー クを雑誌を通して築こうとしていることが見えてくる。そこには山田清三 郎、高倉テル、徳永直、佐野学、亀井勝一郎、倉田百三、妹尾義郎らの名 前も見ることが出来る。

新聞雑誌統廃合のために廃刊することになった同誌の終刊号巻頭の3篇 「廃刊に際して」「新しい出発──自己批判として──」「国民思想の追 想」は、いずれも小林杜人が書いている。「新しい出発」には次のような 言葉が見出せる。「しかしながら私は日本人である以上すべての人が転向 することを信じて居る。元々我々は日本国民であつたのだ57」。天皇に 「帰一」する日本人であるという〈超越〉的転向の論理はここでも微動だに していない。そして「我々こそは国民のだれよりも多く反省し私心を去 らねばならぬ58」とも言う。

国民の日陰者の国民を脱して〈最も純化された国民〉として生まれ変わ った転向者はもはや国体と完全に同期しているようにも見える。「転向者 とか、前歴者とか言はるゝ言葉を無くするようにしよう。我々は全体がみ そぎはらひによつて更に更に一層純化するべきである59」。『国民思想』 を辿って読んでいくと、満洲開拓や総力戦体制への順応が色濃く、その 過程で小林自身も応召した日中戦争に加えて、終刊号の出たその年の暮 れにはアジア太平洋戦争が始まる。そのような戦争の深まりに適応する かたちで、彼らは自らの〈転向者〉としての新しい同一性を探し直すこ とを迫られていたのである。


<sup>56</sup> 『轉生』創刊号の巻末には「相談部」という読者(転向者)からの相談を受 け付ける項目があり、同号では藤井恵照が解答している。それによると帝国 更新会が東京市職業課の協力を得て斡旋た転向者の就職率は90%に上るとのこ とだが、一方で同号に小林が寄稿した「農村の同志に潤ひある生活を」には 帰村した転向者に対する農村の無理解のことが述べられており、本稿でも度 々言及した山口隼郎などは《「また危険な事を何かやり出すのであらう」と のデマも飛んだ》(p. 71)などと、その苦労について記しており、農村におけ る転向者の〈転生〉の困難を率直に語っている点が興味深い。

CHINESE STUDIES

# Chinese migration(s) to Italy beyond stereotypes and simplistic views: the case of the graphic novels *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen*

Andrea Scibetta

**Abstract**: The current contribution aims at describing some key-aspects of Rocchi and Demonte's graphic novels *Primavere e Autunni* (2015) and *Chinamen* (2017), especially in relation to: 1) the historical reconstruction of Chinese migration to Italy; 2) the challenge of widespreading negative stereotypes against Chinese migrants, which still characterize dominant public discourse in the Italian society. The first paragraph will highlight theoretical aspects of both works, in particular relation to the literature on migration and of migration, with Sinoitalian literature, as well as with macro- and micro-aspects of Chinese migration to Italy. After that, some common points of both works will be underlined, including structure and style, semiotic aspects, communicative functions and multimodality. The third paragraph will specifically focus on a series of key-figures described in the graphic novels, which contribute to draw the attention to specific aspects regarding Chinese historical presence in Milan and in Italy.

**Keywords**: Chinese migration, graphic novel, literature on/of migrations, challenge to stereotypes, multimodality.

摘要: 本文的目标为分析Rocchi 和 Demonte编写的两部分别在2015年和2017年出版的图像小 说*Primavere e Autunni* 和 *Chinamen* 中 的一些方面,尤其是: 1)两本小说中关于中国人移民 意大利的历史事件; 2) 对意大利社会中还比较普遍的关于中国移民的刻板印象的挑战。本文的 第一部分强调两部图像小说的理论基础,尤其是两部作品分别与移民文学、中意文学间的联系。 第二部分的主题为两部图像小说的共同点,尤其是关于大概结构、风格、内容的交际功能和多模 态化。第三部分对两部作品中一些关键人物进行分析。通过对这些人物的描述,读者们能够更深 刻地了解历史上移民意大利(尤其是米兰)的中国人的一些特征。

关键词: 中国移民,图像小说,移民文学,刻板印象的挑战,多模态化。

1. Introduction. A journey through time, space and society, beyond simplistic reconstructions

A journey through time, space, social changes, a kaleidoscopic view on micro- and macro historical events, a challenge of widespreading stereotypes and prejudices related to Chinese people residing in Italy: these can be some of the impressions that a reader of *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* can draw from both graphic novels. These works, in fact, might be understood as narratives, but they also play an important role in terms of accuracy in historical reconstruction as well as in pedagogical terms (Scibetta 2019).

Andrea Scibetta, University of Florence, Italy, andrea.scibetta@unifi.it, 0000-0002-2088-5569 FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Andrea Scibetta, *Chinese migration(s) to Italy beyond stereotypes and simplistic views: the case of the graphic novels* Primavere e Autunni *and* Chinamen, pp. 91-108, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.05, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways*  雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

#### Andrea Scibetta

The authors are Ciaj Rocchi and Matteo Demonte, who are both illustrators and video-makers as well as members of an independent union of movie directors, actors and technicians. Matteo Demonte, in particular, has Chinese ancestors and has studied Chinese language and calligraphy for many years. The first of the two graphic novels analyzed in this contribution is *Primavere e Autunni* and was published in 2015 with the publishing house Becco Giallo. Its title takes its inspiration from the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, traditionally attributed to Confucius. Like this last majestic work, in fact, *Primavere e Autunni* attempts to accurately reconstruct the most relevant historical events in the life of Wu Lishan, Matteo's grandfather, a man who decided to migrate to Europe from the village of Qingtian in the Province of Zhejiang (which has represented an important starting point for thousands of migrants for decades). The graphic novel sums up the personal events of Mr. Wu, from his arrival in Milan in 1931, after having resided in the Netherlands and in France (as many of his compatriots used to do before moving to Italy), until the birth of his grandson Matteo, son of his daughter Luciana (Wu Luqiu) in 1973. A book-trailer, containing animated images reproducing some of the main tables of the work, matched with the voice of an external narrator, was released together with the graphic novel. Besides the Italian edition, a Chinese version of the graphic novel, entitled *Chunqiu* 春秋, was published and commercialized in People's Republic of China in 2018 with the editor Dang Dang. This Chinese version, however, slightly differs from the original one, since it contains some modifications in terms of content and form, and does not include some tables concerning specific historical references.

The second graphic novel, entitled *Chinamen. Un secolo di cinesi a Milano* (i.e. *Chinamen. A Century of Chinese People in Milan*) was published in 2017, still with Becco Giallo. Although the keyword of the title, namely «Chinamen», has traditionally approached negative connotations of Chinese migrants, especially in the North-American context (Zhang 2019), and thus might appear as semantically ambiguous, the authors' intention is simply to underline that until the fifties Chinese migration to Italy used to be composed exclusively by men (Rocchi 2017: 142). As in the case of the previous work, also *Chinamen* was published together with an animated book-trailer containing the same title and a similar graphic layout compared to the other one. Both the graphic novel and the book-trailer were presented within a special exhibition on Chinese migration to Italy at the Museum of Cultures (Museo Delle Culture – MUDEC) in Milan. The exhibition was organized and realized by a team of researchers from the Università dell'Insubria (Varese, Lombardy), under the scientific supervision of sinologist Daniele Brigadoi Cologna. The main goal at the basis of the exhibition was to draw the attention to the century-old history of Chinese presence in Milan through the display of various kinds of historical finds (pictures, documents, and objects) belonging to Chinese migrants. Moreover, a relevant number of those historical finds contributed to the iconographic documentation characterizing the tables and the animations by Ciaj Rocchi and Matteo Demonte (Brigadoi Cologna 2017: 158). As for the other graphic novel, a new version in Chinese has recently been published with the editor Dang Dang in the People's Republic of China.

Unlike *Primavere e Autunni*, which contains the main events of Wu Lishan's personal history on its foreground, in *Chinamen* the authors try to put together multiple histories of different Chinese migrants in Italy, focusing on their personal and familiar events, and, in most cases, also on their social and professional affirmation within the Italian context (Scibetta 2019). On the background of both novels there are continuous references to the history of Milan, to Italian history, to the history of the Republic of China and of the People's Republic of China, as well as on international relations between Italy and China.

1.1 An in-between space where literature of migration and literature on migration are blended

As mentioned above, a narrative dimension and a historical one are blended in both works: this balance between narration of personal and familiar events of single migrants and historical reconstruction of a broader, century-long process contributes to the construction of an in-between space in which «literature on migration» and «literature of migration» are strictly intertwined (Scibetta 2019: 107).

On the one hand, in fact, both works show an accurate tendency to give back to the collectivity aspects of history previously repressed by mainstream discourse; on the other hand, narrations appear to be emotionally participated, especially by Matteo Demonte because of his familial links with some of the characters. Such an in-between space can be read through the lens of *postmemory*, as argued by Giuliani (2019a: 39). Taking into account Hirsch's understanding of this concept, in fact,

postmemory is distinguished from memory by generational distance and from history by deep personal connection. Postmemory is a powerful and very particular form of memory precisely because its connection to its object or source is mediated not through recollection but through an imaginative investment and creation (Hirsch 2011: 22; also in Giuliani 2019a: 40).

Hence, in light of Matteo Demonte's emotional involvement in the construction of both works due to his intergenerational relationship with his ancestors, and considering that the authors collected a relevant amount information and proofs directly from Matteo's relatives, postmemory might be one of the most appropriate labels in order to approach the two graphic novels1 .

<sup>1</sup> In this perspective, it might be interesting to notice that at the beginning of *Chinamen*, while describing the arrival of the salesman Wu Qiankui at the International Exposition held in Milan in 1906, since the authors did not have any photographic evidence of the physical aspect of this character, it was decided to portray his face using the features of Matteo Demonte's face, with a Manchu cue and Manchu garments.

#### Andrea Scibetta

In addition, reflecting on the «boundaries» of the definition of «Sinoitalian literature» (Pedone 2014), we might ask ourselves whether these two works can be included within this domain, or whether they can be conceived in proximity with it (Scibetta 2019). We can certainly notice some links which create a common ground with this literary trend: among all, there are discourses of/ on migration, in particular on identity construction and social affirmation, the issue of cultural belonging and hybridity explained by different characters, the authors' will to deconstruct and fight against some widespread negative stereotypes related to Chinese migrants (Rocchi and Demonte 2015: 6). However, we shall also identify some gaps with Sinoitalian literature and Sinoitalian writers in general. Some of the main questions stressing on such possible gaps might be: to what extent can Matteo Demonte be defined a Sinoitalian writer? Should it be right to label him as such? Is it possible to talk about third-generation Sinoitalians? Would such a definition be too ambiguous or too contradictory in these cases? It might therefore be interesting to ask whether we should reflect on new possible labels to better describe cultural productions like *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen*. We shall argue that also in this case the works can be situated in an in-between space.

The genre is not new in this domain at an international level. Art Spiegelmann's *Maus* can be certainly conceived in the field of postmemory, even if it deals with different topics (the familiar traumas of the Holocaust) (Art 1980). Shaun Tan's *The arrival* (2006) is closer to *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* in terms of contents, whereas in its layout it resembles a silent book rather than a graphic novel. Within the frame of «Sino-American literature» (Yin 2000), instead, it is worth mentioning Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel *American-born Chinese* (2006), both for the contiguity of some of its main contents with those of Rocchi and Demonte's works, and for the implications related to the deconstruction of negative stereotypes which can be drawn from its reading. As regards the Italian context, however, the reconstruction of relevant aspects of the history of Chinese migration to Italy (and, probably, of migration to Italy in general) through graphic novels appears to be an innovation in cultural production.

1.2 Unveiling one century of history of Chinese migration to Italy: beyond simplistic reconstructions and stereotypes

The *topos* of the deconstruction of widespread negative stereotypes and prejudices against Chinese migrants characterizes the production of several Sinoitalian writers and artists (Pedone 2016). Among all, some examples can be represented by Hu Lanbo, who often provides a 'domesticated' image of China, diametrically opposed to the stereotypical one conveyed by mass media and public discourses (Pedone 2016: 109); Shi Yang Shi, writer and actor who often provocatively jokes with the main characteristics of Chinese migrants' varieties of Italian with Chinese accent by performing translinguistic practices; Marco Wong who, in his book *Nettare rosso* (*Red Nectar*, 2010), challenges the stereotypical image of docile and introverted Chinese women.

In contrast with what mentioned above, mainstream Italian literature and cultural production too often tend to emphasize prejudices and distorted images of Chinese migrants, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes rather consciously. Chu (2001, 2014, 2019) and Giuliani (2019b) in particular, have repeatedly underlined that such representations involve a relevant variety of cultural products, from movies and TV series to books belonging to different genres, and contemplate a wide range of images of China and Chinese people, from China as the new imperialist power to common stereotypes projected on single Chinese persons. In Chu's (2019: 384) opinion, the pervasiveness and the recurrence of such multiple distorted representations produce the effect of reiterating and strengthening unreal narrations:

Such representations, which include crime fiction for adults and adolescents, sci-fi, dystopian 'climate fiction', and film comedy and drama, contribute to the popular imaginary of China and, in some cases, while textual and paratextual evidence suggests the author's intention to critique that imaginary, the potency of the ideological framework within which they are inscribed produces results which, in effect, ultimately reiterate and reinforce certain narrative tropes.

In addition, several works by Zhang Gaoheng (2017, 2019 *inter alia*) focus on the construction and the strengthening of negative stereotypical views on Chinese residents in Italy in mainstream cinema and media. As regards the role played by media in particular, Zhang (2017: 386) highlights the fact that it is often possible to assist to one-way debates on Chinese people, where only a distorted point of view of the society is reported, and no Chinese interlocutors are present:

Is the ethnic business model based on self-employment adopted by most Chinese migrant workers and entrepreneurs in Italy damaging or contributing to the local economy? Are Italy's Chinese helping trade between Italy and China to the benefit of the former or the latter? Can Chinese be integrated into the local social fabrics? Can Chinese be assimilated into Italian culture? Are such integration and assimilation desirable? In the public arena, these ongoing debates are mediated, at times molded, by journalism, television, literature, cinema and other media forms. Surveying the conveyance of these issues in the media, we notice that fear and paternalism, and condemnation and admiration, coexist in Italian attitudes toward Chinese migrants.

One of the merits of *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* is that they both primarily aim at fighting against widespread prejudices and negative representations of Chinese people, trying to reconstruct a new image of the history of Chinese migration to Italy. It is not a case that the last utterance of the narrator in the booktrailer of the first graphic novel is «per scoprire che al di là degli stereotipi, all'origine della comunità cinese di Milano c'è una storia di integrazione»2 (cfr.

<sup>2</sup> En: «To discover that, beyond stereotypes, at the basis of the Chinese community in Milan there is a story of integration».

also Giuliani 2019a: 38). What Demonte and Rocchi often do in both works, in fact, is not just to deconstruct negative stereotypes, but it is also to go beyond them, thus restoring a polycentric image of Chinese people in Italy (Scibetta 2019) rather than simply representing a 'community' (an *umbrella-term* often used by media and public discourse in order to justify hyper-simplifications of more complex processes and phenomena, cf. Faso 2008).

Hence, what can be implied by both graphic novels is, on the one hand, the importance to give back to common knowledge a precise and accurate historical reconstruction of Chinese migration to Italy. On the other, the reader is aware that such a collective history of migration is the result of many different single histories which, for a long time, had been either repressed or neglected. As the authors underline in *Primavere e Autunni* (p. 133) and as suggested by Peterle (2018) and Giuliani (2019a), «collective biographies» might be the right term to describe such a process, a key to deconstruct and to go beyond too simplistic representations of Chinese communities in Italy. The dimension of «collective biographies», in fact, traces a *fil rouge* between the events of single and familiar lives, with their specificities, and communities as polycentric conglomerates with an internal complexity (Adami 2017).

Finally, both graphic novels help us understand Chinese migration to Italy not as the result of two distinct and separate phases (a preliminary one, represented by a restricted number of people, and a more recent one, which started in the eighties); it is rather a unique big process, which originates from the personal histories of those men, like Wu Lishan, who arrived in Italy in the twenties and in the thirties, and which is still taking place today.

#### 2. Intertwining key-points of both graphic novels

In this paragraph, some of the main common key-points characterizing both *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* will be analyzed. The first section will highlight similarities concerning the general structure and the graphic style adopted by the author, whereas the second section will take into consideration semiotic aspects and different communicative functions expressed by both works, especially in relation to the concept of multimodality.

