Hello, everybody. I'm so honored to be here with you now. Just for a while, would you let me here talk about "Roaring of the Earth" written by Sugimoto Nobuyuki? It was published by PHP Kenkyu-sho in 2006.
What is the Sugimoto Nobuyuki? you might wonder. I know he is almost unpopular. He was a bureaucrat who had belonged to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was born in 1949 Kyoto, and entered the diplomatic service in 1970's. He had mainly worked in China.
In 2004 May, a Japanese male consul killed himself in the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai. It's said he had to kill himself because he deeply suffered from menace and intimidation by Chinese. Betray Japan, or couldn't go anywhere. He was doubtlessly led into a dead end. Then he elected to kill himself. I feel very sorry. Sugimoto had worked there as his boss. It's not so difficult to imagine how deep Sugimoto regretted, is it?
Moreover, Sugimoto was identified as having terminal cancer. He dropped out from the consul general in Shanghai, and decided to write what he had experienced and seen in China all thru his life. It was published as the "Roaring of the Earth" in 2006.
He died in 2006 summer, aged 57. I feel very sorry again. But what he wrote is still alive.
This will work so much when you visit or relate to China somehow. Sugimoto had for a long time (1970's to 2000's) got something to do with a lot of kinds of Chinese people. It means he was deeply versed in China. Or he was unable to keep working there. His accounts will help you in some ways when you are at your wits end with China.
I want you to check out what Sugimoto had seen in China thru his life. I'd like you to hear his swan song. And want you to make good use of his depiction if you can.