On the afternoon of April 22, 2026, the lecture Lu Xun and Modern and Contemporary Japanese Writers: From Natsume Soseki to Nankichi Niimi and Haruki Murakami, organized by the Department of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature at the School of Literature, Nanjing Normal University, was successfully held in Room 117 of the Central Building on the Suiyuan Campus of Nanjing Normal University.

The lecture featured Fujii Shozo, a renowned Japanese sinologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, as the keynote speaker. As a leading scholar of the third generation of Lu Xun studies in Japan, Professor Fujii has conducted in-depth research on the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and East Asian literature from a broad East Asian perspective. He focuses on the history of the dissemination and reception of Lu Xun’s works, while also actively introducing the works of contemporary Chinese writers such as Mo Yan to Japan. His publications include A History of Readings of Lu Xun’s ‘Hometown’: The Literary Space of Modern China and Lu Xun’s Urban Wanderings: Discourses on Lu Xun from an East Asian Perspective. His academic achievements have had a profound impact on East Asian academic circles. The lecture was chaired by Professor Li Wei of the School of Literature at Nanjing Normal University. Attendees included Professor Lin Minjie from the School of Foreign Languages, Associate Professor Liu Bin from the School of Literature, and Lecturer Xu Lu from the School of International Culture and Education, along with master’s and doctoral students from the School of Literature.

At the outset of the lecture, Professor Li Wei formally introduced Professor Fujii Shozo’s academic career and major achievements to the faculty and students present. He fully acknowledged Professor Fujii’s contributions to promoting academic exchange between China and Japan over the years and extended a warm welcome to him. During the lecture, Professor Fujii Shozo outlined the core trajectory of the mutual influence between Chinese and Japanese literature over the past century: from 1902 to the 1930s, Japanese writers such as Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai provided vital inspiration for Lu Xun’s creative works; from the 1930s to the present, the literary spirit of Lu Xun has profoundly influenced Japanese writers such as Nankichi Niimi and Haruki Murakami, establishing a century-spanning literary dialogue across East Asia.

When discussing the influence of Japanese writers on Lu Xun, Professor Fujii took the story of the ‘Wu She’ residence as his starting point to meticulously examine Lu Xun’s reading history and reception of Natsume Soseki. Professor Fujii pointed out that there is a subtle spiritual connection between The True Story of Ah Q and Botchan: the protagonists of both works are nameless, lonely outsiders on the margins of society who use absurdity to reflect the ethical flaws of society. The former is Ah Q, a peasant from the lowest strata of society, while the latter is ‘Botchan’, a middle-class intellectual—one vulgar, the other refined—yet both point to a profound critique of human nature and society. In addition, Professor Fujii systematically traced the early dissemination of Lu Xun’s works in Japan.

Subsequently, Professor Fujii drew on the creative practices of three Japanese writers to provide an in-depth explanation of Lu Xun’s profound influence on Japanese literature. He first demonstrated the literary imprint of Lu Xun’s influence on the fairy-tale writer Nankichi Niimi. Unlike the traditional fairy-tale model of redemption—where "the wicked repent"—Niimi’s works continued Lu Xun’s tragic sensibility, depicting characters struggling against their fate while brimming with sympathy for the weak. At the same time, he highly praised the anti-war sentiments and deep empathy for the Chinese people that Nankichi subtly conveyed through works such as Zhang Honglun against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese War. This empathy for China stemmed precisely from the inspiration of Lu Xun’s spirit.

Then Professor Fujii revealed the deep spiritual connection between Seicho Matsumoto, the master of social-realist detective fiction, and Lu Xun. Through a meticulous comparison of the narrative structures in The Paternal Finger and Lu Xun’s Hometown, Professor Fujii observed that Matsumoto’s ‘class-based misreading’ of Hometown actually revealed the multi-layered structure of Lu Xun’s work: Runtu’s transformation into a ‘puppet’ was not a sign of numbness, but rather a refusal to let his son Shuisheng repeat the fate of being abandoned; the so-called ‘puppet’ is, in fact, Lu Xun himself—and every reader who empathizes with the underprivileged. Furthermore, Seicho Matsumoto’s line, ‘My path lies in the mist’, resonates spiritually across time and space with Lu Xun’s ‘There are no paths on the ground; they are made by the footsteps of those who walk them.’

Finally, Professor Fujii explored the literary and philosophical connections between Haruki Murakami and Lu Xun. Professor Fujii pointed out that the opening line of Murakami’s Hear the Wind Sing draws upon the philosophical insight from Lu Xun’s Wild Grass—that ‘despair is as illusory as hope’—establishing a latent dialogue with Lu Xun’s works. Furthermore, Murakami’s assessment of The True Story of Ah Q—that ‘through his portrayal of Ah Q, Lu Xun brings his own pain and sorrow to the surface, and this duality lends the work a sense of depth’—precisely reflects his profound understanding of Lu Xun’s spirit.

During the Q&A session, faculty and students in the audience actively participated. Professor Fujii provided specific, in-depth, and personalized answers to questions regarding the "original sin" tradition in Japanese Lu Xun studies, the relationship between his own approach to Lu Xun and the broader Japanese Lu Xun research community, and how to identify the spiritual connection between Haruki Murakami and Lu Xun. The faculty and students present benefited greatly from the discussion.

At the conclusion of the lecture, Associate Professor Liu Bin delivered closing remarks. He spoke highly of Professor Fujii’s presentation and fully endorsed his research approach, which reinterprets Lu Xun through a broad comparative perspective of East Asian literature. Associate Professor Liu pointed out that Professor Fujii not only used rigorous textual criticism to sketch a portrait of Lu Xun deeply embedded within the landscape of East Asian literature, but also, through meticulous and nuanced analysis, revealed the hidden dialogues and deep connections between Lu Xun and Japanese writers, thereby opening up new academic pathways for Lu Xun studies. With that, the lecture concluded successfully amid enthusiastic applause from the students. By reexamining the century-long dialogue between Lu Xun and Japanese literature from a macro East Asian perspective, the lecture offered faculty and students a fresh academic perspective and added a new chapter to Sino-Japanese literary and cultural exchange.