#### 2.1 Structure and style

The main structure of *Primavere e Autunni* is composed of five main sections, each one corresponding to a decade from the thirties to the seventies. Every single decade is characterized by the main personal and familiar experiences by Wu Lishan (Matteo Demonte's grandfather), with some of the most important historical events taking place in Italy (particularly in Milan), in the Republic of China, and, since 1949, in the People's Republic of China on the background. After the conclusion of the graphic novel there is a brief afterword by Ciaj Rocchi, in which the author expresses the main motivations lying at the basis of her work, as well as its main characteristics. Moreover, she underlines the accuracy in the methodologies adopted for data collection, which have been fundamental both for the historical and for the visual reconstruction of the narrated events. After that, there is a short personal contribution signed by Angelo Ou, second son of the main characters of the novel (and also Matteo's uncle), accompanied by a historical article written by sinologist Daniele Brigadoi Cologna, focusing on life conditions of Chinese people in Italy during the fascist dictatorship, which is one of the multiple aspects neglected and repressed by Italian historiography and public discourse.

Similarly, the main structure of *Chinamen* appears to be very close to that of *Primavere e Autunni*. Also this novel is divided into five main sections which together cover a time span of more than sixty years, starting from 1906. The work begins with the arrival in Milan of the salesman Wu Qiankui in 1906 as one of the organizers of the Chinese pavilion within the International Exposition held at Parco Sempione. The last event narrated in the graphic novel relates to the history of professional affirmation of entrepreneur Mario Tschang, which culminated with the foundation of the worldwide famous stationery brand Osama in 1967. However, from a chronological point of view, further events are mentioned which took place after this last date: it is the case, for instance, of the funeral ceremony in honor of the famous entrepreneur Hu Zhongshan (called «Junsà») in 1977. A final section of the graphic novel is specifically dedicated to Chen Yuhua (also known as Anna Chen), who is considered to be the first Chinese woman ever emigrated independently to Italy (in 1960, and successively joined by her husband and her children in 1963). Besides that, Chen Yuhua's story is also a story of personal and social affirmation as an entrepreneur and as the owner of one of the first and most famous Chinese restaurants in Milan. As in *Primavere e Autunni*, also in *Chinamen* there is an afterword by Ciaj Rocchi, in which the author sums up some considerations on the main steps from the planning to the realization of the graphic novel, together with some remarks about specific characters. Finally, also in this case there is a historical article written by Daniele Brigadoi Cologna, focusing on some crucial events characterizing Chinese migration to Europe, and to Italy in particular, from the beginning of the twentieth century until the end of the Second World War.

As concerns the graphic style adopted in both novels, it is possible to detect almost the same visual-iconic patterns. As Ciaj Rocchi explains in her afterword to *Primavere e Autunni*, in fact, «ci siamo allontanati dal fumetto così come siamo soliti intenderlo, per passare a un ibrido che usa sì il segno grafico, ma la maggior parte delle volte lo inquadra in un formato video. Largo. Orizzontale» (Rocchi 2015: 136)3 . The main impression a reader can have while consulting the tables of both graphic novels is therefore to be looking at video sequences.

<sup>3</sup> En.: «We kept distance from comics as we usually understand them, in order to switch to a hybrid type which uses the graphic sign, but in most cases framing it within a video format. Wide. Horizontal».

Fig. 1 – Table portraying the salesman Wu Qiankui and describing his relationship with the Milanese businessman Cesare Curiel (*Chinamen*).

Tables frequently cover even an entire page, unlike comics in general. In addition, the reader can often see detailed narrations and descriptions, which usually go beyond the short interchanges usually characterizing common comics (cfr. Fig. 1, taken from *Chinamen*, representing the salesman Wu Qiankui and describing his relationship with the Milanese businessman Cesare Curiel).

From a strictly visual point of view, the chromatic variety used is not wide and often includes a very restricted range of colors, with a predominance of tables in sepia black and white, or scales of grey (cfr. Fig. 2, taken from *Primavere e Autunni*, portraying the arrival of Wu Lishan in Milan, asking for information about how to reach Via Canonica, the address where he would find some compatriots).

Fig. 2 – Table portraying the arrival of Wu Lishan in Milan (*Primavere e Autunni*).

2.2 Semiotic aspects, communicative functions and multimodality

Some further intertwining points between *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* can be related to semiotic (and linguistic) aspects, communicative functions and multimodality.

Looking at the tables of both works, it becomes clear that the authors pay particular attention to the importance of conveying relevant linguistic and semiotic information through their representations. The linguistic aspect is very significant: as already remarked by Scibetta (2019), both novels are multilingual works and, through the alternative use of different languages, they aim at engaging the multilingual repertoires of the main characters. It is not a case that, besides employing Italian for general narrations and descriptions, as well as for some communicative interchanges, Chinese and Milanese dialect very often occur throughout these two works. This perspective contributes to let the readers be aware that most of the

interactions occurring between the Chinese characters and local people actually did not take place in standard Italian (a number of them perhaps even could not speak Italian), but they took place in local dialect. As regards the use of Chinese, it must also be taken into account that conversations among compatriots probably occurred in some geo-dialectal varieties of the places where they came from (most of all the County of Qingtian in the Province of Zhejiang). In any case, it would have been difficult to reproduce interchanges in different and heterogeneous diatopic and diachronic varieties in the novels4 .

This constant attention paid by the authors to the multilingual dimension characterizing interactional attitudes of the characters can be well represented by Fig. 3 taken from *Primavere e Autunni*, where all the languages included in the novel appear together in the same table.

Fig. 3 – Table representing multilingual communicative interchanges (*Primavere e Autunni*).

It shall be argued that such a table perfectly reproduces the 'normal' and ordinary interactional patterns characterizing Chinese migrants like Wu Lishan, who alternately used Milanese dialect and Chinese varieties. In other words, this dimension of linguistic complexity contributes to reproduce what Quassoli

<sup>4</sup> As regards the Chinese contents, and, in particular, some of the most recurring characters, as well as the references to Chinese mainstream culture, readable also through a pedagogical lens, it might be interesting to consult Scibetta 2019: 112-115.

(2006) defines «local production of sense», going beyond simplistic representations also from a situational point of view.

Another common feature of both works is represented by the multimodal dimension characterizing a relevant number of tables. Multimodality is defined by Kress (2010: 1) as «the normal state of human communication»: such a concept was coined by a group of scholars in New London (New Hampshire) at the end of the 20th century in order to contribute to deepen the understanding on the complexity of human interaction. Since the very beginning, the major studies on multimodality have primarily involved an educational and pedagogical dimension. In 1996, in fact, the above-mentioned group of scholars published a manifesto entitled *A pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures*, in which they emphasized the crucial importance of legitimizing the use of multiple semiotic resources in educational domains, in order to better meet the requirements of ordinary social communication, which is implicitly 'multimodal'. The main focus of multimodality is therefore to encourage the use of multiple modalities (including dimensions related to reading and writing, as well as visual-iconic, audio-musical, and further non-verbal resources) in educational domains, with the purpose of supporting multiple intelligences and letting learners familiarize with the complexity of communication.

*Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* shall be understood as multimodal products par excellence. The authors are able to activate meaning-making processes through writing (narrations, descriptions, multilingual dialogues), as well as through visual-iconic resources. The latter dimension includes illustrations related to relevant national, transnational and international historical events, as well as representations of scenes of local personal and familiar life of the characters: besides that, from a semiotic point of view, cartography is also worthy of mention. As argued by Giuliani (2019a: 40-41) and by Rossetto and Peterle (2016: 173), cartographic resources can work as informative, cognitive, symbolic and aesthetic signs simultaneously. In the case of these two graphic novels, in particular, cartographies contribute to localizing and mapping (not only from a physical point of view, but also from an emotional one) the places involved in Chinese migration in Milan and in Italy since the Thirties, attributing them a new value which has too often been neglected by historiography. In this perspective, multimodality can serve as a means to shed light on the dynamics of local production of sense.

#### 3. Key-figures in both graphic novels

The current paragraph aims at introducing three key-characters of *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen*, by providing implications related to their presence in the graphic novels and their role in the macro-processes of migration and affirmation of Chinese people in Italy.

It is quite difficult to choose which figures to focus on, since there is a wide range of characters who should deserve particular attention, because they represent various aspects and specificities within the reconstruction of historical events related with Chinese presence in Italy. To exclude one figure might imply to exclude or to underestimate a particular perspective from which this kaleidoscopic and heterogeneous process can be observed.

Many different characters might be understood as single bricks building up specific micro-historical and social processes, and thus contributing to better unveil a macroscopic dimension (Chinese migration to Italy) which has been partly repressed by collective memory so far (Scibetta 2019). One of them is surely Wu Lishan, Matteo Demonte's grandfather and protagonist of *Primavere e Autunni*. Mr. Wu arrived in Milan and settled in Via Canonica, a place that would have become one of the main reference points of Chinese people in Italy. Wu Lishan, like a relevant number of other Chinese migrants, was born in and emigrated from the town of Qingtian in the Province of Zhejiang; like many other Chinese migrants in those years, he moved to Italy from France in order to sell fake pearls, various kinds of trinkets and ties. The story of Wu Lishan, who, after the period of fascist dictatorship and Second World War, gradually became a successful entrepreneur, might be understood as a model representing the stories of other compatriots who were able to affirm themselves from a symbolic and from a social point of view.

A similar image is represented by Anna Chen (Chen Yuhua), to whom Demonte and Rocchi decided to dedicate the closing section of the graphic novel *Chinamen* (therefore called «Chinawoman»). As mentioned above, Anna Chen was the first Chinese woman migrated independently to Italy (in 1960), successively calling her husband and children for family reunification. Known as the owner of the famous restaurant "La Muraglia", opened in 1974 (it was not the first, but it was surely one of the best known and appreciated in Milan), Chen Yuhua can be understood as a pioneer among women entrepreneurs in the history of Chinese migration to Italy.

In addition, it might be interesting also to focus the attention to non-Chinese characters who played a crucial role in the most important events related to Chinese presence. One of these is Giulia Bazzini, Matteo Demonte's grandmother, who was also a 'migrant', even if just from the countryside near Cremona to the urban context of Milan. Giulia got married with Wu Lishan in 1938, gave birth to Wu Jianguo (Luigi Wu) in 1941, Wu Xinghua (Angelo Wu) in 1947 and Wu Luqiu (Luciana Wu, Matteo's mother) in 1949. She has been an integral part and played a pivotal role in Wu Lishan's entrepreneurial success and, for this reason, she is also represented as a crucial character in all the sections of *Primavere e Autunni*.

Taking into account the theoretical considerations explained in the previous paragraphs, I decided to analyze other key-figures characterizing the graphic novels. Specifically, I will introduce Hu Zhongshan ( Junsà) in relation to the deconstruction of widespread stereotypes towards Chinese people in Italy, Mario Tschang as an example of transnational entrepreneurial success, and Wu Lishan and Giulia Bazzini's three children from a perspective of hybridity in cultural belonging.

#### 3.1 Deconstructing stereotypes: the history of Hu Zhongshan (Junsà)

Hu Zhongshan is one of the main characters of the graphic novel *Chinamen*. Like Wu Lishan, he migrated to Italy in the thirties and his story is one of gradual social affirmation and entrepreneurial success. Unlike Mr. Wu, he moved from China directly to Italy, facing a long trip in 1936, when he was only 16 years old. He was a well-educated student and, as he settled in Italy, he was fascinated by local traditions and mainstream culture. He soon converted to Christianity, and, after facing times of great hardship due to the Second World War, in 1947 he got married with an Italian woman whose name was Attilia. In the following years, Attilia gave birth to four children. His career as an entrepreneur began very soon during the period of economic growth in Italy. In the early fifties, in fact, he was able to open his own shop that was specialized in the production of leather goods. The name of the shop, *Nanchino* (Nanjing), made him so famous among compatriots and in his neighborhood that soon his nickname became the same as the name of his shop. His personal history of social and entrepreneurial success culminated with the opening of the first Chinese restaurant in Milan, named *La Pagoda*, in 1962. Although the restaurant was the result of a strict cooperation between local Chinese investors, Hu Zhongshan played a central role in its opening, both in monetary terms and in terms of establishing contacts and conducting bureaucratic procedures. Junsà died unexpectedly in 1977: he was so well-known in his neighborhood that hundreds of Chinese and Italian people took part in his funeral to greet him for the last time. Although the whole life of this character might be understood in terms of challenge to common negative stereotypes towards Chinese migrants (like the one according to which Chinese people 'steal' job places to local people, or the one according to which the Chinese are innately shy and they do not want to communicate with Italian people, cfr. Oriani and Staglianò 2008), I shall argue that the event of his funeral can be seen as the deconstruction par excellence of these kinds of distorted representations. In contrast with the image of Chinese migrants who are invisible, mysterious, until the point that someone even argued irrationally that «the Chinese never die», the table describing the funeral of Junsà represents a proof of the fact that already more than 40 years ago Chinese residents were rather visible and well-known by the members of the hosting society. As Demonte and Rocchi write:

Purtroppo Junsà morì improvvisamente nel 1977 […]. Al suo funerale un fiume di persone attraversò il quartiere dalla sua abitazione fino alla chiesa della Santissima Trinità. C'era talmente tanta gente che la testa del corteo ne toccava la coda, saturando quel quadrilatero di strade e dimostrando il forte legame tra i membri della comunità cinese e i moltissimi milanesi affezionati. Padre di quattro figli, era stato un indiscusso protagonista di tutta l'epopea dei cinesi a Milano, partecipando con entusiasmo alla crescita economica della comunità: dai piccoli laboratori di pelletteria ai grandi negozi su strada, fino a diventare un pioniere della ristorazione. Junsà, Hu Bung Ko […] era conosciuto con molti nomi, ma tutti lo chiamavano semplicemente Nanchino, come il suo negozio5 .

<sup>5</sup> En.: «Unfortunately, Junsà suddenly died in 1977 […]. At his funeral, a river of people crossed the neighborhood from his house to the church of Santissima Trinità. There were so many people that the head of the funeral procession touched the final part, saturating that quadrilateral of streets and showing the strong relationship between the members of the Chinese community

3.2 Mario Tschang and his story of transnational entrepreneurial success

Mario Tschang was born in Milan in 1933 from a Chinese father and an Italian mother: as the authors underline in *Chinamen*, he was a special child, since he was the first Italian-Chinese child ever born in Italy. His birth was celebrated for four days in Via Canonica and in the neighborhood where Chinese people used to reside at that time. Since when he was young, Mario had proved to

and lots of attached Milanese. Father of four children, he had been an undisputed protagonist of the whole epic of Chinese in Milan, participating enthusiastically in the economic growth of the community: from the small leather laboratories to the shops on the street, until becoming a pioneer of the food services. Junsà, Hu Bung Ko […] he was known through various names, but all simply called him Nanchino, like his shop».

possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit, starting from being a peddler and then contributing to the economic growth of an artisan who produced frames.

The turning point of his life was in 1963, when he decided to invest all his savings in a business trip to Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. With his trip, he aimed at searching for innovative products that would have contributed to his economic success in Italy. Starting from Japan, he immediately became fascinated by the stationery products of the famous brand Mitsubishi. At the beginning, Japanese partners did not show to be interested to making business with European enterprises. However, thanks to the intercession of the Taipei branch, during his short stay in Taiwan, Mario managed to establish a strict relationship with the Japanese brand, and thus to import in Italy marker-pens, ballpoint pens and pencils with innovative designs. His economic activity was so successful that after four years he was able to found one of the most distinguished enterprises producing stationery in Italy (still today), i.e. the brand Osama.

The story of Mario Tschang's transnational entrepreneurial success is perfectly summarized by Demonte and Rocchi in the two final tables regarding his personal history in *Chinamen*, as follows:

Con questo viaggio, Mario era riuscito a realizzare il suo sogno di portare in Italia oggetti mai visti prima. Ma in realtà aveva portato a casa anche un altro grandissimo risultato. Aveva aperto una strada commerciale tra l'Italia e l'Oriente, in particolar modo con Cina e Giappone, che negli anni a venire, gli consentì di ascendere all'Olimpo degli imprenditori.

Aveva iniziato come ambulante vendendo pentole ai mercati. Era poi diventato rappresentante di un piccolo artigiano del quartiere che faceva cornici, obbligandolo ad ingrandire il laboratorio e ad assumere personale per la crescita esponenziale della domanda. Poi aveva rappresentato i grandi marchi di casalinghi, facendo carriera un passo alla volta e cambiando le modalità di vendita di alcuni prodotti per la casa. Nel 1967, fondando l'Osama, rivoluzionò per sempre il nostro modo di scrivere6 .

