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▼ High Hopes For Tourism at Lu Xun Lecture Hall
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The Yomiuri Shimbun
SENDAI — Tohoku University is considering making a wooden lecture theater where Chinese literary great Lu Xun (1881-1936, see below) once sat as a student fully open to the public. The lecture theater is now accessible only for academic purposes.
Known as “Lu Xun’s lecture theater,” the facility is located on the national university’s campus in Aoba Ward, Sendai. Local people are expressing hope that the expanded opening of the facility famously connected to Lu Xun “will lead to an increase in the number of tourists [from China] and promote Japan-China friendship.”
The lecture theater was built in 1904 when Lu Xun started studying at the Sendai professional school of medicine (currently Tohoku University School of Medicine). The 135-square-meter facility has repeatedly undergone significant repairs but desks are still laid out in tiers facing the platform, retaining the original structure.
Lu Xun submitted his notebook every week to Genkuro Fujino (1874-1945), a professor of anatomy, whom he met at the school, to have his writing corrected. This practice is mentioned in his autobiographical short story, “Fujino-sensei.” It has been said that he would often take a seat in the center of the second or third row. In 1998, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the lecture theater during his tour of Japan.
For a long time, the facility was not open to the public. But after requests from Chinese people who had an interest in Lu Xun, Tohoku University started opening the facility twice a week — although only for academic purposes — in September 2013. Since April 2015, about 80 people have visited the facility, most of whom were Chinese admirers of the writer.
A Chinese company executive, 54, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, who visited the lecture theater on April 7, said, “If the facility is open to the public, it will attract many Chinese and contribute to promoting Sino-Japanese friendship.”
Foreign visitors to Japan spent 61.17 million nights in hotels or other lodgings in 2015, nearly 2½ times the 2010 figure. However, amid this brisk national growth, the figure for the Tohoku region leveled off at 510,000 in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Officials from the Miyagi prefectural and Sendai municipal governments have high expectations for the opening of the lecture hall, saying, “We can expect an increase in the number of Chinese tourists if tours visiting places connected with Lu Xun are presented to them.”
The lecture theater is currently open to the public on a limited basis because of safety problems caused by the age of the building. Some fear the facility may not withstand the weight of a lot of people at once. There are also many other problems to tackle, including the need to assign a caretaker as a crime-prevention measure. A Tohoku University official said the university will “consider ways of opening the lecture theater, including moving the facility to a different place.”
■ Lu Xun
Born in the Zhejiang Province of China, Lu Xun came to Japan in 1902 to study at the government’s expense, aspiring to become an expert on medicine. He entered the Sendai professional school of medicine in 1904 but quit after a year and a half to pursue literature. He laid the foundation for China’s modern literature. His representative works include “Hometown” and “The True Story of Ah Q.”
SENDAI — Tohoku University is considering making a wooden lecture theater where Chinese literary great Lu Xun (1881-1936, see below) once sat as a student fully open to the public. The lecture theater is now accessible only for academic purposes.
Known as “Lu Xun’s lecture theater,” the facility is located on the national university’s campus in Aoba Ward, Sendai. Local people are expressing hope that the expanded opening of the facility famously connected to Lu Xun “will lead to an increase in the number of tourists [from China] and promote Japan-China friendship.”
The lecture theater was built in 1904 when Lu Xun started studying at the Sendai professional school of medicine (currently Tohoku University School of Medicine). The 135-square-meter facility has repeatedly undergone significant repairs but desks are still laid out in tiers facing the platform, retaining the original structure.
Lu Xun submitted his notebook every week to Genkuro Fujino (1874-1945), a professor of anatomy, whom he met at the school, to have his writing corrected. This practice is mentioned in his autobiographical short story, “Fujino-sensei.” It has been said that he would often take a seat in the center of the second or third row. In 1998, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the lecture theater during his tour of Japan.
For a long time, the facility was not open to the public. But after requests from Chinese people who had an interest in Lu Xun, Tohoku University started opening the facility twice a week — although only for academic purposes — in September 2013. Since April 2015, about 80 people have visited the facility, most of whom were Chinese admirers of the writer.
A Chinese company executive, 54, from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, who visited the lecture theater on April 7, said, “If the facility is open to the public, it will attract many Chinese and contribute to promoting Sino-Japanese friendship.”
Foreign visitors to Japan spent 61.17 million nights in hotels or other lodgings in 2015, nearly 2½ times the 2010 figure. However, amid this brisk national growth, the figure for the Tohoku region leveled off at 510,000 in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Officials from the Miyagi prefectural and Sendai municipal governments have high expectations for the opening of the lecture hall, saying, “We can expect an increase in the number of Chinese tourists if tours visiting places connected with Lu Xun are presented to them.”
The lecture theater is currently open to the public on a limited basis because of safety problems caused by the age of the building. Some fear the facility may not withstand the weight of a lot of people at once. There are also many other problems to tackle, including the need to assign a caretaker as a crime-prevention measure. A Tohoku University official said the university will “consider ways of opening the lecture theater, including moving the facility to a different place.”
■ Lu Xun
Born in the Zhejiang Province of China, Lu Xun came to Japan in 1902 to study at the government’s expense, aspiring to become an expert on medicine. He entered the Sendai professional school of medicine in 1904 but quit after a year and a half to pursue literature. He laid the foundation for China’s modern literature. His representative works include “Hometown” and “The True Story of Ah Q.”
- May 14, 2016
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