We thought that his words were fighting for face with us, but in fact, he was still giving Japan a job.
Hello everyone, today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, I wish you all family reunion, a happy life, and a prosperous Year of the Dragon. In the morning, I read the news casually and saw the sad news that the world-famous conductor Mr. Seiji Ozawa had passed away at his home in Tokyo on February 6 due to heart failure. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a statement that night that he was a "great conductor and a legend that Japan is proud of." ”
As you know, I'm a fan of classical music and love Seiji Ozawa's conducting style, so I couldn't resist writing an article on the first day of the new year to commemorate this great conductor – even though he was Japanese, which seems not so flattering to many Chinese people. The first time I knew that there was Seiji Ozawa was when I watched the 2002 Vienna New Year's ** party broadcast by CCTV, when I saw a group of foreigners with high noses and deep eyes playing in the entire orchestra pit, and the conductor was a short Oriental old man with messy hair on the top of his head. To be honest, this scene was actually quite shocking in my heart in my childhood, because in that era, an Oriental could appear at the world's top ** meeting, and also assume the most important position of command, which really made us who are also yellow people feel attention - is this person Chinese? I estimate that there are many Chinese who have just seen this scene and will think the same as I did at that time. Of course, during the halftime commentary, the host will tell you that this old man is Seiji Ozawa, a well-known conductor in the international music scene. This made us a little disappointed, but at the end of the meeting, when the conductor was about to give a New Year's address to the world, the scene that I remember to this day appeared. The usual Viennese New Year's speech consists of a simple couple of words by the conductor and then the musicians say "Happy New Year" in German. But on that occasion, Seiji Ozawa played a few tricks, and after the audience was quiet, he went in a certain direction of the orchestra pit like conducting a piece of music, and a musician stood up and said "Happy New Year" in the language of his country! Then, with Ozawa's baton, one musician after another stood up and said "Happy New Year" in English, German, French, Czech, Polish, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, and even Russian. Different languages intermingle to form a symphony of languages, and Seiji Ozawa is conducting a unique and magnificent movement. In this process, as Chinese, we have a little regret, after all, there is no Chinese in these languages. But at the end of the speech, an interesting scene appeared, when the principal violinist stood up and said in a pure Japanese, which he had obviously practiced for a long time: "New Year's Eve The audience burst into laughter, because now it was difficult for Seiji Ozawa himself, and he looked embarrassed, as if he was thinking about what kind of language he should use to congratulate the New Year." Perhaps everyone would have thought that he would speak the most common English, or the German used by the Austrian hosts. Who knows, Seiji Ozawa was tolerant and said in very pure Chinese".Happy New Year
The audience immediately cheered, and even Zhao Zhongxiang, who was the commentator at the time, also practiced and exclaimed: Oh! Mr. Seiji Ozawa actually uses Chinese, he uses Chinese! Happy New Year to music fans around the world. This scene is still fresh in my memory, and it is also from that New Year's ** meeting, CCTV interviewed the film crew of the Vienna New Year's ** party, as long as there is an opportunity to interview the conductor of this year, they will teach each other to say "Happy New Year" in Chinese. Of course, the reason is easy to think of, because on the stage of the Vienna New Year's party, saying "Happy New Year" in Chinese like Seiji Ozawa did is self-evident in the propaganda effect of our culture. However, there are very few conductors who say "Happy New Year" in Chinese on that stage, and the occasional sentence is not as pure and solemn as Ozawa's final sentence of "Happy New Year" in 2002. At this point in the article, you may think that I would say how precious Seiji Ozawa's scene was and moved Chinese ......No, I don't want to talk about that. In fact, Ozawa Seiji's background is implicated in that period of unpleasant history between China and Japan, he was born in Shenyang, China, and even his name, by the standards of many people today, is also suspected of "insulting China" - Zheng, taken from Itagaki Seishiro, and Er, taken from Ishihara Waner, the two war culprits who launched the 918 Incident, are the so-called "national heroes" in the minds of the Japanese people who were militarist at that time, Ozawa Seiji named after them, with today's strict logic, it is indeed very insulting to China. In fact, if Seiji Ozawa were still living in the old Japan where he was born, he would probably be in trouble if he said "Happy New Year" in Chinese on the international stage. At that time, Japan was flourishing the theory of the so-called "ABCD encirclement network", believing that the United States, Britain, China, and the Netherlands, the "four powers", were encircling them and wanted to strangle Japan's rise to prominence. Therefore, if Ozawa dared to use Chinese at that time to "make the final decision" on such an important occasion, there must have been a "sorrowful young man" in Japan with a plaster flag tied to his house to ask: "Ba Ge Yalu, what are your intentions!?" Actually speaking Chinese on such an important occasion and opening his eyes for the enemies of the empire! You ** thief! Dead, dead, damned! ”