I argue that it is important to focus on Mario Tschang's life, because his figure represents a model of entrepreneurial success that is not just limited to his place of residence, or to Italian borders: his is a remarkable story of transnational success, which contributed to establish contacts between Italy and the East, strengthening the internationalization of Italian economy. Such an attitude towards transnational businesses and trade has been shown by a number of Chi-

<sup>6</sup> En.: «With this trip, Mario managed to make his dream come true: bringing in Italy objects that were never seen before. Actually, he brought home also another great result. He opened a commercial route between Italy and the East, particularly with China and Japan, which in the following years gave him the opportunity to ascend the Olympus of entrepreneurs. He had started as a peddler selling pots in the markets. Afterwards, he became a representative of an artisan of the neighborhood, who produced frames, letting him increase the laboratory and hire workers for an exponential growth of the request. After that, he represented big brands of household products, enriching his career step by step and changing the modalities for selling some products for the house. In 1967, as he founded the brand Osama, he revolutionized forever our way of writing».

nese migrants and Chinese-Italian entrepreneurs over the last thirty years: Mario Tschang might therefore be understood as a pioneer in this sense.

#### 3.3 Growing up across two cultural models: Luigi, Angelo and Luciana Wu

In the narration of the personal and familiar events of Wu Lishan in *Primavere e Autunni*, particular attention is paid to the birth of Giulia Bazzini's and his children, Luigi Wu, Angelo Wu and Luciana Wu.

It is interesting to notice that each birth is represented in contiguity with or at the beginning of specific macro- and micro-historical events, as well as in relation to crucial changes in family life. Luigi Wu, the first son, was born in 1941, during the Second World War: his parents decided to move to the countryside near Cremona (Giulia Bazzini's place of birth), in order to find a safe refuge and escape from fascist violence. It was a time of hardship that would have been overcome only after the end of the war. The birth of the second son, Angelo Wu in 1947, in fact, coincided with the re-birth of a peaceful familiar life after the bad times experienced during the previous years: the new life was one of gradual social and economic affirmation, which would have lasted for many years.

As Rocchi and Demonte write in a table in *Primavere e Autunni*:

Il piccolo Angelo Wu portò nuova linfa nella vita dei suoi genitori. Era il figlio del cambiamento e della ricostruzione, il simbolo della rinascita e della ritrovata felicità.7

Lastly, the birth of Luciana Wu in 1949 confirmed this new condition of happiness and represented a further impulse towards familiar prosperity and social and economic affirmation. Hence, these three births might be imagined along a time-span characterized by relevant changes, both in Italian society and in the life of Wu Lishan's and Giulia Bazzini's family: a figurative pathway which can be associated with a macro-pathway from the hardships experienced during the Second World War and during the fascist dictatorship to the optimism constituting the re-birth of Italian democracy and economy.

Moreover, these three Italian-Chinese children can be understood in a «third space» (Kramsch and Uryu 2012) where Italian and Chinese cultural aspects are blended, and where personal identities are shaped according to this blending. Cultural hybridity is what characterizes the lives of these children, who in the authors' view represented a «new generation of Italians with oriental traits which perfectly integrated within the local context» (Rocchi and Demonte 2015). As argued by Rocchi and Demonte, these children's cultural belonging, despite being across two cultural models, ended up being unbalanced in favor of the local context. Various factors occurred in order to strengthen the dominance of belonging to local and Italian cultural belonging: from the multiple Italian acquaintances and friends, to the fact that children used to speak mostly Italian inside and outside their home.

<sup>7</sup> En.: «Little Angelo Wu gave new nourishment to his parents' life. He was the son of the change and of the reconstruction, the symbol of re-birth and of a recovered happiness».

#### 4. Final considerations

This contribution aimed at describing some key-aspects of Rocchi and Demonte's graphic novels *Primavere e Autunni* (2015) and *Chinamen* (2017), in light of two main aspects: first, the accurate historical reconstruction of Chinese migration to Italy represented by both works; secondly, the challenge and the deconstruction of widespreading prejudices and negative stereotypes against Chinese migrants in Italian public (and political) discourse.

As regards the former aspect, it shall be argued that the reconstruction provided by the authors is mainly diachronical, but, at the same time, it involves multiple perspectives: macro- and micro- historical perspectives perfectly blend together in the novels, raising also key-issues like Chinese - Italian belonging, local and global dimensions, and polycentric representations.

As concerns the challenge to and the deconstruction of negative stereotypes, it shall be argued that *Primavere e Autunni* and *Chinamen* are primarily understood as cultural products dealing with the issue of the visibility of Chinese communities in Italy. Such an aspect, in fact, has been too often removed or neglected by Italian media and public opinion, usually focusing on irrational narrations or negative myths on Chinese presence in Italy. This important social and, in some sense, political aspect becomes necessary in order to give voice to Sinoitalian cultural products, as well as to cultural products related to Chinese presence in Italy, especially in this specific period of the Covid-19 sanitary emergency (Pedone 2020), when irrational views on Chinese people in general and on Chinese migrants in particular are becoming more and more widespread.

#### References


Hirsch Marianne 2011, *The Generation of Postmemory*, «Poetics Today» 39 (1): 103-128.


# 想象与现实之间——阿尔巴西诺和马莱尔巴游记中的中国 形象

# Between imagination and reality: the image of China in Alberto Arbasino's and Luigi Malerba's travel writings\*

Yang Lin

**Abstract**: Alberto Arbasino and Luigi Malerba visited China as members of Italian authors' delegation in 1980 and published respectively their travel reportage Trans-Pacific Express (1981) and *Cina Cina* (1985). Arbasino travelled to many countries and published several travel books. Malerba was particularly fond of China. During their visits, Arbasino and Malerba were the closest of travel companions. There are, in fact, many similarities and differences in their travel writings. The two authors were representatives of Gruppo '63 in the literary movement *Neoavanguardia*. Based on the richness and flexibility of this literary genre, they also adopted this innovative style of writing. In terms of the narrative structure, in both there does not appear to be a clear itinerary or a logic to their travels. Regarding their linguistic styles, Arbasino's writing is rich of rhetorical forms, whereas Malerba's book is imagery, resembling a fairy-tale. For the two authors, China represents a series of incomprehensible signs. Arbasino transforms these signs into elements of literary invention, while Malerba sees the travel destination as a place of imagination. China is a literary space between imagination and reality in their travel writings.

**Keywords**: China, Alberto Arbasino, Luigi Malerba, travel writings.

摘要: 1980年阿尔贝托·阿尔巴西诺和路易吉·马莱尔巴随意大利作家代表 团访问中国,并分别出版游记《跨太平洋快车》(1981年) 和《中国,中国》 (1985年)。阿尔巴西诺游历过许多国家并出版多部游记。马莱尔巴热爱中 国,对中国有着特殊的情感。在中国旅行期间,阿尔巴西诺和马莱尔巴是 最亲近的旅伴。他们的游记书写有联系也有区别。他们都曾经是新先锋 派文学运动"63学社"的代表作家。在中国游记的创作中,他们运用新的写

\* 本文为中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金 (项目批准号: 63192227) 以及天津 市哲学社会科学规划课题《20世纪意大利旅行文学中的中国形象研究》(项目 编号:TJWW18-002)的资助项目。Supported by "the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities" (No: 63192227) and by "the key project of Philosophic and Social Sciences Research Funds of Tianjin: The image of China in Italian travel literature of 20th century" (No: TJWW18-002).

Yang Lin, Nankai University, China, yanglin@nankai.edu.cn

FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Yang Lin, 想象与现实之间——阿尔巴西诺和马莱尔巴游记中的中国形象 */ Between imagination and reality: the image of China in Alberto Arbasino's and Luigi Malerba's travel writings*, pp. 109-119, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.06, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518-260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978- 88-5518-260-7

作方式,充分发挥游记体裁的丰富性和灵活性。从叙述结构上看,两部作 品都没有明晰的访问路线和叙事线索。从语言风格上来说,阿尔巴西诺使 用多种文学手法;而马莱尔巴的描写富于想象力和童话色彩。对于两位作 家来说,中国代表着一些不可解读的符号。阿尔巴西诺将这些符号转化为 文学创作的元素;马莱尔巴将旅行目的地看作是寄托自己想象力的所在。 在他们的游记中,中国是一个想象与现实交织的文学空间。

关键词: 中国,阿尔贝托·阿尔巴西诺,路易吉·马莱尔巴,游记。

1. 引言

1980年11月,受中国作家协会邀请,意大利全国作家工会总书记阿尔 多·德·雅科 (Aldo De Jaco) 率代表团访华,五名代表团成员是:汉学家安 娜·布雅蒂 (Anna Bujatti)(Malerba 1985: 13-14),作家阿尔贝托·阿尔巴西 诺(Alberto Arbasino) 和路易吉·马莱尔巴(Luigi Malerba),诗人马里奥·卢 奇(Mario Luzi) 和维托里奥·塞雷尼(Vittorio Sereni)。这是中国改革开放后 的首个意大利作家访华代表团,在中意文化交流史上有代表意义。访问期 间,中国国务院副总理姬鹏飞在北京会见代表团。(王振川 2015: 924) 中国 作家协会副主席刘白羽与德雅科在上海签署《1981年度文学艺术交流协议 书》。(北京文艺年鉴编辑部1982,605) 代表团访问了北京、苏州、上海、 杭州和广州。回国后,意大利作家们出版了四部游记:阿尔巴西诺的《跨太 平洋快车》(*Trans-PacificExpress*),马莱尔巴的《中国,中国》(*CinaCina*), 卢奇的《游记:一首小诗与中国札记》(*Reportage: un poemetto seguito dalTaccuino diviaggio in Cina*),塞雷尼的《中国之行》(*Viaggio in Cina*)。

在中国旅行期间,阿尔巴西诺和马莱尔巴是最亲近的旅伴。他们的游 记讲述两人在中国的游历,记叙有趣的对话,描写一起经历的场景。两部 游记有一定的内在联系。他们是对方游记中的人物。在《跨太平洋快车》 中,阿尔巴西诺讲述了自己与马莱尔巴的共同经历:一块用早餐,与中国 作家见面,参观老图书馆等。在《中国,中国》中,马莱尔巴数次提到旅 伴,"对我和阿尔巴西诺来说,每次正式的行程结束后(博物馆、古迹和景 点,与作家和政治家的会面,仪式和宴请),我们日常计划外的旅行就开始 了。"(Malerba 1985: 15) 可见,两位作家也是代表团里好奇心最强的旅伴。 这与他们丰富的旅行经历有关。

两位作家的游记书写有联系也有区别。他们都曾是新先锋派文学"63学 社"的代表作家。在中国游记的创作中,他们大胆运用新的写作方式。从游 记的叙述顺序上看,两部作品都没有明晰的访问路线和逻辑线索。从语言 风格上来说,阿尔巴西诺大量使用多种修辞方式;而马莱尔巴的描写富于 想象力和童话色彩。对于两位作家来说,当他们首次与这个遥远的东方国家 相遇,中国代表着一些不可解读的符号。阿尔巴西诺将这些符号转化为文学 创作的元素;马莱尔巴将旅行目的地看作是寄托自己想象的所在。对他们来 说,中国是一个想象与现实交织的文学空间。

2. 阿尔巴西诺《跨太平洋快车》中的中国形象

#### 2.1 旅行家阿尔巴西诺

作为意大利新先锋派文学运动"63学社"的代表作家之一,阿尔巴西诺 在叙事文学创作中,创新文学表达形式,把散文和杂文的元素引入小说的 写作。除了小说创作,阿尔巴西诺发表大量的小品文。他为《晚邮报》和 《共和国报》等报刊的第三版撰写文化评论,涉及文学、音乐、艺术、戏 剧和电影多个领域。

游记在他的散文创作中占有重要地位。阿尔巴西诺从年轻时起就在国内 外旅行,他曾到过欧洲、亚洲、北美洲、南美洲的多个国家。阿尔巴西诺对 异域旅行充满好奇。例如,1994年老挝和柬埔寨刚刚重开边境,他就动身出 发了。(Codacci-Pisanelli 1998: CC) 阿尔巴西诺热衷于文化旅游。他喜欢参 观博物馆、参访文学家和艺术家的故居、看展览、欣赏戏剧,乐于和当地人 交谈。他将自己的旅行定义为"成长与教育之行"。(Codacci-Pisanelli 1998: XLI) 因此,阿尔巴西诺写了不少关于旅行的文章和书籍,他的游记代表作 有:1960年的《亲爱的巴黎》(*Parigi o cara*),1981年的《跨太平洋快车》 (*Trans-Pacific Express*),1994年的《来自伦敦的信札》(*Lettere da Londra*), 1997年的《湄公河》(*Mekong*) 和《在沉睡的龙间漫步》(*Passeggiando tra i draghi addormentati*)。就像他在其他文学体裁的创作中敢于创新一样,阿尔 巴西诺在游记的写作中也大量运用新的文学形式。

曾有人问阿尔巴西诺:"您什么时候开始写游记的?"作家回答:

是在六八运动后。当时我看到最有知识的年轻人全都丧失对文学和 艺术的兴趣,他们只热衷意识形态和政治。于是我自认为在此期间 创作文学作品是没用的,因为没人感兴趣。我就想,我与其写作, 不如开始生活。我就从美国开始,在那里度过很多夏日,边度假, 边工作,我采访了多位作家、社会学家和经济学家(Codacci-Pisanelli 1998: 101)。

对于阿尔巴西诺来说,旅行是一种生活方式。他本来计划先游览像中国 这样的古国。他说:"有些地方是我没去过但本想先去的,如中国、埃及和 印度这些古老文明的伟大遗迹。"(Codacci-Pisanelli 1998: XLI) 他进一步解 释说,在六八运动后,

去伟大文明的发源地旅行是没有意义的:人们关注的只是时事政治, 毛(泽东) 或卡斯特罗,却肯定不是萨珊王朝的古迹……因为这个原因 我直到最近几年才去东方旅行……但是,一个正常的文化游应当先从 狮身人面像开始,随后去看中国的古迹,接下来是波斯波利斯古城 和拉贾斯坦邦,最后才到好莱坞。而我是倒着来的 (Codacci-Pisanelli 1998: 101)。

阿尔巴西诺很早就对中国的古代文明感兴趣。1980年他随意大利作家代 表团访华,实现了他到中国旅行的愿望。

#### 2.2 《跨太平洋快车》

《跨太平洋快车》收录了阿尔巴西诺在东方旅行的多篇游记,以亚洲 游历为主。每一章的题目就是目的地名称:巴厘岛、尼泊尔、日本、夏威 夷、澳大利亚、爪洼岛、马来西亚、暹罗、澳门和中国。他于1980年访问中 国,70年代则游历了其他地方,最后一章"中国"占全书近一半的篇幅。书 名是从"东方快车"中获得灵感,因为"他想模仿'东方快车'通车后,' 美好时代'的欧洲人对旅行的渴望"。(Pellegrino 1985: 168) 1981年6月《 跨太平洋快车》第一版由加尔赞蒂出版社出版。此书受到读者欢迎,三个月 后再版。1982年阿尔巴西诺因《跨太平洋快车》一书获得费拉拉的埃斯特奖 (Premio Estense) 最终的评奖提名(Manica 2009: CLXXXI)。

阿尔巴西诺的中国游记可以分为两部分。第一部分谈论对中国人的总 体印象后,记述了不同的地方。对各地虽无清晰的访问顺序,但还是能从 行文中看出访问的大体路线。第二部分主要记录了他对中国人的采访,请 他们谈论对文革和对中国"过渡时期"的看法。阿尔巴西诺提到的"过渡 时期"反映了当时的时代背景。1980年他们访问中国的前几年,1976年文 革结束,1978年中国实行改革开放。如果说前一部分讲述了地理空间的变 换,后一部分则象征着在时间和历史中的旅行。

从游记的只言片语中可以推测出代表团访问了北京、苏州、杭州、上海 和广州。访问地点通常是安排好的,但是在作者们的坚持下,额外安排他们 参观了杭州的一座老图书馆、一栋别墅和一所空旷的博物馆。

北京无论是古老的一面,还是现代的一面,都给人留下非常深刻的印 象……著名的苏州园林……北京烤鸭很肥……北京的大图书馆像古罗 马浴场那样宏伟,室内光线有点暗,如同一座二十世纪上半叶的建 筑……即便最差的摄影师,无论是什么相机,无论什么光线、曝光 度、镜头、光圈,在杭州随便拍张照,他都能拍出"典型中国式"的 如画风景。现在我们在阳光下漫步,这片区域肯定跟十一世纪的村庄 没什么两样,而身后是二十世纪末现代的上海……我们到了广州,这 里处于中世纪和拉丁美洲之间 (Arbasino 1981: 134-166)。

作者描写了古迹、餐馆、园林和图书馆等不同的地点,其间穿插作者对 各种话题的讨论,然后记录对重要人物和中国作家的采访。阿尔巴西诺与中 国著名作家茅盾、巴金、丁玲等人会面,并记录了与他们的对话。从空间的 描写到历史的思考,由一个过渡段连接:

