Mako

San Francisco Chronicleの記事；

Mako -- actor, East West Players co-founder

Jocelyn Stewart, Los Angeles Times

Monday, July 24, 2006

In the early days of his acting career, when most roles offered to Asian American actors were caricatures or stereotypes, Mako took just such a part and used it to open the doors of Hollywood and Broadway to others.

In the 1966 film "The Sand Pebbles," he played a Chinese character who spoke pidgin English, called the white sailors in the movie master, and treated them as such. But through the power of his acting, Mako transformed Po-han and compelled the audience to empathize and identify with the engine-room coolie.

The portrayal earned Mako an Academy Award nomination, which he used to continue his push for more and better roles for Asian American actors.

Mako, who in 1965 co-founded the East West Players, the nation's first Asian American theater company, died Friday of esophageal cancer at his home in Somis (Ventura County). He was 72.

Mako, the group's first artistic director, kept the theater afloat by paying the company's bills. He also taught acting classes.

In 1976, Mako appeared in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Pacific Overtures," playing multiple roles as reciter, shogun, emperor and an American businessman. Set in 1853, the play explores U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's push to open Japan to foreign trade and visitors for the first time in 250 years.

The performance earned Mako a Tony Award nomination for best actor in a musical.

"What many people say is, 'If it wasn't for Mako, there wouldn't have been Asian American theater,' " said Tim Dang, current artistic director of East West Players, based in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. "He is revered as sort of the godfather of Asian American theater."

Mako was born Makoto Iwamatsu in Kobe, Japan, on Dec. 10, 1933. When Mako was 5, his parents left Japan to study art in New York. Mako stayed behind to be raised by his grandparents.

Because his parents lived on the East Coast, they were not interned during World War II. They ended up working for the U.S. Office of War Information and were later granted residency. Mako joined them when he was 15.

He moved to California after serving two years in the military and studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Mako married Shizuko Hoshi, a dancer, choreographer and actress. She survives him along with their daughters, Sala and Mimosa.

In an acting career that spanned more than four decades, Mako was a familiar face in film and television. He appeared on series including "McHale's Navy," "I Spy," "MASH," "Quincy" and "Walker, Texas Ranger." In films, he was a Japanese admiral in the film "Pearl Harbor" and a Singaporean in "Seven Years in Tibet." He was Akiro the wizard in "Conan the Barbarian" and "Conan the Destroyer" with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But Mako had a larger view of the possibilities for Asian American actors.

As artistic director of the East West Players, Mako trained generations of actors and playwrights. He brought to the stage classics including Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," Chekhov's "Three Sisters" and lesser known contemporary works. He devoted the entire 1981 season to works discussing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The series coincided with the opening of a national discussion on internment reparations.

Mako used the prominence his Oscar nomination for "The Sand Pebbles" gave him to address the dearth of parts for Asian Americans. Unless a script specifically called for an Asian American, producers and casting directors rejected them.

"Of course, we've been fighting against stereotypes from Day 1 at East West," Mako said in a 1986 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "That's the reason we formed: to combat that, and to show we are capable of more than just fulfilling the stereotypes -- waiter, laundryman, gardener, martial artist, villain."

The company's mission soon expanded to include training writers. "Unless our story is told to (other) people, it's hard for them to understand where we are," Mako said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/24/BAG6GK4ANO1.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

92→346

『読売』の記事なり；

中国南部、台風４号の死者５３０人に…過少申告も露見

　【北京＝末続哲也】２２日の新華社電によると、台風４号に直撃された中国南部で今月中旬以降、集中豪雨や洪水の被害が相次ぎ、同日までに５３０人が死亡したことが分かった。

　湖南、広東両省など各地で計２６４５万人が被災した。家屋の倒壊は約２１万２０００棟、一部損壊は約２８万７０００棟に上り、２９５万人が緊急避難した。

　被害が最も深刻だった湖南省では３４６人が死亡、８９人が行方不明になった。広東省でも１０６人が死亡、７７人が行方不明になった。

　中国中央テレビは最近、湖南省内の地方政府が死者数や行方不明者数を実際の約３分の１と偽って上部機関に報告していたと報道。これを受けて中国民政省が２１日、正確な報告を行うよう各地の行政機関に緊急通達を出した。この結果、湖南省が死者数を９２人から３４６人に訂正。広東省も６３人から９９人に訂正した。
（読売新聞） - 7月23日0時59分更新
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060722-00000511-yom-int

