China Studies Laboratory

In order to know who you are, you should first of all know where you are located and who your neighbors are. If you are a Japanese, it is absolutely necessary to understand that the Japanese archipelago is located in the East Asia and is surrounded by such countries and regions as China, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and so on where such languages as Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Malaysian or English are spoken and that there　exist many regional variations to each of those languages. Here, we study the languages of our neighbors starting with the Chinese Putonghua for the purpose of finding out how the films and literary works produced in those languages have pictured Japan and their relationships with Japan. The aim is to deepen our self-understandings through understanding our neighbors first.