在地理空间上的新探索后,最后还是要不可避免的面对被忽视的历史 吗?或者透过一些痕迹发现并叙说最新的微观历史?这是一张组合拼 图,汇聚了数十个中国人的话语和观点,他们中间有无名的知识分 子,有男人和女人,有青年人和老人,有权贵和穷人,有老派和现代 派,有城市人和乡下人。讨论在很多地方进行:宾馆、机构、协会、 大学、团体、学校、公寓、船上、餐馆、机场,在北京、上海、广州 和几个小城市 (Arbasino 1981: 181)。

2.3. 阿尔巴西诺眼中的中国

中国对于阿尔巴西诺来说是由一连串未知的符号组成的拼图。作者试图 用已知的符号来解读,也就是通过西方文化元素——人物、地点、文学、艺 术和历史象征物。在"符号"和"拼图"之下,作者运用不同的修辞方式和 文学手法,例如对比、借代、排比、隐喻、重复、设问等,以此建构中国形 象。"在阿尔巴西诺的写作中,不同的体裁、语言和语体风格不断混杂在一 起。"(Wolfs 2005: 124)

在游记开头,阿尔巴西诺描写中国人与意大利人的相似之处:

美丽的、亲切的、恶意的、风趣的、微笑的、撒谎的、极度优雅的、 非常和蔼可亲的——比起任何一个在欧洲和地中海与我们相邻的民 族,中国人都与我们更相像。他们的行为举止,他们笑起来的样子, 他们某种无忧无虑和散漫的气质,慌里慌张的动作,看起来都与我们 如此相像 (Arbasino 1981: 130)。

作者接着写道:"但是他们的符号都不同,形式不一致,我们的工具不 管用,我们的解读方式也不匹配。"(Arbasino1981: 130) 作者意识到无法用 以往的方式来理解中国,唯一可以做的就是,以自己熟悉的西方文化尤其是 意大利文化为参照,来解读中国文化。在谈到中国人的性格时,他写道:" 就像是意大利人,他们优雅,可能会变得很凶。但与我们不同的是,他们好 像永远都不会变得粗俗。"(Arbasino 1981: 130) 阿尔巴西诺使用丰富的词 汇来描写中国人:"他们就像以前的意大利人一样有教养、有礼貌。他们高 贵而殷勤,既不骄傲,也不谄媚,彬彬有礼却又保持距离,愿意帮忙,但不 夸张,好奇而谨慎。从不会冒失。"(Arbasino 1981: 130)

作者详细描述了在北京一家餐馆的情景,将其比作一家意大利餐厅。" 最正宗的烤鸭就是这里的。古老的烤鸭店,大约有上百年的历史,因此与罗 马的拉列里(Ranieri) 餐厅历史一样悠久。"(Arbasino 1981: 140) 他用同 样的方式描写餐厅的环境:"建筑就像罗马郊区的'罗马城堡'地区的一 家食品杂货店或烟草店,但是预定区的大厅很宽敞,可以办宴席。"(Arbasino 1981: 142) 接着,作者描述了大家愉快的用餐情景。

二层是招待贵客的包厢,不过一层人多,有一种轻松愉悦的氛围。人 们挨着围坐在大圆桌边,其乐融融,食物美味,价格便宜,在家庭聚 会上,推杯换盏,兴高采烈。场景犹如一群乡下人在老式的罗马小餐 馆里。中世纪和文艺复兴一起,古老而原汁原味的礼节,就像不久前 在我们最讲究礼仪的乡村一样;他们对外国人充满好奇,时而微笑, 时而大笑 (Arbasino 1981: 145)。

作者将中国的餐馆与罗马的进行比较,中国人的礼貌让他想起过去意大 利人的淳朴,表达了他对于过去传统风俗的怀念。

阿尔巴西诺常用连续的名词或名词短语作排比。在谈到他对中国的总体 印象时,作者列出了一连串名词:"文明、优雅、节俭、玩世不恭……庄重 的人群,拥挤的商店,井井有条,干净整齐。轻便、破旧的衣服,穿旧的鞋 子,擦拭一新的旧自行车,极少见的羊毛和皮革。"(Arbasino 1981: 131) 他这样描写中国官员:"高高抬起的头,正派坚定的脚步,合拢的膝盖, 好像要插入另一只袖子的手。他们,总是他们,文雅、讲究而刻板。"(Arbasino 1981: 138) 作者描述对广州的印象:"城市中的热带植被,巨大的木 槿和莴苣,大树,宽阔的不规则的大道,旧公共汽车,夜里散步的人群,因 为天热而不关门窗的商店。"(Arbasino 1981: 166) 作者通过词汇罗列勾勒 出一幅幅中国的剪影。

作者常用借代的修辞方法来描述人物或地点。"丰泽园被看作是首都 的 '大维富'(Grand Véfour)。"(Arbasino 1981: 142) 在人物的比较中, 阿尔巴西诺将丁玲比作中国的"西比拉·阿列拉莫 (Sibilla Aleramo)"。 "丁玲是一位年老的、倔强的西比拉·阿列拉莫,一位思维极其敏捷而又 充满活力的女权主义者……"(Arbasino 1981: 152) 在京剧中,"剧本常改 编自中国的阿里奥斯托和大小仲马的经典小说,分成很多幕(每次都重新编 写),就像西方的电视连续剧一样。"(Arbasino 1981: 170) 作者把京剧中 的人物比作意大利即兴喜剧中的人物,直接穿插喜剧人物的名字。"在赞 尼(Zanni) 和阿莱基尼(Arlecchini) 之间,人们为他们的滑稽表演、翻筋斗 和打斗动作喝彩,不时出现精彩选段,好像在西方的巡回演出所展示的经 典剧目。"(Arbasino 1981: 173) 作者使用不同的文化符号进行鲜明对比。 "千姿百态的湖边岩石,人们很乐意摆在家中。(于是,从一个园林到另一 个园林,就像是从127号流水线到128号流水线。) "(Arbasino 1981: 137) 用园林石堆砌假山,是中国传统园林的典型景观,作者将其比作西方现代工 业场景,形成强烈反差。

"阿尔巴西诺的中国看上去是令人费解的,是一个强大的巴洛克机器, 是由精心命名的地点、人物和事物构成的符号。"(Santarone 2005: 109) 作 者想象力丰富,擅长在不同的事物间找到联系,令读者目不暇给,常常需要 有广博的知识来理解游记,这是因为阿尔巴西诺本人的兴趣广泛。他本人也 承认是为文化人写的 (Pulce 1988: 189)。

3. 热爱中国的马莱尔巴与他的中国游记

3.1. 马莱尔巴的旅行

马莱尔巴是"63学社"的重要成员之一。在创作中,他尝试使用新的 文学与语言形式。"他的书从结构、主题和语言来说,一本与另一本都有 根本区别……他的创作手法丰富而多变。"(West 1994: 18) 在他的写作生 涯里,经常在不同的国家旅行,他对东方感到神往,尤其对中国怀有特别 的情感。他的东方游记《静止的旅行者》(*Ilviaggiatoresedentario*) 中,收录 了1985年出版的《中国,中国》,还有"九年后的中国"("Cina nove anni dopo"),"香港和澳门"("Hong - Kong e Macao") 以及关于日本、泰国、 乌兹别克斯坦和亚美尼亚的游记。

在接受《信使报》的一次采访中,作者回忆自己的旅行时说:"高中时 代翻译《奥德赛》时,我便在奥德修斯的陪伴下开始旅行。"(Malerba 2008: 170) 马莱尔巴的旅行最初就与文学想象联系在一起。他最早的旅行目的地

是威尼斯和戛纳,到那里是为了观看战后举办的电影节。而"真正的跨境目 的地是巴黎……我一直很喜欢在每次旅行里发现一些新的东西"。(Malerba 2008: 170) 同阿尔巴西诺一样,马莱尔巴是一个充满好奇心的文化旅行者。

当被问到"为什么有一天您全身心的转向了东方?您希望找到什么?" 马莱尔巴回答:"对于一个不被西方文明干扰而成长的文明,我十分着迷, 那里几乎是另一个星球。"(Malerba 2008: 259) 马莱尔巴解释旅行的作 用:"我在东方的旅行使我接近东方的伟大文明,这些文明与地中海周围 诞生的文明有着完全不同的特质,为我开拓了全新的文化视野。"(Malerba 2008: 259) 除了在中国、日本、印度的旅行外,他也在欧洲和美国各地 展开文化旅行。"我接受了意大利文化处和国外大学的邀请,从哈佛到伯 克利,从芝加哥到多伦多,从维也纳到赫尔辛基,从柏林到马德里,从巴 黎到阿姆斯特丹,从巴塞罗那到布鲁塞尔。除了出于文化原因旅行外,我 每年还至少在欧洲城市度过一个轻松的假期,主要是在西班牙、法国和德 国。"(Malerba 2008: 170-171)

作者认为,旅行"是一种丰富我们对世界和人类认识的手段,通常也是 一种对现实的逃离,让我们融入其他地方,也沉浸在其他年代里"。(Malerba 2008: 172) 因此,对于马莱尔巴来说,旅行有多个维度。"我旅行是为 了观察,但更是为了发现和理解新事物。旅行是一件乐事,更是一种头脑 锻炼。我想象着发现新地域的狂喜,但是现在不再是探险家的时代了,因 为地球上到处都有人类的足迹了。另一方面,即使是走在家中的每一步, 也总是有很多东西需要去理解,走在远方的经纬线上,需要了解的东西肯 定更多。"(Malerba 2008: 171) 马莱尔巴说自己属于"试图理解世界而不 是描述世界的那一类人"。(Malerba 2008: 259) 《中国,中国》的每篇小 文章都探究某些现象背后的原因,作者提出许多问题并寻找答案,正是一 种"头脑锻炼"。

马莱尔巴对于游记这一文学体裁有深入的思考。他将旅行文学作品分 为几类:

想象的旅行,跟现实的旅行一样,也蕴育出许多文学作品。德·迈斯 特在自己的房间漫步旅行;然后有想象的旅行家在现实中旅行,从《 奥德赛》到《堂吉诃德》都是这样;还有从琉善到凡尔纳在想象的地 方进行想象的旅行,后来发展为现代科幻作品;最后就是现实的游 记,从马可波罗到布鲁斯·查特文。我的书属于最后一种,是在北 京、上海、东京、香港、曼谷、撒马尔罕的游记。意大利曾有辉煌的 成果,包括这些年的莫拉维亚、帕利塞和卡尔维诺。也许是时候重新 创作这个体裁的作品了(Malerba 2008: 256)。

当被问到旅行主题的作品在他的文学创作中的地位如何时,马莱尔巴 回答道:"我旅行的次数总是比我的人物旅行的次数多……我总是在旅 行,因此我的游历跟其他经历一样,成为我每一个创作的灵感和意象的来 源。在某个时候,游历开始转化为写作,获得某种自主权并集中表现在某 些特别的主题上。就这样诞生了《静止的旅行者》,收集了我在东方旅行 时的所思所想"。(Malerba 2008: 255-256) 因此, 旅行的主题在马莱尔 巴的文学创作中占有重要地位。在东方特别是在中国的旅行给他留下了深 刻的印象与记忆。

#### 3.2. 马莱尔巴的中国情结

马莱尔巴说:"很长时间以来,我都是通过书本爱着中国。"(Malerba 1994: 77) 作者通过阅读来想象中国的样子:"在去中国数年前,我就发现 了对中国的兴趣。对我而言,中国一直是东方的代表,那里寄托着我的文学 幻想,寄托着我对他方的无意识的渴望。"(Malerba 2008: 256) 对于马莱尔 巴来说,"中国不仅是一个广阔的国家和一个伟大的文明,而且在人文特质 和智识体系上都与西方截然不同,这为我们提供全新的、引人入胜的认识工 具,提供了宏大的全球视野"(Malerba 1996: 94)。

他谈到父辈与中国的联系:"很明显,我的血液中已经有了'中 国病',而且应该是遗传的,因为我的一个叔叔在本世纪初去了中国, 在那里呆了二十年。我第一次去那里,停留了二十天。"(Malerba 1996: 173) 马莱尔巴曾通过写作对中国进行探索。"在踏上那个遥远的国家之 前,我就写了有关中国第一位皇帝的《皇帝的玫瑰》,就是那位建造兵马 俑的皇帝"(Malerba 2008: 256)。

"《中国,中国》是作家1980年访华后所作,表达对中国的友好情 感。"(张英伦 1989: 520) 1980年访华后,马莱尔巴对中国的感情更加 强烈了。"这次旅行肯定有一个明显的益处:它加深了我对中国的爱。" (Malerba 1985: 17) 他也热爱中国人民。"最后,我想坦诚的说:这次旅行 后,我对中国的爱是给所有中国人的。我太爱中国人了,以至于我渴望自 己也是个中国人。"(Malerba 1985: 17) 在2007年的采访中,马莱尔巴表 达了回到中国的愿望。"凭着一点意志力和努力,我还可以访问埃及,并 再去看一看新中国。"(Malerba 2008: 173) 在马莱尔巴去世一年前,他表 达了重游中国的愿望。

3.3 马莱尔巴眼中的中国

《中国,中国》的文章于访华期间先刊发在《晚邮报》上,后结集成 书。第一章以"万物"为标题,是全书的引言。"我们从罗马出发的同一 天,《晚邮报》刊登了我的第一篇序言,其中有我在这本小文集开头思考 的问题。" (Malerba 1985: 16) 作者谈到这本书的缘起:"接下来的篇 章,是在罗马诺·卢佩利里尼(Romano Luperini) 的友好劝说下完成的。 我推出了一系列的小观察和思考。这本书既没有系统的结构也没有很大的 篇幅。"(Malerba 1985: 17) 《中国,中国》没有情节,没有特定旅行路 线,但却富于哲理思考和奇特而充满想象的描述,是一部由"碎片化的思 考"(Lombardi2006: 77) 构成的游记。各章标题是表示物品、现象、术语、 概念的名词或短语,带有童话色彩。如,"铅笔和铅笔刀","高跷"、 "地理和历史"、"封建主义"、"绣天"、"狮子的微笑"等。对马莱尔 巴来说,中国就像是一个童话,中国之行为他的文学想象提供灵感。游记中 的中国形象是想象与现实的混合体。

马莱尔巴意识到几个世纪以来,中国在西方的想象中具有多么重要的 意义。

长期以来,中国激发了西方的想象力:旅行者和文人撰写关于中国的 书籍,或像马可·波罗和利玛窦千里迢迢去中国,或像达尼埃洛·巴 托里(Daniello Bartoli) 或洛伦佐·马加洛蒂(Lorenzo Magalotti) 平静的 坐在书桌前。想象与现实,地理与历史,描述与修饰,让像儒勒·凡 尔纳(Jules Verne) 创作出具有异国情调的机器,或让米尔博(Mirbeau) 描绘出残忍与奢华的场面 (Malerba 1985: 13)。

以前的旅行家或作家的文本影响着马莱尔巴眼中的中国。前人写的传 说、故事、人物令他浮想联翩。

马莱尔巴在想象与现实间摇摆。"实际上,我在出发时就注意不要消 除我与那个国家的在思想上、文学上和情感上的联系,已经获得的印象, 合上的书本和遥远的章节。我提醒自己可以完全沉浸在一种可能的中国现 实中("现实"一词代表猜想)。"(Malerba 1985: 17) 作者希望到中国的旅 行不要改变他以往的印象。

即使已经确定了时间表和行程,如果谁把中国作为遥远的文学之地而 思考过多的话,在中国旅行的想法就很难具体化。在这一切的基础 上,有一种理解上的阻力,我们不想纠正自己对中国旧有想法的执 着。这是想象力和事实之间的冲突,传统所形成的老生常谈使中国显 得遥远,这些传统包括传说、考古、长城、宝塔、玉器、龙、瓷器和 麻将 (Malerba 1985: 19)。

马莱尔巴害怕他对中国的想象世界被破坏。"最后,对于乘飞机到达, 你必须感到满足。因为飞行是唯一适合的前往这个平行世界的方式。数世纪 以来,我们西方人习惯于将我们的文学想象力和静止的幻想寄托在那里, 直到他们的产品进入大百货商店的柜台。"(Malerba 1985: 20) 他把中国看 作"平行世界",一个"文学想象空间",而从中国到意大利的商品,又 让他看到了现实的一面。