叔父さんが死んだ日、上海はこの颱風の影響で強風が吹き荒れていたことを思い出す。
ところで、颱風の呼び方はそろそろ国際標準にしてもいいのでは？

「建国以来上海最大」偽札事件

　　楊恭軒、張凌「建国以来上海最大仮幣案告破」『東方早報』2006年７月21日

７月20日、上海市公安局は、李海明（29歳、河南人）ら８人を逮捕し、偽人民元（50元、100元）を401万元分、偽米弗を200弗分押収した。李海明は上海最大の偽札問屋と呼ばれていた。この記事によると、偽札の〈産地〉は広東省の汕尾である。また、張凌「上海収〓*1同比増長７倍」（『東方早報』2006年７月21日）によれば、上海市の今年上半期の偽札摘発件数は前年比＋20％、押収金額としては前年よりも７倍増だという。また、上海市内では偽札の〈生産拠点〉は発見されていない。

*1:jiao3. いとへん＋檄の旁の部分。GB2941. shoujiaoは没収。

Beyond Beyond

承前*1

６月30日は、Beyondのヴォーカリスト／ギタリストであった黄家駒（Koma）*2が日本で客死した命日、13回忌に当たる。1986年に香港で自費制作のカセット・テープをもってデビューしたBeyondは中国語圏で初めてメジャーなヒットを飛ばしたロック・バンドでもあるのだが、実は私が初めて知ったロック・バンドであった*3。ファンキー末吉氏によれば、命日の６月30日には北京で黄家駒追悼のためのトリビュート・コンサートが開かれた*4。また、命日絡みだと、『音像世界』７月号に、Beyondの日本での日々をメンバー及び関係者に取材して回想した、雷旋「Beyond　日本“楽和怒”」という文章が掲載されている*5。
Beyondは勿論、キャッチーなハード・ロックもいいのだけれど*6、印象に残る曲は、デビュー曲の「再見理想」のようなミドル・テンポの曲や、「AMANI」や「光輝歳月」のようなバラードだな*7。「交織千個心」も可なり。ネルソン・マンディラに捧げられた「光輝歳月」の英訳をhttp://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?10,36828から抜き出しておく；

鐘聲響起歸家的訊號
The clock chimes the signal for returning home,

在他生命裡彷彿帶點唏噓
It brings to his life a note of sigh!

鄢色肌膚給他的意義
The meaning given him thru his dark skin

是一生奉獻膚色鬥爭中
Is devotion of his whole life to a struggle of skin colors.

年月把擁有變做失去
The years have changed possession into loss.

疲倦的雙眼帶著期望
The weary eyes are showing expectation.

今天只有殘留的軀殼
Today only the injured body still remains

迎接光輝歲月
To welcome the glorious years,

風雨中抱緊自由
To hold tight to freedom amidst wind and rain.

一生經過徬惶的掙扎
Thru faltering struggle in this life,

自信可改變未來
He believes he can change the future.

問誰又能做到
May I ask who else can accomplish this?

可否不分膚色的界限
Could we make no distinction of skin colors?

願這土地裡 不分你我高低
Wish everyone could share everything and be treated equally in this land!

繽紛色彩閃出的美麗
A profuse variety of colors emits a sparkling beauty

是因它沒有 分開每種色彩
Because it makes no distinction of each color.

*1:http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20060721/1153463839#c1153586064

*2:See http://hkvpradio.com/rhythm/music/intimateportrait/20040629_wongkakui.php

*3:但し、1988年のソウル・オリンピックの時に、白南準（Paik Nam-june）が制作したTV番組『あさってライト』に崔健が出演していて、それを視ているのだが、このことに気付いたのは1996年になって、昔エア・チェックしたヴィデオ・テープを整理していたときだった。

*4:http://funkyblog.jp/2006/07/beyond.html

*5:Beyondが日本のアミューズと契約して、「一切従零開始」（p.85）のために日本に渡ったのは1992年のこと。また、『音像世界』の６月号には、Beyondのリード・ギタリストだった黄貫中（Paul Wong）へのインタヴュー、方蛇「白日夢　黄貫中」が掲載されている。

*6:Beyondを聴いて、亜細亜の言語でいちばんロックに乗りやすい言語は広東語じゃないかと思ったものだ。

*7:「AMANI」（広東語）の歌詞はhttp://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~nghoongk/lyrics/singer4-1.html#lyric13 http://forum.timway.com/php/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=lyrics_and_chords&Number=3614913&page=0&fpart=4

Murakami vs. Ishihara?

発端は、Guardianの記事；

Murakami hits out at Japanese nationalism

Richard Lea and agencies
Monday July 3, 2006

Guardian Unlimited
Haruki Murakami has spoken about his fears for his country amid a rise in Japanese nationalism, and revealed plans to deal with the issue in his next novel.

"I'm worried about my country," the author told the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper based in Hong-Kong. "I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something."

He singled out Shintaro Ishihara, the right-wing governor of Tokyo, for particular criticism, calling him "a very dangerous man".

