Interview Meme (1)

The Rules: Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!You WILL update your journal/bloggy thing/whatever with the answers to the questions.You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

My questions come from Thinking Girl.

1. Where is the one place you most want to visit in the whole world? Why?

It is obviously very difficult to decide only one place, but I would choose Greece. It is the cradle of the civilisation. I love the simple, symmetric beauty of the Greek architecture. I would love turquoise sea and the cuisine as well, I'm a huge fan of olives! But I need to properly read Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Aristophanes and all the Greek writers before I go there to enjoy it more... If it is to live and study not to just visit, it would be Norway (or any Scandinavian country); I am deeply interested in their politics and society, because it seems the best in the world!

2. What is your most treasured childhood memory?

Family trip to the USA... my parents took me to travels many times and that's one thing I thank them for. I loved America; it was just before 911/Bush's election rigging, the streets were bright and shining, people were filled with enthusiasm, energy and joy of life. I could even go inside the White House with a guided tour! And the best experience was, though it's sort of very weird, meeting a hotel receptionist in Minneapolis. She helped us a lot and was incredibly nice... she hugged me when we left. For her probably I was just one of hundreds of guests, I really felt I was loved, and it meant a lot to me.

3. Where did you live before moving to New Zealand?

I used to live in Japan. I was born there, and lived there for a long, long time. Not anymore.

Some people still keep attaching me to the 'Japanese' identity. Well, it is true legally or racially, but I don't really identify myself with Japan much. I'm not really interested in Japanese music or food or movies or festivals or whatever. I don't believe in Japanese religion, I'm agnostic. It is my past, but not my future. I don't like being primarily identified as 'Japanese' rather than something else that defines me better, such as an activist, a vegetarian, a progressive, a cafe-lover, etc. I feel that artificially drawn borders are emphasised too much, nationality is given too much importance in this world. When people meet people 'from' another country, we tend to ask first 'where are you from?', categorise them into that nationality, and see the person through the stained glass box of the national identity. But nationality/ethnicity is not always the primary definer of a person's identity.

Ernst Renan argued that the concept of a nation should be based on each individual's choice not characteristics; nationality is 'a daily plebiscite', one needs to give consent and commitment to belong to a nation, because "man [sic] is a slave neither of his race nor his language, nor of his religion, nor of the course of rivers nor of the direction taken by mountain chains" (he also said that a nation was "a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours"). Therefore, I like to be identified as a New Zealander, but a citizen of the world is fine for me. I'm generally supportive of multiculturalism, but sometimes I feel that multiculturalism tacitly discourages immigrants from assimilation. People should be given a choice to retain ties with a country of birth, but also a right to be free from the country one is born (which she/he didn't even choose) should be respected.

Though Japan still meets the minimum standard of a liberal democracy, patriarchy and misogyny are rampant, and nasty, xenophobic jingoism is rearing its ugly head. To make matters worse, it is hard to see the hope in the future of the country when the younger generation seems to be more conservative than baby boomers over there. The most important thing I learned from the experience of living in Japan is the greatness of the West. With all the problems and oppressions still remaining in the West, I embrace and praise the deep-rooted liberalism, tolerance, individualism, compassion, and the activist tradition of the West. I don't hesitate to claim that the West is the best. I strongly reject cultural relativism type of argument because I'm so sick to death of hearing defence of patriarchy/racism/illiberal practices as 'our culture' and attack on human rights, feminism and civil liberties that they are 'Westernising forces'. Sometimes I wonder if I were born in the West, I might be more critical of the West...

There are two more questions from Thinking Girl, but as it is getting long I will write the answers for them next time...