在游记中,作者观察日常物品,反思历史人物,发挥想象力进行创作。 在游记的前几章,马莱尔巴难以展示自己所看到的中国,而更倾向于讲述他 从书本、电影和照片中看到的形象,分析导演和摄影师的作品,逐渐走近中 国。作者比较安东尼奥尼、乔里斯·伊文斯的中国影像和摄影师卡蒂尔·布 雷松的中国图片,他更喜欢后者的作品,因为布雷松的照片激发了他的想 象。例如,马莱尔巴把一张照片的中国小男孩想象成为一个天使,图片中 小男孩"迈上人行横道的台阶",在作者眼中象征"中国从旧时代跨越到 新时代",因为布雷松是在"我们的日历1949年"拍摄的照片,正是中华 人民共和国成立的那年 (Malerba 1985: 20)。

京剧这一中国典型的艺术形式也引起作者的遐想。"要明白演员是走上 台的还是骑马上台的,可真不容易。如果他们把手移向低处,对于西方观 众来说,这个动作的意思可以是挥舞鞭子,或是掸衣服,没有区别……但 是,让我们感到惊奇和难以理解的是,舞台上没有画着马,也没有画着鞭 子。"(Malerba 1985: 26) 京剧中的符号和象征物令作者感到费解。

马莱尔巴眼中的中国具有童话色彩。中国的士兵像孩子一样。"这些 士兵长着娃娃脸(抑或是对我们西方人来说有孩子气,是因为我们还'读' 不懂中国人的面孔)。"(Malerba 1985: 47) 中国人的房子像孩童的房子。 "中国人的房子和庙宇,紫禁城的皇宫……都有一种孩童的气息,洋娃娃的 房子,或是玩具。还有古代官员的房子和园林……所有这一切都让人想起童 年游戏的地方,而不是居住的场所。"(Malerba 1985: 64-65)

在游记的最后,作者对自己的所见提出质疑:"也许只有在我们的想 象中,才有朝上弯曲的屋顶,龙形的城墙,石船,微笑的狮子,长着杏仁 眼的人?"然后他又回到现实:"但是我在报纸上读到,中国人正在向菲 亚特购买30万台拖拉机。那么中国还是存在的。"(Malerba 1985: 80) 马 莱尔巴不断在想象与现实中探求中国的形象。而《中国,中国》的标题似 乎也表明了这种双重性。

4. 结论

对两位作家来说,中国代表了不可解读的符号组合。"看上去两位作 家给我们展示了他们眼前的中国:一些无序的符号,一组混杂的景象,很 难按一种模式去排列。"(De Pascale 2001: 181) 《跨太平洋快车》没有划 分章节,而是由一些场景或情景随机形成,难以理解的中国符号有时会被 西方符号代替;《中国,中国》各章很短,作者观察事物后,写下一段段 有启发性的哲学思考,以童话般的笔触描述。

阿尔巴西诺不断提及西方文化符号,将自己的知识与未知事物融合在 一起,使用多种修辞形式,形成一种语言上的"马赛克"。与阿尔巴西诺不 同,在无法理解的情况下,马莱尔巴试图以现实为基础,通过文学想象来 解释一些文化符号。

对阿尔巴西诺来说,"中国像拉丁美洲一样,首先是当代意象的梦幻 之都";(Arbasino 1981: 129) 对马莱尔巴来说,"中国指的是东方,世界 的另一半,但首先是文学的他处,在那里寄托我未完成的创作、童话和神 话"。(Malerba 1985: 13) 中国是与西方相对的他者,是两位作家重要的灵 感源泉。对于两位作家来说,了解和传达中国的现实并不重要,重要的是 中国给他们提供了进行文学创作的机会,提供了广阔的想象和幻想空间。

#### 参考文献

北京文艺年鉴编辑部. 北京文艺年鉴1981. 北京:工人出版社,1982. 王振川. 中国改革开放新时期年鉴1980年. 北京:中国民主法制出版社,2015. 张英伦等. 外国名作家大词典. 桂林:漓江出版社,1989. Arbasino A. 1981, *Trans Pacific Express* (跨太平洋快车), Garzanti, Milano.


LombardiR.2006,*Resocontidiviaggio eviaggiatoriinCina1900-1980* (在中国的 旅行家和游记,1900-1980), inBattagliniM., *et al*. (a curadi),*CaraCina… gli scrittori raccontano* (作家笔下的亲爱的中国), Editore Colombo, Roma.

Luzi M. 1980, Reportage*: un poemetto seguito dal Taccuino di viaggio in Cina* (游记:一首小诗与中国札记), All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milano.

Malerba L. 1985, *Cina Cina* (中国,中国), Pietro Manni, San Cesario di Lecce.


# 我是中国人: Identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region

#### Meri Perna

**Abstract**: This article analyzes the issues of identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region. The focus on these two themes arises from the recent increase in the number of Chinese students in schools in this region. This change points to a need to study an unexplored phenomenon. In this regard, the intention of this contribution is, on the one hand, to observe the dynamics related to social integration of these young people and to understand how they navigate their multiple identities, and, on the other hand, to provide guidance for future research as well as useful tools to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for them to live in. Following a review of the literature, this article analyzes research results regarding data collected from 198 young people and 21 teachers, and concludes with insights into the identity and social integration problems confronting Chinese youth in the region.

**Keywords**: Chinese youth, Marche region, social integration, identity, migration.

摘要: 本文主要分析居住在意大利马尔凯大区的年轻华裔的身份与社会融入问题。分析这两 个主题的原因跟近几年来马尔凯大区各所学校里的中国学生人数的不断增长有关。此外,这一 话题目前在研究领域仍有很多空白。因此,本文的目标一方面是观察年轻华裔在意大利社会融 入的动态,并深入研究他们身份的变化,另一方面为未来针对当地社会融入这一主题提供了帮 助.在参考了丰富的文献资料之后,本文对关于198位青年人和21位老师的不同背景进行了分析。 最后,本文针对居住在马尔凯大区的年轻华裔们的身份与社会融入这一问题提出了两点建议。

关键词: 中国青年人,马尔凯大区,社会融入,身份,移民。

#### 1. Introduction

The approximately 1,750 Chinese school-age youth in the Marche region have to face several issues, including problems of social integration and identity. These young people have been displaced from their home and brought to a different country, which is culturally and physically distant from theirs. In this new environment they have to deal with complex and challenging situations, both inside and outside of school. They have often started and strengthened their education in China, but now this trajectory has been interrupted and they find themselves on a different educational path that is in line with their preparation, where they are compelled to learn a new language, and, at the same time, pressured by their families to maintain their linguistic and cultural roots. We know little about how these Chinese youth confront the aforementioned problems of

FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Meri Perna, University of Perugia, Italy, meri.perna@hotmail.it

Meri Perna, 我是中国人*: Identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region*, pp. 121-139, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.07, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518- 260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

identity formation and social integration in a small, albeit diverse territory, like the Marche region. In the last few years, we have witnessed an increase in foreign students, including Chinese, in schools all over the Marche region. They made up just over 25% of the total preschool to high school population during the 2015-16 school year, and approximately 24% during the 2018-19 school year1 . Consequently, in order to face this growing phenomenon, it is essential to develop research in this specific area, which can address the social integration and identity issues in two directions: the building of an environment that is open and welcoming towards migrant youth, and the creation of avenues for dialogue with these young people to find ways to assist them through their process of social integration. Based on a review of the reference theoretical approach, illustrated in section 2 of this article, the author undertook fieldwork to collect firsthand accounts of how Chinese youth confront the processes of identity formation and integration in the Marche region, explaining methodology and analyzing results in section 3 and 4. In particular, the author developed the research around two questions: the first regarding how Chinese youth that live in between two worlds build and perceive their identity; the second related to their social integration process including factors that directly or indirectly depend on them (e.g. learning the Italian language and school environment).

#### 2. Literature review

#### 2.1 Why migrate?

People have ceaselessly migrated from one country to another in every historic period but the migration phenomenon we are witnessing today differs from the past because it is taking place in a highly globalized environment. In particular, migration processes underscore the structural reality of globalization. On the one hand, migration is considered a process of horizontal mobility, a geographical relocation, and the movement of people from one place to another. On the other hand, it reflects a system where the mobility appears to be a distinctive element of the global economy, which is based on increased international interdependence and on the circulation of raw materials, goods, capital and labor. Moreover, the globalization effect on migration processes emerges from several migration characteristics in the global and contemporary context, including: the continuous increase and diversification of countries of origin and countries of arrival, the speed of migrations, and the steady growth of foreign populations in recipient countries. Contemporary migration is facilitated by increased mobility, enabled thanks to multiple modern means of transport. Indeed, the development of technology and means of communication trigger processes that set in motion ever increasing flows of people (Santagati 2004: 21-24).

<sup>1</sup> Statistica Regione Marche 2020.

Only relatively recently has the Chinese migration phenomenon, in the context of contemporary globalization trends, drawn the attention of sinologists and anthropologists. The new migration from China toward Europe, and especially toward Italy, began in the 1980s thanks to the opening up and reform policies that led to China's rise as a global economic, military and diplomatic actor. The increase in Chinese people in Italy is striking, rising from 402 Chinese adults in 1975 (Marsden 2014: 2) to 299,823 residents by January 20202 , and with the growth in their numbers there has also been a change in their occupations. For a very long time, Italy has witnessed the absence of some categories of migrants who were already present in other European countries, where highly qualified workers were needed and students who had to complete their education were welcomed. This is due to the implementation of an immigration policy that has attracted, up until the 1990s, largely non-qualified workers to Italy, and has not recognized the credentials of highly educated migrants. A turning point was reached at the end of the century, when a larger number of Chinese migrants became involved in the import-export sector, after which, the Italian government started to summon the first groups of Chinese students, modifying in this way the composition of their settlement on Italian territory (Ceccagno and Rastrelli 2008: 67-70).

Analyzing the actual presence of the Chinese community in the Marche region, the number of Chinese citizens in the territory on January 1st, 2017 was estimated to be 9,690, and of these, 2,389 resided in Macerata province3 . They were almost perfectly balanced in terms of gender: men represented 51.4% of the Chinese living in the Marche region, and women the remaining 48.6% (Sistema Informativo Statistico Regione Marche 2017: 9). Regarding Chinese school-age minors, in the school year 2015-16, they constituted 6.8% of the foreign students enrolled in Marche schools (preschool to high school), which enrolled 25,439 students in total (5,127 in preschool, 8,781 in primary school, 4,880 in middle school, and 6,651 in high school). Chinese students occupied the fourth position, after students coming from Albania, Morocco and Romania, totaling about 1,750 (Sistema Informativo Statistico Regione Marche 2017: 27-28). If we compare the presence of Chinese students in middle school during the school year 2015-16 in Macerata province, they were one of the major nationalities after Macedonian, Albanian and Romanian immigrants. Moreover, in the same school year, about 40% of the Chinese students attended public schools in Monte San Giusto and Corridonia. In absolute terms, among schools with the highest number of non-Italian citizens, in the school year 2015-16, was the Istituto Comprensivo "L. Lotto" in Monte San Giusto, which had 83 foreign students, including 20 Chinese students (Prefettura di Macerata 2017: 84-85).

<sup>2</sup> Istat 2020a. 3 Istat 2020b.

#### 2.2 Which identity?

Questioning the identity building processes of Chinese youth means trying to understand the multiple identities they have to reconcile: a 'foreign' schoolmate, an adolescent dealing with difficulties associated with their developmental age, and a child who has to demonstrate to his/her parents both the ability to remain Chinese and exert themselves in the effort needed to improve their life in an overseas culture. The notion of multiple identities can be considered a core concept in the literature regarding second generations.

In order to understand what second generation means, we can start by understanding how the use of the expression *second generation* has changed. Originally, it was used to refer to all the children who were born to first generation immigrants, regardless of their age or the historical moment in which they arrived in the receiving country; more recently, the expression has been used to define «those who were born in Italy or arrived there in early childhood; minors belonging to this category are considered juridically as foreigners until their majority, when they can apply for Italian citizenship» (Bolognesi 2008: 2).

Nevertheless, it is important to clarify the *second generation* concept, which literally defines those who were born in Italy to foreign parents. Children of the first generation cannot be considered without distinction members of the second generation. North-American sociological literature examined these concepts in depth, starting from the works by Portes and Rumbaut (2001), and Portes and Zhou (1993), which broadened the adoption of different categories to divide the population into three groups. If we adapt these categories to the Italian situation, the groups are defined as follows. The first is called *generation 1.75* and includes children who were born abroad and arrived in Italy during pre-school age; they have indefinite childhood memories and have been displaced in a stage of life where they are more capable of adapting to the new life; they grow in between two languages and two cultures handling them quite easily and obtaining educational outcomes similar to those of second generation children. *Generation 1.5* is composed of youth who began to attend school in their country of origin and then continued their schooling in Italy with many difficulties; they emigrated between 7 and 12 years old abandoning their mother language, together with their teachers and schoolmates, facing severe problems of adaptation in the receiving country. Lastly, *generation 1.25*, which consists of youth who arrived in Italy between 13 and 17 years old; they experience several difficulties because they left behind friendships and a consolidated educational path, and they, similarly to first generation members, have a greater struggle learning the Italian language and, consequently, in entering the receiving society (Ceravolo and Molina 2013: 6-7).

Whatever category they are included in, all these young people share the same feeling of a double belonging, one to the culture of origin and one to the receiving culture. More precisely, it is a question of a plurality of 'belongings', as second generation youth, besides handling several belongings to a nation, an ethnic group or a linguistic group, also build personal capabilities and management strategies pertaining to the «multiplicity of self» that form their individual and varied identities. This construction process of forming and reconciling multiple identities «makes you feel foreign, Italian, student, adolescent, child, friend, all at the same time […]» (Leonini 2005: 4).

Among the various identities that Chinese youth build and handle, there is the strong element related to their culture of origin. The difficulty of defining Chinese culture itself compounds the complexity of the identity question. Indeed, it is not an easy task to determine the 'Chinese-ness' of migrants living in the Italian territory. The Chinese-ness is not a fixed category, and it acts openly and indefinitely through meanings that are continuously re-negotiated and re-defined inside the different ramifications of the Chinese diaspora. Being Chinese outside China does not have the same meaning as being Chinese inside China; this feeling changes from one place to another, and molds itself to local habits in the various parts of the world where Chinese people have settled down and built their ways of living. There are, indeed, several Chinese identities, not just one (Ang 1998: 225).

The anthropology of Chinese culture cannot be limited to Chinese geographical boundaries, and for this reason, it is important to observe Chinese culture inside and outside China, and relate cultural practices in different regions and multiple national contexts. From studies conducted over the years, two elements are particularly meaningful for the identity building of Chinese people living abroad: culture and language. Even if the Chinese all over the world do not form a nation, they share a linguistic and cultural background that make them feel a solid group. We witness a sort of de-territorialization of Chinese identity through the so-called «ethnic civilization», or an ethnicity defined by a common civilization that includes Chinese history, literacy and philosophy among other aspects (Tan 2012: 200).

In practice, how do Chinese youth outside China, and particularly in Italy, express their Chinese-ness? Studies conducted in Italy in relation to second generation identity building show a situation where Chinese youth seem to take as a reference the members of second and third generations of countries with a longer migration history, such as the United States, United Kingdom or France. The youth interviewed «do not feel subjected to the receiving country, instead they use it, selecting values and customs that they want to acquire, and maintaining a Chinese identity that they feel proudly attached to» (Pedone 2004: 41). They spend their free time playing poker or *majiang* or listening to Chinese music, and at the same time, they perceive their own Chinese-ness as eating only Chinese food and wearing exclusively Chinese clothes. The identification with the 'Overseas China' makes these young people feel a connection with a youth culture, which is displaced both from the areas of origin and the context of their arrival in Italy. However, they are capable of selecting Western values, habits and ways of living, replacing them inside a precise and proud attachment to an identity which is reshaped but unavoidably Chinese. In this regard, we can talk about globalization of youth cultures and 'multilocality', referring to the ways of simultaneous presence that have been adopted by these youth in order to move from one context to another following their identification and identity building needs (Benadusi 2012: 136).

#### 2.3 What is social integration?

In order to understand the expansive conceptual world of social integration and its multiple shades, it is useful to start with a definition:

[…] coordination of directions for action among all members of a society, which is achieved in various sectors of the social structure and with different degrees of intensity. Social integration constitutes the condition that makes possible maintaining social order, that is the existence of the society itself as a harmonized co-existence of individuals4 .

Given this, it is important to mention a concept connected to social integration: multiculturalism. Meant as the compresence, in a specific physical or relational space, of different groups and identities, multiculturalism has increasingly been seen as a distinguishing feature of contemporary society, especially in relation to the migration phenomena. The contact between various cultural worlds is not an abstract and detached meeting between cultures, but a concrete meeting between people, made possible thanks to intercultural dialogue. (Santagati 2004: 51). This dialogue is started by strong intercultural education, whose purpose is to promote sincere interaction between different cultures in support of mutual recognition, and remove those prejudices and stereotypes that consider diversity as abnormal. Promoting intercultural education means creating the necessary circumstances for building «a society aimed at educating the future generations to leave the established frames of mind, lifestyle and thinking models of the belonging culture, in order to learn to open up to diversity and to move close to the other without prejudices and narrow-mindedness» (Sani 2011: 93).

