Lu Xun and Natsume Soseki, both have left profound impact on the modern Chinese and Japanese literary histories, today “held” a cross-time “handshake and conversation” at Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages.

Satsuki Eda, the former President of Japan’s House of Councilors, Fusanosuke Natsume, the grandson of Natsume Soseki, a well-known cartoon and comics critic, and Luer Li, Chair of Shaoxing Lu Xun Cultural Foundation and vice chair of National Lu Xun Cultural Foundation, were among the distinguished guests present.

Zhenhua Xu, President of Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, gave the welcome speech. He said that the friendship between China and Japan is rooted in the peoples, and works by Lu Xun and Natsume Soseki have not only exerted profound influences in the literary scenes in both regions, but have also been loved by peoples of both countries.  It is never an exaggeration to claim that Lu Xun and Natsume Soseki are the symbols of the China-Japan cultural and literary interactions. At this event, I sincerely hope that through this “literary giant-to-giant conversation”, a new song to celebrate the long history of friendship between China and Japan will be re-sung and re-energized, and new efforts to promote the interactions and understandings between the two countries will continue to last.         

Satsuki Eda characterized the friendship between China and Japan as the forever neighbors sharing the same water which “can’t be moved, nor will it ever leave each other”. He quoted from Lu Xun’s Hometown  “The land did not have roads at first, but when many people walked along a path, this path thus became a road on the land.”, and he used this quote to hope students and instructors present will jointly work to promote the interactions and understandings between peoples of China and Japan.

Fusanosuke Natsume recalled his growth over the years, and thus described his vision of Japan’s relationship with China: “Japan and China have historically had long interactions and learned from each other. I also hope that this event will promote continued comings and goings between two peoples, and improve better understandings as well.”

This China-Japan cultural exchange event, the “cross-time conversation between Lu Xun and Natsume Soseki”, was one of a series of events sponsored by the Lu Xun Cultural Foundation since 2014. Other events hosted by Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages included the cross-time conversations between Lu Xun & Hugo, Lu Xun and Tolstoy, and Lu Xun and Tagore..

Before the lectures, Zhenhua Xu, President of the University, presented, to Fusanosuke Natsume, the Adjunct Professorship of Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages.