Kansai Window

"Kansai Daisuki!" (I Love Kansai!) is a web page where foreigners living in Kansai talks about the charm of Kansai.

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The 11th
Director, China National Tourism Administration Osaka Office
Mr. Tei Horui

The eleventh interviewee for our "I Love Kansai" series is Mr. Tei Horui , Director of the Osaka Office of the China National Tourism Administration.
Mr. Tei is originally from Shandong in China and went to university in Shanxi and studied Japanese language and culture. He was happy to conduct the entire interview with us in fluent Japanese.

Dec, 2003

Mr. Tei came to Japan three years ago to take up his post with the Osaka office although he had visited Japan several times before. On those occasions he had been in Japan to run tourism related promotions for China in the larger cities, including Tokyo. We asked him to tell us his impressions of cities in Kansai compared with those other cities he had visited.

"Osaka has an image of being a city of down to earth folk compared to, say, Tokyo, yet there are also cities of high culture in Kansai such as historic Nara and Kyoto. Because I live in Kansai now, I have a far greater sense of the similarities and differences between China and Japan."

We asked Mr. Tei about those similarities and differences in specific terms.
"The similarities are most apparent in those aspects of Japanese culture that have developed throughout the long history of the Japan-China cultural relationship. The influences derived from China can be seen in various parts of Japanese culture, from the ancient cultural properties of Nara and Kyoto to the Chinese characters still in daily use within the Japanese language. Japanese people have an impressive ability to absorb different cultures from overseas and turn them into something that becomes unique to Japan. For example, Japanese 'ramen' (noodles) has its origins in a Chinese noodle dish, but has been seasoned quite differently to suit Japanese people's taste. The soup is really tasty even when I compare it with Chinese ramen."

"What is very different about our two countries relates to our respective histories of modernization. While Japan has absorbed so many modern things from Western countries, China has kept its gateways to modernization closed for a long time. Now of course China is actively pursuing modernization and thereby emulating Japan in many respects."

As an area, Kansai remains a place of history and culture, yet it also tends to be very modern within its urban landscapes. What are your impressions of this?
"I think it is wonderful that everything is designed with so much comfort and convenience. In particular, I see this in the transportation facilities. All public transport, including railways and road services connecting cities are safe and punctual. The transport system serves as a fine illustration of the Japanese characteristics of hard work and following rules. That is one point that China needs to learn on its way to modernization."

Mentioning the transportation system as an illustration of something else, we can see how keenly Mr. Tei seeks to interpret the life and people of Kansai every time he observes its history, cultural heritage and landscape.

We also asked him about his favorite places in Kansai, his first choices being 'Gion' and 'Hanamikouji' (the row of traditional houses) in Kyoto. He seems to have a deep interest for such city spaces that retain the atmosphere of a way of life passed on down the ages. "I like not only the beautiful settings of the city but also the fact that people are still living there and that you can feel their lives in the scenery."

We asked Mr. Tei about the many photographs he has taken and seen published in introductory books about Japan. We noted that his pictures of Kyoto and Arashiyama, for example, showed a particular interest for the people. There were pictures of Kyoto people strolling by the river within the typical Japanese scenery backdrops of Arashiyama and Togetsukyo.
"You can see many beautiful landscapes in China also. I feel that the overseas scenes that Chinese people like most are those in which they can see the people living, scenes they can relate to and join in themselves."

As he had pointed out, part of the charm to Osaka is its down-to-earth "folksiness". Mr. Tei believes that tradition and custom are very much alive and part of daily life in the various different regions in Kansai.
"I know that Kansai has many popular festivals including the 'Gion Matsuri' and the 'Danjiri' (float) festivals. Even in the larger cities like Osaka and Kobe, the tradition of holding festivals such as the 'bon-odori' remain. In these, all the locals get together and dance. There are such traditions in China also but in the more urbanized cities, such as Shanghai, they are diminishing with modernization."

Mr. Tei then told us about a visit to Yoshino and the strong impressions it left him with.
"Yoshinoyama in the cherry blossom season was the most impressive place of all the places I have visited." (On being asked about the blossom he elaborated). "The cherry trees in full bloom all over the mountain were beautiful indeed. However, what struck me most of all was how the Japanese people relate to these blossom, how they have cherished and preserved such landscapes for so long. There are cherry trees in China too but only for the harvesting of cherries, not for people to view and appreciate. The Yoshinoyama landscape has been fostered by the Japanese for hundreds of years, an appreciation that has been passed on by the ordinary people living in the area. This helped me understand about the rich spirituality Japanese people feel towards the beauties of nature, a spirituality that has existed from ancient days.

The cultural relationship between Japan and China is one with a long history. Mr. Tei underlined the importance of tourism and the role it can play for developing a truly peaceful and friendly relationship between the two countries.
"Genuine mutual understanding is only developed through people meetings and communicating in travel situations. I'm aware that Japan is now conducting a promotion campaign to attract more visitors to Japan (the Visit Japan Campaign). I think the goal of inviting 10 million overseas visitors to Japan could easily be achieved if Japan were to issue tourist visas to people from cities in China other than Beijing, Shanghai and Canton. The infrastructure and the hospitality here is already at a satisfactory level for inviting more overseas tourists. Having said that, signage within stations and public areas could still be improved. Of course, there are good signs in the big cities but I wish they also existed in the smaller stations out in the more rural areas."

"The Chinese government has national tourism offices in all the main countries around the world but in most cases there is only one office. The only countries where we have more than one office are the U.S. and Japan. The U.S. is a large country so, naturally, there is a need for one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. In that sense, having two offices in a relatively small land such as Japan says a great deal about how the Chinese government values Japan as a special neighbor. In fact, Kansai welcomes more than half of all the visitors from China. Kansai is both important as China's gateway to Japan and as the center of the long cultural relationship the two countries have shared over the centuries.

Lastly, Mr. Tei underlined the importance of taking another good look at the cultural assets Japan offers its foreign tourists from a broader picture that, for example, takes into account the viewpoint of people from outside Japan.
"I don't think that Chinese people will be especially interested in Japan's Buddhist temples just by receiving a background profile because there are much grander and older temples in China. In order to spark their interest it would be a good idea to introduce more about a temple's history in relation to its connection with China. For example, it is important to tell visitors that 'Obaku-san Manpuku-ji' temple in Uji City was founded by Ingen Zenji who came from China."

Within the scenery of Yoshino's cherry blossoms, Mr. Tei sees people who have cherished the landscape for a long time, and their lives. When he introduces the Japanese landscape from this unique viewpoint, it becomes "living scenery" for conveying the spirit of the people within. We left the interview with Mr. Tei in the hope that such "living scenery" will catch the attention of even more Chinese people and become the cornerstone of a closer relationship between China and Japan.