The key place to build intercultural education is school, which is a privileged space for educating new generations to open to plurality and consider diversity as a resource. However, it is precisely in this educational environment that migrant youth face various critical moments in their social integration process. The first is the educational placement, which is the first stage of mutual knowing and crucial for proper educational planning. In this regard, two main problems emerge: the first is related to the welcoming period, because migrant youth do not have the necessary tools to interpret the surrounding signs and, therefore, may feel a sense of disorientation that affects both them and the class group; the second takes place amidst migration flows with areas of high mobility, where irregularities in terms of entering and attending school may occur.

Once the critical school placement has been achieved, migrant youth may still feel disoriented in a new environment with new people, where a lack of reference points can jeopardize their adaptation to culture models belonging to the

<sup>4</sup> Melchiorre 1996, 459 definition selected by Colombo 2004: 13.

receiving society. They undertake tasks often based on conflicting expectations arising from school and home. On the one hand, they may experience insecurity about how to behave in the formal educational context of relating with teachers and in the informal context of interacting with schoolmates. On the other hand, in the domestic context, they often find themselves confronted by social rules and practices belonging to their culture of origin, which are often inconsistent with the educational order, yet serve as tools of their own ethnic belonging in public environments. Migrant youth, therefore, use these tools both in public and private spaces, leading to collisions between school and family worlds (Colombo 2004: 116-117).

Family is the locale of primary socialization and informal relations, and it often contradicts socialization processes occurring in the formal educational environment of school. A division can arise between the two socialization spaces where limited interaction can inhibit mutual understanding. Various problems can lie at the base of this tension. Firstly, it is often extremely difficult for parents to adapt to their children's growth in a context that is no longer under their total control and that is at least partly at odds with their traditions. Secondly, they seem not to be interested in their children's school or relational problems. They often consider the educational systems of their countries as their points of reference and, consequently, they do not fully understand the prevailing rules and dynamics of the new educational system where they now live. Finally, they do not take part in parents' activities or meetings with teachers because of linguistic barriers (Colombo 2004: 124-126).

This last issue of linguistic challenges constitutes another problem for migrant youth during the social integration phase. These young people are at a systematic disadvantage because the primary language of the receiving country is the main tool for communication, learning, and evaluation of educational outcomes. To their detriment, their communication skills are rarely valorized by teachers, because in schools with a national curricular tradition there is often no space for multilingualism. Given this, it is necessary, on the one hand, to «[…] rethink linguistic learning strategies, giving more space to integration between L1 (mother tongue) and L2 (learned language), and to skills evaluation methods, avoiding ethnocentric models and vicious circles of depreciation of foreign students» (Colombo 2004: 50). On the other hand, it is equally important to try to understand «if public schools should promote the identification of migrants' children with their culture of origin, or let families have freedom of choice to organize these activities, privately or through the support of communities and ethnic associations located throughout the territory» (Colombo 2004: 52).

#### 3. Methodology

The purpose of this study was to contribute to existing knowledge by filling a gap in the scientific literature regarding the processes of identity formation and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region. Using a survey methodology, and drawing on theoretical ideas that were adapted and applied to the real life experiences of Chinese migrant youth, several insights emerged with practical implications regarding the understanding of how these young people deal with identity and social integration issues.

The study aimed to address two main research questions:


The intention of the author was to approach the research questions from two directions using two different methods. First, a brief questionnaire was distributed, which included two drawings to which every Chinese student attending the Marche Region Chinese Language Academy5 in Civitanova Marche and Porto Sant'Elpidio, was asked to respond. Second, a more extensive questionnaire was given to Chinese students, non-Chinese students and teachers in the middle school Istituto Comprensivo "L. Lotto" in Monte San Giusto. These two approaches were adopted in the hope of more accurately capturing the different perspectives and dynamics associated with identity formation and social integration. Written questionnaires were used owing to the age of the participants who ranged from 12 to 17 years old. It was assumed that pre-adolescents and adolescents would not be inclined to talk freely and truthfully about the topic with an interviewer but would instead be more comfortable completing a written questionnaire. The drawings were used as a way to allow the youth to express themselves as freely and creatively as they wished.

The fieldwork started in November 2017 in the two schools of the Marche Region Chinese Language Academy in Civitanova Marche and Porto Sant'Elpidio when students received a short questionnaire and a simple initial drawing intended to elicit their conception of their home and family life. Later, following a careful analysis of the drawings, an important observation regarding these young people's self-expression was noticed, and so, in February 2018, a second drawing, focused on their self-perception and self-representation, was created and distributed to study participants.

Over the same period of time, the author worked/volunteered as a cultural mediator in the middle school Istituto Comprensivo "L. Lotto" in Monte San Gi-

<sup>5</sup> In Chinese 马尔凯国际中文学校. This academy opened in 2012 and is now divided into two schools, one in Civitanova Marche and another one in Porto Sant'Elpidio. When it first opened, it enrolled 7 students, and currently enrolls around 120. The academy mainly offers Chinese courses, referring to Chinese school curricular programs and adopting only Chinese textbooks. Students are divided into multiple classes depending on their age (from 6 to 18 years old), and lessons are organized on Saturdays and Sundays, for a total of six hours.

usto, a school that has enrolled one of the highest number of foreign students in Macerata province. In January 2018, questionnaires were distributed to students and teachers in this school. The final number of study participants included 198 students and 21 teachers. Following data collection, analysis of the drawings and questionnaires was undertaken using tools including specific psychology books to interpret the data. Specifically, books written by Cannoni (2003), Carlino Bandinelli and Manes (2004), Crocetti (2008), Federici (2005), Oliverio Ferraris (1978) were adopted. The last phase was the discussion of the research results.

In conclusion, the number of participants, which consists of 198 students and 21 teachers, is limited but the author believes that this research and its results can be valid and useful for studying the same issues related to Chinese youth in other areas of the Marche region or in other Italian regions.

#### 4. Results discussion

The analysis of the research results starts from the illustrative statement below, made by one of the teachers involved. One key issue emerges from it and shows what needs to be examined in depth in future research: the influence of the family in the social integration process of Chinese youth.

Is the parent-teacher relation problematic? Why?

Yes, parents do not take part in parent-teacher talks because of clear linguistic difficulties, work obligations and because they already know that their children's results are mediocre because they work so they cannot study. (Participant 21)

As several teachers have noticed, these parents rarely seem to participate in their children's school life and may not fully appreciate the importance of social integration. These are parents who speak little or no Italian. Lacking linguistic competence in the local language is a huge obstacle to adapting to a new environment. These young people experience this difficulty every day, as they are completely immersed in a situation where knowing Italian is essential to obtaining equal educational preparation and achievement, and eventually, a good job. It is not surprising that almost all the teachers who were interviewed insisted on the importance of language and enhancing Italian instruction. Indeed, to the question «According to you, what are the biggest problems that Chinese students have to face to obtain good educational outcomes?» 16 teachers out of 21 stated that the most problematic issue for them is learning Italian. Two of the teachers said:

The fact that they need time to adequately master the language in order to study properly is not taken into account at all, therefore Chinese students are often abandoned without having the necessary tools to be able to follow the school program, even if didactic material prepared specifically for them is provided. (Participant 4)

I think that the biggest obstacle is the language, which is very different from Italian. Then, they do not have anyone at home that can help them with their homework. They are left alone and those who do not have the will to persevere could become demoralized because of the difficulties, so they do not do their homework, and this contributes to enlarging the gap with the rest of the class. It often seems that they do not make any progress, even for several years. (Participant 20)

It is also not surprising that all Chinese youth involved in the research and attending the Istituto Comprensivo L. Lotto affirmed that learning Italian is fundamental to their future employment and education if their life is going to be in Italy. In particular, 10 participants considered learning Italian important, and 7 very important. Observing the reasons for the importance of learning Italian, the outcome of the analysis is as follows: 5 affirmed that it is important because they want to live in Italy, 2 said that it is essential for communicating and making friends, 2 stated that it is important because you can speak properly and understand things, 4 affirmed that it is important because in the future they want to find a job and live in Italy, one participant said «If Italian was not important, why did I come here?», another one stated «Because I have difficulty in reading Italian», one pupil affirmed «Because learning has its advantages». The following answer is particularly significant as it epitomizes the condition that all Chinese youth face in relation to learning Italian: «Because I am not Italian. This is exactly why it is important». It seems that Chinese students appreciate that to demonstrate their competency relative to other students, they have to attain fluency in the Italian language. In this regard, the question «Is your Italian proficiency adequate for communicating, studying, both or neither?» aimed at examining their perception of their own Italian competency. Only one of them affirmed that it was adequate both for communication and study; 3 participants said their competency was not adequate for either; 4 stated it was good enough for studying; 9 affirmed their proficiency was acceptable for communication purposes.

Based on the data I collected, peer relationships developed outside school time were meager and this could be attributable to (and reinforced by) limited social integration. Nearly all the Chinese students who participated in the study indicated that they built relationships almost exclusively with other young Chinese people. Only a few of them reported having Italian or foreign friends, and spending time with them outside of school. Regarding making friends with Italian youth, most Chinese participants stated that it is a little difficult to make friends with them (9 out of 17), 5 of them said it is difficult, and only 3 said it is not difficult. Exploring the reasons in relation to this issue, it turned out that according to 11 of them it is difficult because they do not understand Italian, 5 affirmed that they do not have the same interests and 1 participant said that they cannot meet outside school. Despite these answers and the feeling of inappropriateness they can perceive, most of them still express their willingness to socialize with Italians. To the question «Would you like to have more Italian friends?» 12 out of 17 participants answered positively. 5 of them explained that making friends with Italians would help them improve their Italian proficiency, and 3 of them affirmed that they would like to make new friends.

In some cases, though, a profound loneliness emerged, confirmed by the interpretation of some of their drawings, as in the case of Drawing 1, where the house, with just a single road leading to it, represents for the participant their sole shelter and chance of protection, and, at the same time, denotes a sense of closure towards socializing with people who are not family members.

Drawing 1

This situation, where Chinese youth relate very little with Italian or foreign peers, may in part be due to the Chinese students' disposition because, for the most part, and, mostly for reasons related to language and common interests, they tend to associate with their own fellow citizens. In this regard, 12 participants out of 17 stated they had few Italian friends and spent their free time going to their Chinese friends' homes. When these young people go out with friends, the places where Chinese and Italian students spend time are not the same, and this does nothing to help bridge the distance between the two groups. Indeed, it turned out that young Italians mainly go to the city center or bars and parks, whereas the young Chinese go to shopping malls. Practical help in this regard could come from foreign youngsters, who exhibit a greater inclination to get to know and interact with the Chinese youth, and who are certainly more conscious than young Italians of the challenges associated with social integration and adaptation to a completely different culture. They can be their friends as well as important reference points, since they can offer help as they face the same type of issues. In this regard, to the question «How would you help a Chinese classmate to integrate?» 7 out of 23 answered that they would socialize with him/her and make him/her feel comfortable, 10 students affirmed that they would help them with Italian and talk with them, and 1 participant said «I do not know how but I would help him/her in any way I can». Almost every foreign participant, and in particular 19 out of 23, also said that having classmates coming from different parts of the world is an enrichment. The following answers are the most meaningful:

It is an enrichment: they teach me things about their countries and I teach them things about mine! So that everyone knows one thing more than before. (Participant from Senegal, 12 years old)

It is an enrichment because I can make friends and understand their traditions. (Italian-Albanian participant, 12 years old)

It is an enrichment because we have more friends to help integrate. (Participant from Albania, 12 years old)

It is an enrichment because we can learn new languages and new ways of living. (Participant from Pakistan, 12 years old)

Having classmates coming from different parts of the world is an enrichment because in this way you have more friends, you know more about their languages and countries.

(Participant from Morocco, 12 years old)

It is an enrichment because you can know new things about different nationalities. (Italian-Argentinian participant, 13 years old)

Despite the problems highlighted by this research there is at least one positive factor that can support social integration, and which is shared by all Chinese youth; that is, maintaining their mother tongue with family members and fellow citizens. In order to achieve successful social integration, it is essential to sustain a strong bond with your own roots. In this regard, almost all participants (12 out of 17) stated they speak solely Chinese at home and watch exclusively Chinese TV during their free time. And lastly, to the question «Why is studying Chinese important?» 2 out of 17 participants affirmed that it is important because when they go back to China they will be able to speak Chinese, 2 said that learning Chinese is essential for reading novels, speaking fluently and communicating with their families, 8 participants answered «Because I am Chinese»6 . The rest of them gave various answers: «Because I like Chinese», «To learn things», «Because it is my mother tongue», «Being able to speak Chinese is very respectful», «To communicate».

With respect to the characteristics of the youth who were directly involved in this research, there was substantial variation in the sample, which turned out to be essential as their different migration backgrounds affected their diverse processes of social integration and identity formation. The present research revealed the exact classification of these young people, which follows quite faithfully the categorization elaborated by Rumbaut, Portes and Zhou that has been illustrated earlier in

<sup>6</sup> In Chinese 因为我是中国人.

this paper. There are youth who were born and have grown up in Italy, and they can build their own Italian identity, while still being conscious of their cultural uniqueness. There are youth who were born in China and who possessed limited language competency, and they are able to build a Chinese identity, introjected during the childhood period. There are also youth who were born in China and who received their elementary education there and they can build a Chinese identity, being fully aware of it. Finally, there are youth who were born in Italy but returned to China to receive their elementary education, who currently attend Italian school, and who could have difficulty in building a coherent identity between their Chinese and Italian selves. Regarding their acculturation process, which can go from problematic to non-problematic with various repercussions expressed during the adolescent phase, situations can range from an unbalanced acculturation and a tendency toward assimilation or an unbalanced acculturation and a negotiation of their own identity, to cultural assimilation and an awareness of their own identity.

Concerning the participants' self-representation and correlated drawings, it is evident that there is a common feeling of disorientation and incomplete awareness of their own identity. Notably, none of the drawings contains elements that represent their Chinese-ness. These youth experience their personal schism and continuously ask themselves if they are Chinese or Italian. They represent themselves with uncertain strokes, or as a caricature, or with elements taken from the manga or cartoons worlds, because they seem to find it difficult to represent themselves, or understand themselves and their identity. Drawing 2 is a clear example of the perceived disorientation.

Drawing 2

A similar perception can be found looking at the drawing shown here:

Drawing 3

This is a drawing that can be defined as 'incomplete' as it shows only a part of a human figure. It is typical of individuals that have a partial, complex vision of themselves, finding it difficult to depict themselves in a concrete way. Drawing 3 represents a face that has become totally estranged from reality, with lines that barely relate to a human face. The lines themselves, which are irregular and uncertain, are signs of fear of social relations and distance from family. Moreover, sunglasses have been placed as a defensive screen by this pupil, revealing a wish to be excluded from the world that surrounds him and a possible negation of the reality in which he lives.

However, it is necessary to interpret these findings with caution as one must consider the participants' age as they are mainly adolescents, and the identity theme is extremely complex and sensitive at this stage of life. Indeed, the question «Who am I?» is one of the crucial questions typical of adolescence.

In relation to the concept of home/family and its representation by the youth, we can observe the same feeling of disorientation. What emerges from most of their drawings is a sense of loneliness and non-communication, exemplified by the absence of human figures or representations of people without a face. In particular, drawing 4 shows a girl who drew herself as a figure without hands standing in the furthest position from her parents. This represents both a feeling of detachment from them and emotional deficiency together with a sense of social inadequateness and the inability to establish bonds.

#### Drawing 4

The sense of disorientation is noticeable in other drawings too. In particular, we can find it in drawings where the representation of the house (with walls, a roof, doors and windows, as depicted in Drawing 4) is a result of an image constructed in the receiving country, which can reflect emulation of drawing styles of Italian youth or be their very own Chinese creation of communication strategies. It is also evident in the drawings that they in some way relate the concept of home/family to China, through for example, the representation of a panda with the word «panda» next to it (See Drawing 5). It was also apparent in the figuration of a child with his grandfather and animals on a farm in China (Drawing 6), where there emerges a strong emotional bond with the native land, also confirmed by the fact that there is no ground line in the picture and the figures appear to be suspended in space, an element that relates to the dimension of memory and the past. The same feeling can also be observed in another drawing, Drawing 7, showing a tall building with a sketch of what resembles a Chinese pagoda, which has been deleted; what is left is the building itself. The walls of the building are particularly well marked, meaning that the individual is afraid of losing his identity, therefore he reinforces his Self in an artificial way by using heavy exaggerated lines.

