Can Japan and Taiwan understand each other?

Masahiro Wakabayashi (若林正丈), a researcher on Taiwan at the University of Tokyo, once told a story of a conversation he had while sitting in a restaurant at the Howard Plaza Hotel, waiting for a friend. He had his wallet open on the table and a train ticket he regularly used in Tokyo was peeking out, revealing Shibuya (澀谷), the name of a district in Tokyo. When a young, aloof waiter saw it, he immediately approached the professor as if he were a close relative and started talking about Shibuya. He mentioned the "cool"-sounding names of one famous boutique after another, which Wakabayashi, being a scholar, was not familiar with. Not receiving the appropriate response, the waiter's enthusiasm began to fade. He resumed his usual countenance of a metropolitan professional and left with his tray.

What does the story tells us? There may be quite a gap between the Shibuya known by Taiwan's "Japan junkies" (哈日族) and that of life in Tokyo. You may build a mystic link with a foreign country of your fantasy while travelling there, but an image flavored with wishful thinking is never a true picture of that exotic land.

Taiwan has recently been embroiled in an uproar over the Japanese comic book On Taiwan(台灣論). Perhaps we can better grasp the nature of the issues involved if we view the book as a traveller's notes.

When the cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi (小林善紀) came to Taiwan, he was deeply unhappy with the state of affairs in Japan and wanted to find something in Taiwan. As a traveller carrying a baggage of misunderstandings and inadequate background knowledge about Taiwan, what did he believe he saw here?

As Kobayashi wined and dined with an old man like Shi Wen-lung (許文龍), whose mind had stayed put in the past, the two may have misplaced their warm feelings toward each other in their anxious search for points in common (not unlike the waiter at the Howard Plaza), and as a result inappropriate words were said.

In the same vein, how can we say the Taiwanese truly understand Japan? They don't even know that the Kobayashi they have been so vehemently condemning is just a cartoonist, who stands way outside the Japanese mainstream and occasionally visits Taiwan in search of a refuge for his dreams.

Mixing the nostalgia of Taiwan's older generation with his own dissatisfactions about Japan, Kobayashi gave a "live" presentation of a dinner conversation. Perhaps he was hugging an elephant's leg and thinking it was a log that would keep his own nostalgia afloat. As a result, he brought back to life all the prejudices of an old man from an era in which survival was all-important.

Their knowledge of the "comfort women" issue, about which conclusions had long been reached the world over, paled in the face of their camaraderie.

Some see the ghost of militarism in Kobayashi, while others see the condescending face of colonialists.

Some can't wait to rally everyone in an anti-Japanese drive -- burning books, banning Kobayashi from Taiwan, getting emotional and going over the top. The Taiwanese people have yet to grasp a deeper understanding of Kobayashi's fringe status in Japanese society.

On Taiwan has unleashed all kinds of feelings that the people of Taiwan have toward Japan, with everyone arguing according to his or her own sense of identity and social status while vilifying others. Politicians have also seized the opportunity to fan up and then solidify those prejudices. Will the Taiwanese and Japanese ever be able to see each other clearly?