Big Fish & Begonia, time and the coming and going of reflections between China and Japan

A friend has just told me about a Chinese animation movie he has recently watched on Amazon Prime, Big Fish & Begonia, and the following discussion has made my thoughts lay the foundation for a completely different framework in my mind. Just a few days ago I planned to pick up Japanese again, and now I find myself thinking that perhaps it is once again the case to give up, postpone or just slow down.

    It has not to do with the fear of not "having time", with the adrenaline that derives from it and which from time to time I love to recreate artificially reading the short story "Time" (时间), by Liu Yichang; but rather it has to do with the awareness that "adding" is also "taking away", that in our time, to make room, it is necessary to "give up".

    So I want to sink into what I already have in my time, and "occupy" space on the net with the story of the perspectives I draw trying to reorder ideas and facts, inventing reasons and consequences, about the Middle Empire, China.

    Then the doubt that "Big Fish & Begonia" tries to copy the style of Studio Ghibli becomes purely the pretext for writing this post, for leaving a trace of the pleasant discovery of Feng Zikai 丰子恺, pioneer of the art of comics 漫画, and to suggest that begonia flowers, foxes, spirits and landscapes along the lines of "Spirited away" are not only a publicity stunt, but also the attempt by two Chinese artists to remind the world how much of the invention of the Japanese tradition has its roots in China. On the other hand, it would also be interesting to explore how much of the Chinese imagery has its roots in Japan.

    And even if Miyazaki denied the rumors that China, in particular Jiufen, played a significant role in development of the aesthetics of his masterpiece, it's undeniable that Chinese and Japanese aesthetics are each one a reflection of the other. That this aesthetic, after the Second World War, arrived to us mainly through Japan it's just an "historical" coincidence. But that Japan is (also) a mirror of the Chinese imagination is known, however, to few.

    I have to go. I have a date this afternoon, and the turmoil of my thoughts begins to speed up in the frenzied attempt to find time to "arrive on time".

View of the ex Ilva area, Bagnoli. Industrial archeology site and theater of some of the events told in the book by Ermanno Rea, La dismissione, and in the movie by Gianni Amelio, La stella che non c'è.

"Dismantle the Ilva plant before Chinese buyers arrive and take it to pieces..."