In 2003, the governor's administration issued a directive that teachers at public high schools should raise and lower the national flag at school ceremonies, and stand during the national anthem - as a result of which more than 300 teachers have been reprimanded, suspended or made to attend "re-education seminars". Mr Ishihara has also worshipped at the controversial Yasukuni shrine. The Shinto shrine honours Japan's 2.5m war dead, including convicted war criminals, and is viewed by many of Japan's wartime victims as an unwanted reminder of Tokyo's militarism of the 1930s and 40s.

"He's an agitator," Murakami reportedly said. "He hates China."

This is not the first time Murakami has spoken in public about Japanese nationalism. In a 1997 interview with Salon.com he talked about the perils of nationalism and revisionism, saying that elements in Japanese society were "remaking history", denying the Nanking massacre and the mistreatment of Chinese and Korean women during the second world war. "We don't have to be tied by the past, but we have to remember it," he said.

Murakami's fiction is enormously popular in China, where he has sold over 3m copies of his work in translation since the success of Norwegian Wood, first published in 1989.

His latest novel, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is published in the UK by Harvill Secker later this month.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329520089-99819,00.html

これを日本語訳したのがhttp://anotherorphan.com/2006/07/post_338.html。記事の元ネタであるSouth China Morning Postなのだが、訳者の方は香港ならぬ豪州の新聞Sydney Morning HeraldのインタヴューのURLを指示してしまっている*1。この別の記事を前提として、http://hateshina.exblog.jp/5332977がGuardianの記事に突っ込みを入れているわけだ。Guardianの記事の元ネタは、以下のAPの記事；

Haruki Murakami says he's worried about Japanese nationalism

HONG KONG -- Famed Japanese author Haruki Murakami says he's worried about nationalism in his home country and plans to incorporate an anti-nationalist theme into his next novel, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday.

"I'm worried about my country," the 57-year-old Murakami was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post. "I feel I have responsibility as a novelist to do something."

Murakami singled out nationalist Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara for criticism.

"Ishihara is a very dangerous man. He's an agitator. He hates China," Murakami reportedly said.

Ishihara has worshipped at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. The shrine is a major source of Sino-Japanese tensions.

The governor's administration in 2003 also threatened punishment for schoolteachers who don't teach the importance of the Japanese flag and the national anthem -- symbols some say are a reminder of the country's militarist past.

Murakami is known for this Western-influenced writing. Among his works are "Norwegian Wood," "South of the Border, West of the Sun," and "Kafka on the Shore."

Many of Japan's Asian neighbors remain bitter about Japanese military aggression during the 20th century, saying Tokyo has never shown adequate contrition for its brutality. (AP)

July 2, 2006
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060702p2a00m0na009000c.html

肝心のSouth China Morning Postの記事なのだけれど、過去の記事は有料なので、取り敢えずアクセス断念。
ところで、Sydney Morning Heraldの記事は面白かった。

HARUKI MURAKAMI would seem the very picture of the writer-prophet. He speaks in low, urgent tones about Japan's rightward lurch. "I am worrying about my country," says the 57-year-old writer, widely considered to be Japan's Nobel laureate-in-waiting. "I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something."

から始まるのだが、話は政治論には進まない。英語圏の読者のための村上春樹入門という趣である。
以下、面白かった部分を抜き書きしておく；

As a teenager, Murakami kicked against the reading tastes of his parents - both lecturers in Japanese literature - by consuming pulpy American mystery novels in English. His idols remain American writers: Fitzgerald, Carver, Chandler and Vonnegut. The heroes of his surrealistic, genre-bending novels are more likely to eat spaghetti, listen to Radiohead and read Len Deighton than drink sake or quote Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe. They are under-employed drifters, without children or long-term partners, who refuse to genuflect to the Japanese ethos of family and corporation.

Murakami works on short stories in the intervals between novels. "You can test your new technique in a short story for your next novel. It's an experiment - a game."

He writes the way a jazz musician extemporises - guided by impulse, without a plan. "I didn't have a teacher or a colleague as a writer, so the only way I knew was good music - rhythm, improvisation, harmony. I just know how to begin. If I knew how to finish, it wouldn't be fun because I'd know what would happen next. Writing is like dreaming when you're awake."

Childless, like his characters, Murakami is free to pursue his daily regime of writing, translating and fitness. His evenings are spent listening to jazz and translating American novels into Japanese. Murakami has introduced the Japanese reading public to more than 40 works by the likes of Truman Capote, John Irving, Tim O'Brien and Grace Paley.

"Writing fiction, you get egotistical. You have to have confidence," he says. "But translating, you have to respect the text, so your ego shrinks to normal size. It's good for your mental health."

*1:Ben Naparstek “Not lost in translation” http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/not-lost-in-translation/2006/06/22/1150845292121.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2