All these drawings reveal a bond with a China that lives in the memories of these young Chinese students who reside in Italy, who feel, however, still connected to their land and who perceive themselves as part Chinese, part Italian.

Drawing 5

Drawing 6

Drawing 7

#### 5. Conclusion

This study has explored the issues of identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region, including not only their perspective, but also the points of view of Italian and foreign youth and teachers. The method used was intended to involve a heterogeneous group of people that would yield a more complete vision of the question. This research attempts to begin to redress gaps in the understudied phenomenon of Chinese immigrant youth in Italy. Migration to the Marche region is relatively new and research on the specific question of «identity and social integration of Chinese youth» remains sparse. The demographic trend toward increased migration of Chinese to the Marche region deserves greater attention. Their successful integration will require a more systematic grasp of the connection between Chinese youth, their families, and the schools. A more thorough understanding of the mechanisms of, and challenges to, identity formation and social integration is necessary before more effective and practical strategies for supporting these young people can be pursued.

#### References


*dell'educazione in una società multietnica e multiculturale*, edited by Sani Serena, Pensa MultiMedia, Lecce: 89-119.


# 温州社会经济发展与移民文化变迁——以瑞安桂峰乡移 民为例

# Development and evolution of Wenzhounese migrant culture throughout time: the case study of Guifeng (Rui'An)

Yan Xiaopeng, Zhao Yinyin

**Abstract:** With China's economic opening, and in particular since the beginning of this century, the economy and the society of Wenzhou have been characterized by an enormous development. However, little research has focused on the relationship between the changes occurred within Wenzhounese migrant culture and the development of the Wenzhounese society. The current contribution takes the case of the village of Guifeng (Rui'An, Wenzhou) as an example in order to analyze different historical steps in the development of Wenzhouese migrant culture. By describing the general situation of migration from Guifeng it will be possible to summarize the reasons at the basis of Wenzhounese migrant culture, and by examining the new trends in migration from Guifeng it will be possible to trace the future tendencies of Wenzhounese migrant culture.

**Keywords**: migrant culture, development of Wenzhou, crucial changes, future developments.

摘要: 改革开放后尤其是进入新世纪以来,温州经济社会发展有了重大飞跃,然而对于温州移民 文化的变迁与温州经济社会发展之间的关系研究并不多。本文以温州瑞安桂峰乡移民为例,分析 不同历史发展阶段的温州移民文化特点,通过探讨桂峰乡移民的总体状况总结温州移民文化形成 的原因,通过观察桂峰乡移民的新动向探讨温州移民文化的未来发展趋势。

关键词:移民文化;温州发展;时代变迁;未来发展.

温州是全国著名侨乡,据温州市2014年侨情调查数据显示,目前有68.89 万名温州人遍布在全世界131个国家和地区。温州是浙江省海外华侨最多的城 市,占全省海外华侨总人口的34.1%,在海外的浙江华侨中,每三个人中就有 一个是温州人。温州海外移民主要集中在欧美地区,其中法国、意大利、荷 兰、西班牙是温州人在欧美的主要聚集地。在温州的各县、市、区中,海外 华侨华人最多的是文成县,共计16.86万人,其次分别为瑞安市16.00万人、 鹿城区12.08万人、瓯海区11.98万人。本文主要以温州瑞安桂峰乡移民为 例,探讨温州经济社会发展与移民文化的变迁。

Yan Xiaopeng, Wenzhou University, China, yxp627@163.com Zhao Yinyin, Wenzhou University, China, m17857051693@163.com

FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Yan Xiaopeng, Zhao Yinyin, 温州社会经济发展与移民文化变迁——以瑞安桂峰乡移民为例 / *Development and evolution of Wenzhounese migrant culture throughout time: the case study of Guifeng (Rui'An)*, pp. 141-148, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7.08, in Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta (edited by), *Tracing Pathways* 雲路*. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia*, © 2020 Author(s), content CC BY 4.0 International, metadata CC0 1.0 Universal, published by Firenze University Press (www.fupress.com), ISSN 2704-5919 (online), ISBN 978-88-5518- 260-7 (PDF), DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

#### 1. 温州移民文化的发展特点

温州的华侨华人历史最早可以追溯到北宋年间,温州人周伫到高丽经商 入仕并定居,成为温州人移居海外的先驱。但在新中国成立前,温州只有3.5 万华侨华人,改革开放前增加至5万人,改革开放后的新侨是温州华侨的主 体,占总人数85%以上<sup>1</sup> 。近代以来,温州海外移民主要经历了三个阶段:20 世纪初期至20世纪中叶,由于物质条件匮乏、社会政局动荡,部分移民出于 生计被迫向海外迁移;改革开放至21世纪初,由于国家政策的改善,前期移 民财富聚集,出现"以一带十""以一带百"的家族性海外移民现象,移民 聚集效应开始显现;进入新世纪后,老移民通过艰苦奋斗积聚了财富,改善 了自身和家人的经济条件和社会地位,推动了二、三代移民的相继外迁。近 年来随着中国国内经济的发展,新移民中更多的人选择向国内大中型城市迁 徙,出现海外移民逆向迁移现象。

据统计(郑育友,2000),截止到2006年,瑞安桂峰乡有华侨5663人, 占全乡人口的54%,分布在意大利、西班牙、法国、德国等十四个国家,而意 大利就有4017人。归侨、侨眷1391户,占全乡总户数92%。桂峰乡位于瑞安市 西北部,有瑞安的"西藏"之称。全乡辖7个行政村,区域面积33.38平方公 里,耕地面积3151亩,基本水田1934亩,旱地1243亩,山地面积48000亩,宜 林山地43000亩[1] 。农村经济以种养业为主,劳务、手工为副。桂峰乡境内峰 峦起伏,可谓是山连山、岭叠岭的山乡。由于全乡地处高山峻岭之中,可耕 作面积极少,且农作物又以番薯为主。乡民们祖祖辈辈生活在高山头,过着 较为艰难的贫困生活。

据记载(郑育友,2000)桂峰乡自1915年至1999年,在这长达85年的历 史中,曾出现两次出国热;第一次是一战后至1923年8月,桂峰乡掀起移居 日本做工、行商热,人数达183人;第二次是1978年改革开放之后,10年时 间内桂峰乡出国人数就达2399人,大多到意大利等欧洲国家。从长达80多 年的移民发展历史来看,其外迁的基本阶段与温州移民的变迁基本相同。

1.1 桂峰乡海外移民的第一阶段(1915-1949年)

桂峰乡乡民出国始于1915年。当时有河上垟村的胡雪章和赵兰贵两人到 日本谋生。此后,有291人相继移居海外,其中去日本的183人,其余分别去 法国、荷兰、德国、奥地利、波兰、罗马尼亚、匈牙利、南斯拉夫、西班 牙、意大利等20个国家谋生。

1915-1949年间桂峰人出国原因既有经济方面的因素,也有社会方面的因 素,更有文化方面的因素,其中经济因素是根本原因。从经济方面来看,桂 峰乡山区面积广大、耕田有限,留守桂峰乡的部分群众甚至无法满足个人生 活基本所需,为了满足生存,桂峰人不得不出国谋生。从社会方面来看,二 十世纪前50年的中国社会动荡,政局不稳定是桂峰人在这个时期出国的重要

<sup>1</sup> 温州市2014年侨情调查数据。

原因之一。国民党统治时期,为扩充兵源,到各地强行抽丁拉夫,部分青壮 年农民为了躲避抓壮丁而被迫出国做工、谋生。从文化方面来看,桂峰乡紧 邻今文成县和青田县,尽管地处偏僻,但一段时期内曾是两地木材运输的必 经之地,受文成"李山文化"的影响颇深,偏僻而贫穷的山区桂峰农民在文 成、青田亲戚朋友的文化影响下很早就有人出国谋生。

1.2 桂峰乡海外移民的第二阶段(1949-2000年)

1949年至1978年新中国成立后三十年,桂峰乡海外移民基本处于停滞状 态。1978年改革开放以后,桂峰人大多以旅游、探亲、婚姻、劳工输出等方 式出国,出国原因发生了极大的变化。其一,继续受周边青田、文成等县出 国华侨的影响,利用沾亲带故关系走出国门。其二,出国继承父辈产业或家 庭团聚的人增多。桂峰华侨在海外艰苦创业,许多人积聚了一定的经济基 础,实业有所发展,需要解决帮工紧缺或财产继承问题,因此,他们选择 带自己的家属或房族、亲属出国。其三,形成华侨大家族。这种大家族中一 旦有"先锋移民"出现,就带动了一系列的"连锁移民"。这种"九族"血 缘出国互带的情况,是桂峰华侨在国外绵延和发展的重要原因。其四,改革 开放后到21世纪初,由于国内外形势的变化,到国外发展的机会多、成功率 高,因此,到国外经商、留学的人员日益增多。

1.3 桂峰乡海外移民的第三阶段(2000年-现在)

自二十世纪初期至今,大部分移居海外的桂峰乡人民,通过出国实现了 就业和赚钱的目标,改善了自身经济条件使得其社会地位亦有所变化,并推 动其二代、三代相继迁出。此外,同乡同村亲戚连带帮助大规模裙带迁出成 为桂峰乡出现大量海外移民的重要推动力。桂峰乡下属名村河上垟村、元底 村在当地非常有名,其中河上垟村是著名的华侨村,华侨足迹遍布欧美。除 向国外移民外,随着中国国内社会经济发展,部分移民选择向国内中心城市 迁徙,在欧债危机后,一部分旅欧华侨出现移民回流现象,他们的回流目的 地大多是中国国内中心城市。

2. 温州移民文化的形成要素

早期,温州"三少一差( 人均耕地少、国家投资少、资源利用少、交 通条件差)"的内部环境推动着初期温州人民迫于生计向外迁移。温州本土 经济资源尤其是土地资源严重紧缺,自然资源、交通条件等先天资源的匮乏 严重限制了温州经济的发展繁荣,为摆脱贫穷落后的困境,温州人很早就开 始摸索"外向型经济发展模式"。在"外向型"经济的指引下,温州人通过 辛勤劳动积累原始资本,建立"温州商会",凝聚温州精神,打造温州人经 济网络,开创独具特色的"温州模式"。广大温州人开始逐步在海外落地生 根,温州移民文化也由此形成。

桂峰乡地处偏僻、土地资源稀少,突出的人地矛盾、恶劣的自然条件, 再加上某些社会动荡的因素,成为桂峰乡农民外出寻求生存十分重要的"推 力"。此外,移民海外的"拉力"不仅具体化为高收入和更多的就业机会, 华侨在中国特殊的社会地位以及国外宜居的都市生活方式和城市魅力,也是 吸引桂峰人走出国门的重要因素。

#### 2.1 社会资本在桂峰乡移民历史中的作用

侨乡通过已定居移民、信息网络和人情互惠提高移民操作的成功率 及获益率的能力,是一种社会资本(李明欢,2005)。桂峰乡社会资本的运 作,使其大批乡民踏上跨国迁移之路。桂峰乡侨乡社会资本的运作,既 有其现代性又富有传统性。1949年前通过亲戚朋友的带动出国谋生,极少 以"银元"来回报,而更多的是以"免费"或"廉价"为带其出国的人" 打长工"的方式作为回报,这种方式充满了中国传统文化中"知恩图报" 的色彩,这种"重情感、厚仁义"(徐华炳,2012)的人际文化深深扎根 在桂峰乡侨民的心中。改革开放后在市场经济观念的影响下,以"劳务运 输"的方式被带出国门的费用少则要10来万,多则要18万左右,并逐步形 成健全的"移民市场"。在这种社会资本的作用下,一个海外移民通过20 年的时间能带出200-300名族人、姻亲和朋友到海外谋生,其本人也成为 这个大家族的"族长",这样的"族长"在桂峰乡不止一个。长期以来形 成的海外关系网络、紧密的海内外社会关系网络,成为桂峰乡人民向外流 动的重要推动力。

#### 2.2 桂峰乡移民海外的路径依赖

制度经济的研究表明,制度变迁受到旧制度安排所形成的变迁轨迹或路 径依赖的影响。路径依赖效应认为:旧制度的创立会出现"人们过去做出的 选择决定了他们现在可能选择"的制度变迁轨迹依赖现象,使人们更加重视 初始制度的选择。同时随着旧制度的成长而伴生依附旧制度的既得利益集团 和组织,进一步强化现存制度和阻碍制度创新。桂峰乡的海外移民,具有典 型的路径依赖特征。桂峰乡的"先锋移民"运用其社会资本为其族人、姻 亲、朋友建立一整套"制度化移民海外"的模式,并得到了乡亲的认同和接 受。比起前往国内城市打工、经商等,移民海外成为桂峰乡农民最便捷的改 变命运的手段,并且渐渐地桂峰乡乡民只认同这种移民海外的方式。尽管移 民海外并没有让所有的人致富改变命运,也有一些人在海外颠沛流离,但由 于既得利益集团和组织的作用,人们依然前仆后继地选择了移民海外。移民 海外依然是农民最青睐的改变命运的发展道路。

2.3 桂峰乡移民海外模式是一个有机的系统工程

桂峰乡移民海外模式是一个有机的系统工程,是系统宏观层面和微观 层面之间相互作用的产物。宏观层面的因素诸如桂峰乡的政治状况、控制 移入移出法律规章等。在桂峰乡的百年移民历史中,1949年前的社会动荡 就是迫使桂峰人移民海外的宏观层面上的因素。改革开放后,中国打开国 门也是桂峰人移民海外的宏观层面上的因素。微观层面的因素包括移民人 口自身具有的资源、知识和理解力。从桂峰乡的移民现象中我们可以看到 家族的信息网络和相互扶持的渠道,以及这些移民与家乡家人和朋友之间 的紧密联系,是促使桂峰乡出现"群体性移民海外"现象的重要推动力。 如,在潜在的移民中,有关意大利等国的知识和"社会资本"——可以利 用的人际关系或家族资源会使该国成为备受推崇的一个目标国家。从桂峰 乡的移民历史中,我们可以看到,这种连锁移民现象(亲戚朋友的出国互 带)导致华侨大家族的形成。

2.4 物质基础在桂峰乡移民历史中的作用

移民文化的物质基础是侨汇、侨屋、侨捐。桂峰乡国内常住人口1513 户3742人<sup>2</sup> ,侨汇是其家庭收入的重要来源。他们把家乡廉价的土特产加上 亲情邮寄到世界各地,世界各地的同胞们将他们在国外辛辛苦苦赚来的外 汇寄到家里补贴家用。出于光宗耀祖和眼球效应等原因,桂峰乡许多华侨 在家乡盖房,甚至建造豪华别墅,这些中西合璧或完全西式的别墅在侨乡 产生示范效应。桂峰乡华侨华人捐资兴建公益事业是桂峰乡的一大亮点, 桂峰乡华侨华人成为"侨乡教育事业、慈善公益事业、经济发展"(张小 绿,2008)的重要开拓者和建设者。这些物质层面上的事实对移民文化的 形成有重要的影响。

物质层面的变化带来精神层面的变迁。桂峰乡农民的价值观中成功与 否的标准是在海外赚了多少钱,给家里汇了多少钱,在家乡捐了多少钱, 在家乡建了什么样的房,有没有把亲戚朋友带出去,有没有把父母亲带出 去玩,下一代培育得怎么样等。李明欢(1999)将这一现象概括为温州侨 乡存在的"炫耀性消费"和"相对失落感"。这些价值观直接影响桂峰乡 的移民文化,在精神层面强化了"移民海外是硬道理"的意识,这种移民 文化既有农民摆脱贫困追求幸福生活的渴望,更有中国传统文化追求自强 不息的精神力量,同时也存在着盲从和攀比的小农意识。也正是在这种物 质基础上形成的移民文化推动温州人在改革开放后选择前往欧美等发达国 家和地区谋取生机和新的财富。

移民文化在桂峰乡移民历史中起到重要作用。从社会学意义上来看,社 会变迁既泛指一切社会现象的变化,又特指社会结构的重大变化;既指社会 变化的过程,又指社会变化的结果。桂峰乡近百年的移民历史,使其从一个 偏僻贫困的农村,转变成一个社会和谐、生活富裕的侨乡,并形成独特的侨 乡移民文化。这种移民文化是动态的,2020年新冠疫情的爆发也正在催化这 一移民文化的变迁。

<sup>2</sup> 瑞安市桂峰乡行政地图, <http://www.cntics.com/xzmap/gf8kl.html>(08/20).