Not to mention such criticism, there were many people in Japan at that time who did this, for example, it is said that the Japanese Prime Minister Inuyangyi, who can also speak a few words of pure Chinese and is friendly with Mr. Sun Yat-sen, was assassinated, one of the charges is pro-China"** So, at that moment in 2002, when Seiji Ozawa was in a hurry and said the phrase "Happy New Year", what was the biggest meaning? Is this old gentleman Seiji Ozawa particularly friendly to China? Is it that the soft power of Chinese culture has risen at that time, and "the whole world is speaking Chinese, and the words of the Chinese are becoming more and more international"? I think there are those reasons, but the main reason is not these. The main reason for this is that Japan itself has indeed changed. No one will come back to you because a public figure says a foreign word in public, shows that you are too close to a certain country, or "advertises" the culture of that country, and "the fat water flows into the fields of outsiders". Of course, there are still stupid people living in the dream of militarism, but these people dare not be as arrogant as in the old Japanese era, and they dare not go to Mr. Seiji Ozawa for trouble with the protection of civil liberties and rights by the legal system of society. It is precisely because of this social foundation that Mr. Seiji Ozawa dared to say in Chinese like thatHappy New Year”。Therefore, a few years ago, when he said "Happy New Year" in Chinese, we thought that Ozawa's words were to raise our Chinese face and raise our eyebrows. But a few years later, when you look back at this incident, you will find that when he said this, he was still trying to save face for Japan after all. Because only a modern civilized country that is open, inclusive, confident, and at least guarantees that citizens have the freedom to speak without being fooled into trouble, can support Seiji Ozawa's move. Seiji Ozawa used a Chinese phrase "Happy New Year" to explain that New Japan is such a country, and this is not the best way to earn face for his country, what is it? From this, I think of some news I saw on the first day of the new year, such as our ** will report, the global Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival in various places, many foreigners also come to participate in the grand event, the Empire State Building in New York, and the Tokyo Tower in Japan are lit up with Chinese red all night on Chinese New Year's Eve, celebrating the New Year together, and it has lasted for many years. 
The whole world is celebrating the Chinese New Year. When we saw this kind of news in the past, we instinctively thought: Oh, the motherland is worthy of being strong, the soft power has been improved, you see that the whole world has celebrated the Chinese New Year, we are proud and so on. But you think about it again according to the logic you just had. The United States, Japan, and Europe can all celebrate the Chinese New Year generously and happily, but no one says that this is a "cultural invasion" and accuses the Chinese New Year that the natives are all "foreign slaves" and are "kneeling and licking China". So the whole world is celebrating the Spring Festival, on the surface, this is our success, our self-confidence, our face, but to talk about it deeply, like Ozawa's sentence of "Happy New Year", isn't this their success, their self-confidence, their face? It's the New Year, and Mr. Seiji Ozawa, who said "Happy New Year" in Chinese, is gone, and I think he left at least a few thoughts for us. First, many people are currently talking about Messi's "insult" to Hong Kong, China. But a few years later, how many people still remember Seiji Ozawa being so friendly to us back then? How many Chinese are willing to repay this gesture of sorrow when this old man dies? Like I said in my previous article,When you interact with others, you can't just hold grudges, don't remember well, otherwise you won't make friends, remembering those who have been kind to us is more important than hating those who have insulted us. Second, with Mr. Seiji Ozawa gone, how many such world-class masters will be willing to show their friendship to us and spread Chinese culture on the international stage in the future? In the past, many people had a kind of thinking, thinking that the world is the law of the jungle after all, and the strong are respected, so as long as China is strong, it will naturally be subdued from all over the world, and the whole world will speak Chinese. However, in recent years, many news have actually proved that this kind of thinking is not necessarily correct, and being strong does not necessarily mean that gaining respect, making more friends like Seiji Ozawa and gaining more goodwill in the world is actually a technical work that requires skill, sincerity, and a test of our modern consciousness. Third, when will we be able to give birth to a great conductor like Seiji Ozawa, who will become a calling card of our nation in the world, or we may already have such people, then when will we not mind them speaking a word of English or even Japanese in public international occasions and at critical moments of national identity? Can our audience not be angry at them? Can you not go to their trouble? Will we even applaud the conductor's humor and tolerance, as the audience at the Golden Hall did back then? I think that when we really do this, it will be the greatest glory of our nation and our culture, because it proves that we have not only returned to the self-confidence, openness and tolerance of the prosperous Han and Tang dynasties, but also gained more respect and protection for individual civil liberties in modern society. In this article, I would like to commemorate Mr. Seiji Ozawa and wish all my readers only in his Chinese:Happy New Year
The full text of this article is 3000 words, thank you for reading, the first day of the new year, I wish you a happy New Year.