Chapter 560 (1/2)

Chapter 560 “Why Should I Forgive You”!

Bai Yi stopped his speech midway.

The other people also turned to where the voice sounded from.

The person who had interrupted the speech was a head of the school. Seemingly having just gotten off a phone call, he hurriedly yelled out and interrupted the speech, “Wait a moment, there are some important guests arriving!”

Important guests?

Who could they be?

So important that they even had to interrupt the speech?

Upstairs, the university delegation group stood up and faced the main entrance upstairs respectfully. A few leaders of the group went outside the hall themselves to receive the guests with a different att.i.tude from what they had been giving to the Chinese earlier. A few escorts from the Peking University side also went along to receive the guests. This phone call was quite unexpected as there was no advanced notice to inform them. Then, it turned out that the guests were actually high-ranking officials from the j.a.panese political delegation. As there was a change in their afternoon schedule, and possibly hearing of the Sino-j.a.panese University Exchange that was taking place today, the team had chosen to come and make a visit here!

“Who’s here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Aiyo, I think it’s one of the j.a.panese political delegations!”

“They’re here at Peking University too?”

“Oh, why are there so many reporters here as well!”

The first thing they saw upstairs when the doors opened were not people but camera flashes going off continuously. About 20 Chinese and j.a.panese reporters came along with the group, and they were busy photographing and recording the delegation on the way here. A Central TV reporter who tripped and fell got up quickly to continue photographing without even dusting off his s.h.i.+rt.

It was a delegation of around a dozen people or so.

The group was led by a j.a.panese official named Matsumoto. “h.e.l.lo.”

The Peking University group immediately welcomed them, “Welcome, welcome.”

Matsumoto smiled and said, “#$%^&!”

The translator said, “We heard about this Sino-j.a.panese University Exchange event today and were very interested in attending as we are very pleased to see such a cooperation taking place. Please go on with the ceremony and ignore our presence.”

With the arrival of important guests, they were naturally invited to take a seat in the front row upstairs. The j.a.panese university delegation immediately stood up to let the newly arrived guests take the front row, while they themselves settled down behind them. As for the rest of the seats, they were taken up by the Peking University’s escort staff as well as the Chinese government officials who were accompanying the j.a.panese political delegation. A few familiar faces were spotted in the crowd, consisting of some officials from the Chinese education world. They were here to accompany the j.a.panese political delegation today.

A Chinese government official said to a Peking University staff member, “Go on, don’t further interrupt the event because of us.”

The Peking University staff nodded. “Yes sir, Teacher Bai was just in the middle of giving a speech just now. We will continue from there.” He then gave a signal to the stage for them to restart the ceremony.

The Peking University students were all silent. Some of them occasionally turned their heads to look upstairs. As they had not before seen so many important people gathered together at once, they couldn’t help themselves, whispering and making noises.

Seeing how even the political delegation was here, Bai Yi was very surprised. As though he had suddenly been injected with an adrenaline shot, he straightened his posture and took a deep breath to suppress his nervousness before opening his mouth to continue with his speech, “Right now, we’re interested with the cultural level of the j.a.panese, as well as the systematic and political levels. What we have yet to currently achieve in the latter has already been achieved by the j.a.panese, as well as some Western countries. As the Western countries and j.a.pan are aligned on these levels, it becomes something that Westerners take for granted. What interests them in j.a.pan are its culture, politics, as well as its history. This is the reason why our feelings are more complex than Westerners when it comes to such issues.”

As Bai Yi was not a professional literary person, his speech was not as well written as Professor Yan’s. It was not written with structure but still managed to express the core idea that he wanted to a.s.sert.

“Our concern with j.a.pan is to set them as the ‘other’ so that we may learn from them. But such a viewpoint originates from the expectations that China has set for herself. Based on the development towards those goals, and using j.a.pan as the ‘other,’ we are undoubtedly still going to experience all of it as China. We are able to stand freely in the consciousness of the problems and set off after observing j.a.pan, keeping j.a.pan as the ‘other’ in this whole process. But in order to do all of this, we need to show everyone our perspectives and observations, not be an inadequate observer or doer. If we were to show an incomplete side of us, it would not be fair to j.a.pan as well.”

Some people had their reservations about this viewpoint but they could understand it very well. Talking about the thoughts towards j.a.pan from this perspective was indeed rather rare.

Upstairs, Matsumoto nodded as he whispered to the official beside him.

Bai Yi: “We need to set an example starting from ourselves, to learn to forgive…”

Bai Yi: “We need to start from ourselves, to learn to respect…”

One by one, he listed his perspectives and finally, he said, “Without understanding, there is no right to speak. We need to learn how to understand other people, other countries, to learn how to forgive and respect another person or country. Yes, that is what I want to say and so my speech will end here. Thank you, everyone.” Bowing, he left the stage.

Matsumoto led the applause!

The political delegation followed his lead and clapped loudly!

The Tokyo University students and teachers also clapped warmly!

Only the Peking University students downstairs were very silent. Some of them did clap, but their eyes showed no spirit and their clapping was mechanical. Many of them felt as though something heavy weighed on them, thinking about how the speeches were so reasonable. Yet they were unable to accept them. It was as though something was wrong, somewhere!

Some Peking University teachers felt the same.

Su Na took a few deep breaths and even felt a sense of regret.

Another History Department professor in his fifties could only sit there expressionless, not saying a word.

Respect?

Forgiveness??

At this moment, many people felt that they had something to say but could not say it, nor did they know how to say it, especially when the j.a.panese political delegation and university delegation were both upstairs. And so, they could only applaud and go with the flow.

A Peking University female student mumbled to herself, “Was our att.i.tude in the past really wrong? There’s no meaning to that? We need to learn to forgive?