#### 3.温州移民文化的未来发展

与老一代华侨不同,新移民大多以追求优裕的生活和自身发展为目的,他 们更注重个人价值的实现。这不同于近代华侨那种效忠祖国、落叶归根的观 念。新生代移民分为两种类型,一种是他们生长、生活在国外,他们想方设 法积极参与、融入当地主流社会,尽管这当中存在许多障碍,但加入当地国 籍,落地生根,谋求发展是新移民出国的主要动机;另一种是不再愿意像老 一辈一样漂洋过海去讨生活,他们更愿意留在国内发展或选择两栖生存,国 外生活对他们的吸引力正在发生变化。

新时代的移民文化尤其是逆向移民文化的产生为温州以及中国注入了新 鲜的血液,新时代的温州人秉承"敢为天下先"的温州精神,积极突破、勇 于开拓。任伯强、韩纪江(2009)认为这种奋斗精神是一种脚踏实地、一往 无前的务实理想主义,此精神转化为经济行为后就有可能成为一种新的经济 伦理,丰富温州本土人文精神。

#### 3.1 温州移民向全球化发展

对于生活在海外的新一代移民,受到中西方文化的冲击,虽然在文化认 同上有所困惑,但新一代移民展现出了不同以往的移民特性。一部分二代、 三代移民经过数十年的融入,逐渐适应居住国的发展,他们的子女因为从小 生活在当地,已经完全被当地文化所同化,并融入到当地社区当中。中文在 部分国家已经沦为侨二代、三代的第二、第三语言,新移民中不乏"香蕉 人",耳濡目染的西方文化已经扎根在他们的内心,西式教育与西式思维让 他们与中国传统儒家文化格格不入,跨文化身份认同危机凸显。在这种情况 下,他们希望在当地落地生根。部分移民选择通过与居住国所在国民通婚以 融入当地社区和社会,融入所在国成为他们及下一代的的需要。此外,新一 代移民更加积极主动地参与到所在国的社会生活中,通过参与社会生活逐步 融入所在国的主流文化。同时,新一代移民也更愿意参与到所在国的政治生 活中,努力在当地政坛上发出自己的声音、发表自己的想法,提高自身的社 会地位。由此可见,移民再生重组成为新时代背景下部分移民的选择,温州 移民逐渐在全球各地安定下来。

#### 3.2 温州海外移民的逆向迁移

随着中国综合国力的提高、中国经济的快速发展,欧洲部分国家经济增 长速度放缓、整体形势不容乐观,温州移民逐渐开始回流,逆向移民文化初 显端倪。部分温州海外移民发现国内市场逐步开放、中国与世界接轨并渐渐 走近世界舞台的中心,他们开始选择在国内尤其是上海、深圳、广州等中心 城市运用原有资本进行投资发展。对于生活在国内的移民后裔,亲身经历中 国近年来经济快速发展,国外生活对他们的影响力逐渐削弱。此外部分侨民 作为留守侨胞长期生活在国内,这些移民后裔对于家乡的感情深厚,依赖目 前生活环境,不愿意改变现有生活状态,不愿体验老一辈移民在海外的艰辛 生活。同时,近年来国内侨务政策不断变革,出台了许多为移民后裔也提供 很多优惠和便利的政策,提供了促进其在国内发展的环境,在一定程度上加 强了他们留在国内发展的意愿。2020年新冠疫情爆发后,世界各国为控制疫 情采取了不同的举措、面对疫情做出不同的努力,在此过程中,中国政府以 及广大海内外华侨华人的抗疫行为也对温州海外移民对中国的看法造成了一 定的影响。部分海外移民在反对疫情歧视、为中国发声、讲好中国故事的道 路上,通过进一步走近中国、了解中国,对自己的祖(籍)国有了更加深入 的了解,尤其是新一代移民,在新时代新背景下,新生移民借助信息技术和 网络通讯技术,他们有了在云端学习中文、了解中国文化的诸多机会。面对 中国的强大和繁荣,新时代逆向移民趋势已初现端倪。

#### 3.3 温州移民的内外互动

现代通讯技术的飞速发展,为广大华侨华人提供了在世界各地密切联 系、加强沟通的手段和途径。云端互联网技术的发展,让广大海外移民有 更多机会通过线上办公指导工作,通过更及时有效的方式了解国内资讯,掌 握国内外政治、经济、文化、社会新动态,在第一时间作出选择。移民的内 外联通、互动更为便捷,出于经济、文化等相关利益的考量,部分移民借助 自己的双母语、双文化优势,辗转在祖籍国与居住国之间,内外流动形式多 样,移民多样化逐渐延展开来。改革开放40年来,随着全球化的推进,出现 了崭新的移民文化现象。孔飞力(2016)认为中国移民的目的国有了更多的 选择,一些曾经长期实施排华政策的国家也逐步放宽对中国新移民的限制。 世界范围内的新移民,在全球化的时代大背景下拥有更多选择,移民方向和 途径更加个性化、多样性。全球化的推进为广大移民提供了摆脱地域束缚的 可能性,尽管当前新冠疫情的爆发暂时阻止了全球范围内移民的内外流动, 但随着疫情逐步得到控制,各国各地区逐步解封、国际航班逐步恢复通行, 我们认为内外互动趋势不可阻挡。

4. 结论

桂峰乡移民在不同历史发展阶段呈现出不同的移民文化特点,桂峰乡作 为温州重要的海外移民地之一,其移民文化现象的变迁折射出温州移民文 化的动态发展受到温州经济社会发展的影响。温州移民文化既是静态的, 更是发展的,是一种扬弃性的文化;既是物质的,更是观念的,是一种多 层面的文化;既是中国原乡的,又是全球他乡,是一种世界性的文化;根 在本土,形塑于外,是一种包容性的文化。从对桂峰乡移民文化变迁的考 察中我们发现,温州社会经济发展与移民文化变迁的关系中蕴含着传统文 化与时代精神之间的融合、中华文明与西方文化之间的融合、乡土意识与 人类文明之间的融合。

参考文献

瑞安市桂峰乡行政地图,<http://www.cntics.com/xzmap/gf8kl.html> (08/20). 郑育友.桂峰华侨志[M].香港:天马图书有限公司:2000: 11.

李明欢. "侨乡社会资本"解读:以当代福建跨境移民潮为例[J]. 华侨华人历史研究, 2005 (02): 40-51.

徐华炳.区域文化与温州海外移民[J].华侨华人历史研究, 2012 (02): 44-52.

张小绿.华侨华人慈善捐赠和侨乡发展——对瑞安市桂峰乡华侨华人的调查和分 析[J].温州大学学报(社会科学版), 2008 (04): 17-22.

李明欢."相对失落"与"连锁效应":关于当代温州地区出国移民潮的分析与思考[J]. 社会学研究,1999 (05): 85-95.

任柏强,韩纪江.移民与区域发展——温州移民社会几个问题的思考[J].温州大学 学报(社会科学版), 2009, 22 (01):1-6.

孔飞力(著)、李明欢(译).他者中的华人[M].南京:江苏人民出版社, 2016: 3.

#### STUDI E SAGGI

#### TITOLI PUBBLICATI

ARCHITETTURA, STORIA DELL'ARTE E ARCHEOLOGIA

Acciai S., *Sedad Hakki Eldem. An aristocratic architect and more*


Castorina M., *In the garden of the world. Italy to a young 19th century Chinese traveler*


Pedone V., Sagiyama I. (edited by), *Perspectives on East Asia*

Pedone V., Sagiyama I. (edited by), *Transcending Borders. Selected papers in East Asian studies* Rigopoulos A., *The Mahānubhāvs*

Squarcini F. (edited by), *Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia*

Sagyiama I., Castorina M. (edited by), *Trajectories: Selected papers in East Asian studies* 軌跡

Vanoli A., *Il mondo musulmano e i volti della guerra. Conflitti, politica e comunicazione nella storia dell'islam*

DIRITTO


Curreri S., *Democrazia e rappresentanza politica. Dal divieto di mandato al mandato di partito*


Fossum J.E., Menéndez A.J., *La peculiare costituzione dell'Unione Europea*

Gregorio M., *Le dottrine costituzionali del partito politico. L'Italia liberale*

Palazzo F., Bartoli R. (edited by)*, La mediazione penale nel diritto italiano e internazionale*


ECONOMIA

Ammannati F., *Per filo e per segno. L'Arte della Lana a Firenze nel Cinquecento*


Barucci P., Bini P., Conigliello L. (edited by), *Intellettuali e uomini di regime nell'Italia fascista*

Barucci P., Bini P., Conigliello L. (edited by), *I mille volti del regime. Opposizione e consenso nella cultura giuridica, economica e politica italiana tra le due guerre*

Bellanca N., Pardi, L., *O la capra o i cavoli. La biosfera, l'economia e il futuro da inventare*

Ciampi F., *Come la consulenza direzionale crea conoscenza. Prospettive di convergenza tra scienza e consulenza*

Ciampi F., *Knowing Through Consulting in Action. Meta-consulting Knowledge Creation Pathways*

Ciappei C. (edited by), *La valorizzazione economica delle tipicità rurali tra localismo e globalizzazione*


Lazzeretti L. (edited by), *Art Cities, Cultural Districts and Museums. An Economic and Managerial Study of the Culture Sector in Florence*

Lazzeretti L. (edited by), *I sistemi museali in Toscana. Primi risultati di una ricerca sul campo*


Meade S. Douglas (edited by), *In Quest of the Craft. Economic Modeling for the 21st Century* Perrotta C., *Il capitalismo è ancora progressivo?*

Simoni C., *Approccio strategico alla produzione. Oltre la produzione snella*

Simoni C., *Mastering the Dynamics of Apparel Innovation*

FILOSOFIA

Baldi M., Desideri F. (edited by), *Paul Celan. La poesia come frontiera filosofica*


Brunkhorst H., *Habermas*

Cambi F., *Pensiero e tempo. Ricerche sullo storicismo critico: figure, modelli, attualità*

Cambi F., Mari G. (edited by), *Giulio Preti: intellettuale critico e filosofo attuale*


Desideri F., Matteucci G. (edited by), *Estetiche della percezione*

Di Stasio M., *Alvin Plantinga: conoscenza religiosa e naturalizzazione epistemologica*

Giovagnoli R., *Autonomy: a Matter of Content*

Honneth A., *Capitalismo e riconoscimento*

Michelini L., *Il nazional-fascismo economico del giovane Franco Modigliani*

Mindus P., *Cittadini e no: Forme e funzioni dell'inclusione e dell'esclusione*

Sandrini M.G., *La filosofia di R. Carnap tra empirismo e trascendentalismo. (In appendice: R. Car-*

*nap Sugli enunciati protocollari, Traduzione e commento di E. Palombi)*

Solinas M., *Psiche: Platone e Freud. Desiderio, sogno, mania, eros*

Trentin B., *La Città del lavoro. Sinistra e crisi del fordismo*, edited by Iginio Ariemma

Valle G., *La vita individuale. L'estetica sociologica di Georg Simmel*

FISICA

Arecchi F.T., *Cognizione e realtà*

LETTERATURA, FILOLOGIA E LINGUISTICA


MATEMATICA

Paolo de Bartolomeis, *Matematica. Passione e conoscenza. Scritti (1975-2016)*, edited by Fiammetta Battaglia, Antonella Nannicini e Adriano Tomassini

MEDICINA

Mannaioni P.F., Mannaioni G., Masini E. (edited by), *Club drugs. Cosa sono e cosa fanno*

Saint S., Krein S.L. (con Stock R.W.), *La prevenzione delle infezioni correlate all'assistenza. Problemi reali, soluzioni pratiche*

PEDAGOGIA


POLITICA


Cipriani A., Gramolati A., Mari G. (edited by), *Il lavoro 4.0. La Quarta Rivoluzione industriale e le trasformazioni delle attività lavorative*

Cipriani A., Ponzellini A.M. (edited by), *Colletti bianchi. Una ricerca nell'industria e la discussione dei suoi risultati*

Corsi C. (edited by)*, Felicità e benessere. Una ricognizione critica*

Corsi C., Magnier A.*, L'Università allo specchio. Questioni e prospettive*


Nacci M. (edited by), *Nazioni come individui. Il carattere nazionale fra passato e presente*

Renda F., Ricciuti R., *Tra economia e politica: l'internazionalizzazione di Finmeccanica, Eni ed Enel*

Spini D., Fontanella M. (edited by), *Sognare la politica da Roosevelt a Obama. Il futuro dell'America nella comunicazione politica dei* democrats

Tonini A., Simoni M. (edited by), *Realtà e memoria di una disfatta. Il Medio Oriente dopo la guerra dei Sei Giorni*

Zolo D., *Tramonto globale. La fame, il patibolo, la guerra*

#### PSICOLOGIA

Aprile L. (edited by), *Psicologia dello sviluppo cognitivo-linguistico: tra teoria e intervento* Luccio R., Salvadori E., Bachmann C., *La verifica della significatività dell'ipotesi nulla in psicologia*

SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE AGRARIE

Surico G., *Lampedusa: dall'agricoltura, alla pesca, al turismo*

SCIENZE NATURALI

Bessi F.V., Clauser M., *Le rose in fila. Rose selvatiche e coltivate: una storia che parte da lontano*  Sánchez-Villagra M.R., *Embrioni nel tempo profondo. Il registro paleontologico dell'evoluzione biologica* 

SOCIOLOGIA

Alacevich F., *Promuovere il dialogo sociale. Le conseguenze dell'Europa sulla regolazione del lavoro*

Alacevich F., Bellini A., Tonarelli A., *Una professione plurale. Il caso dell'avvocatura fiorentina*


Massai V., *Angelo Gatti (1724-1798)*


STUDI DI BIOETICA


Galletti M., *Decidere per chi non può*

Galletti M., Zullo S. (edited by), *La vita prima della fine. Lo stato vegetativo tra etica, religione e diritto*

STUDI EUROPEI

Guderzo M., Bosco A. (edited by), *A Monetary Hope for Europe. The Euro and the Struggle for the Creation of a New Global Currency*

Scalise G., *Il mercato non basta. Attori, istituzioni e identità dell'Europa in tempo di crisi*

Tracing Pathways 雲路. Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia. This volume collects contributions written by eight authors interested in different research areas in East Asian Studies. Divided into a Japanese and a Chinese section, it explores topics ranging from East Asian literatures to contact linguistics and sociology. The Japanese section contains four essays about contemporary Japanese cinema and different aspects of Japanese modern and contemporary literature (i.e. the literary motif of *kame naku*, 'crying turtle', *yuri* manga, and *tenkō bungaku*, the 'literature of conversion'). The Chinese section concerns two main macro-topics: on the one hand, it focuses on issues related to cultural contacts between Italy and China; on the other hand, it deals with Chinese migration to Italy, highlighting socio-historical aspects and cultural production.

Diego Cucinelli teaches Japanese language at the University of Florence. He researches about Japanese demonology and the Fantastic in Japanese fiction, focusing his studies on modern and contemporary novelists such as Uchida Hyakken, Edogawa Ranpo, Murakami Haruki and Kyōgoku Natsuhiko.

Andrea Scibetta is a Chinese language lecturer at the University of Florence and a post-doc fellow at the University for Foreigners of Siena. His scientific activity concerns Chinese, L2 Italian teaching to Chinese students, the promotion of Chinese in Italian schools, multilingual education.

Table of contents: Preface (Diego Cucinelli, Andrea Scibetta) – Japanese studies. "What is contemporary Japanese Cinema?". Questioning the answers, answering with questions (Giacomo Calorio) – 幻の春の声. 近現代日本文学における「亀鳴く」. The illusory voice of the spring: the motif of "crying turtle" in modern and contemporary Japanese literarure (Diego Cucinelli) – Tales of lilies and girls' love. The depiction of female/female relationships in yuri manga (Marta Fanasca) – 転向を語ること ─ 小林杜人とその周辺. Converters Tell Their Stories: Kobayashi Morito and His Networks (Tsuboi Hideto) – Chinese Studies. Chinese migration(s) to Italy beyond stereotypes and simplistic views: the case of the graphic novels *Primavere e Autunni*  and *Chinamen (*Andrea Scibetta) – 想象与现实之间——阿尔巴西诺和马莱尔巴游记中的中 国形象. Between imagination and reality: the image of China in Alberto Arbasino's and Luigi Malerba's travel writings (Yang Lin) – 我是中国人: Identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region (Meri Perna) – 温州社会经济发展与移民文化变迁——以瑞安桂 峰乡移民为例*.* Development and evolution of Wenzhounese migrant culture thoughout time: the case study of Guifeng (Rui'An) (Yan Xiaopeng, Zhao Yinyin).

> ISSN 2704-6478 (print) ISSN 2704-5919 (online) ISBN 978-88-5518-259-1 (print) ISBN 978-88-5518-260-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-88-5518-261-4 (XML) DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-260-7

Tracing Pathways

D. Cucinelli, A. Scibetta

雲路

www.fupress.com