Tales of lilies and girls’ love. The depiction of female/female relationships in yuri manga

Yuri manga are focused on the representation of sentimental relations between girls. Despite still being a niche within the manga landscape, the popularity of this genre in terms of number of productions and fans is increasing, and in the last few years its fame has been expanding outside Japan as well. As a manga genre, yuri developed since the mid-2000s. Notwithstanding being a novel genre, yuri narratives are deeply embedded into the heritage of the late Meiji-early Shōwa shōjo bunka (girls’ culture), and especially into the so-called “esu kankei” relationships, girl/girl bonds developing in girls’ schools at the time. The aim of this article is double-folded: from one hand, I will highlight and discuss the birth of yuri manga, analysing the re-elaboration of the heritage of shōjo bunka and its cultural productions - such as Yoshiya Nobuko’s Hana Monogatari - into the first examples of yuri manga, to demonstrate the intermediality and intertextuality of these media. On the other hand, I will map the development of yuri manga through the 2000s, stressing onto the increasing relevance given by these narratives to LGBTQ+ related themes, along with the detachment from the influence of shōjo bunka.

“What is contemporary Japanese Cinema?”. Questioning the answers, answering with questions

The English title of a recent book by renowned film scholar Yomota Inuhiko reads: “What is Japanese Cinema?”. In the preface to the English edition Yomota states that the direction we might take, should we try to provide an answer to the question, changes according to which word, “Japanese” or “Cinema” we choose to emphasize. When his survey reaches the recent past, the Japanese scholar describes the 2000s as “an era of chaos”. Starting from these questions and affirmations, and combining them with others made by scholars such as David Bordwell, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Andrew Dorman and Mori Naoyuki, the following article attempts to explore a more specific doubt: “What is contemporary Japanese cinema”? In so doing, however, other questions arise, as we need to define when contemporaneity starts and what makes it different both from previous eras, and from the contemporaneity of other national cinemas. The further we probe, the more complex our definition becomes.

想象与现实之间——阿尔巴西诺和马莱尔巴游记中的中国形象 / Between imagination and reality: the image of China in Alberto Arbasino’s and Luigi Malerba’s travel writings

Alberto Arbasino and Luigi Malerba visited China as members of Italian authors’ delegation in 1980 and published respectively their travel reportage Trans-Pacific Express (1981) and Cina Cina (1985). Arbasino travelled to many countries and published several travel books. Malerba was particularly fond of China. During their visits, Arbasino and Malerba were the closest of travel companions. There are, in fact, many similarities and differences in their travel writings. The two authors were representatives of Gruppo ’63 in the literary movement Neoavanguardia. Based on the richness and flexibility of this literary genre, they also adopted this innovative style of writing. In terms of the narrative structure, in both there does not appear to be a clear itinerary or a logic to their travels. Regarding their linguistic styles, Arbasino’s writing is rich of rhetorical forms, whereas Malerba’s book is imagery, resembling a fairy-tale. For the two authors, China represents a series of incomprehensible signs. Arbasino transforms these signs into elements of literary invention, while Malerba sees the travel destination as a place of imagination. China is a literary space between imagination and reality in their travel writings.

転向を語ること ─ 小林杜人とその周辺 / Converters Tell Their Stories: Kobayashi Morito and His Networks

After the 'March 15 incident' on Japanese Communist Party members in 1928, many activists converted in prison, and "conversion period" (tenkō jidai) appeared. The converted people (tenkōsha) then wrote notes in which they described the ideological and spiritual changes that occurred during their imprisonment. The change was prompted by the teachings of Buddhism, mainly Jōdo Shinshū, and the presence of chaplains (kyōkaishi) who mediated the teachings. The tenkōsha abandoned their faith in Marxism, returned to Japanese traditional familism, became devoted to the Emperor of Japan, and some started to practice agricultural fundamentalism. In this article, I will focus on a person named Kobayashi Morito (1902 -1984), who wrote about his own experience of conversion in Until He Left the Communist Party (1932) and also edited the notes of other conversion people and published them as Notes of a Converter (1933) and Thought and Life of the Converted（1935）, and will analyze the stories of conversion experiences of various tenkōsha, reexamining how they accepted conversion, and at the same time focus on the contradictions and conflicts that occurred there.

幻の春の声. 近現代日本文学における「亀鳴く」/ The illusory voice of the spring: the motif of ‘crying turtle’ in modern and contemporary Japanese literarure

The turtle (kame) is of great importance in East Asian culture and it is seen as a supernatural creature. In Japanese literature, we can find examples of the turtle in works dating back to the Nara period, such as Tangokuni fudoki and Nihonshoki. Just like the crane, the turtle is a symbol of longevity. However, from the Kamakura period a new and unique interpretation of the turtle as the “singing/crying turtle” makes its appearance. Of this topos, known as kame naku, we can find only very few examples in literature until the Meiji era and the most known are the waka anthologies Shinsen waka rokujō and Fuboku wakashō, and Kyokutei Bakin’s kigo collection Haikai saijiki shiorigusa. However, from the beginning of the modern age, kame naku has been used by many poets as a kigo connected to spring and its frequency has hugely increased. After the war, it began to appear not only in poetry but also in novels and essays. The best known examples of this being Mishima Yukio’s short novel Chūsei, Uchida Hyakken’s essay Kame naku ya, Kawakami Hiromi’s work Oboreru. Using kame naku as a keyword, in this paper we will analyze the attitudes and approaches of modern and contemporary poets and novelists toward the topos.

温州社会经济发展与移民文化变迁——以瑞安桂峰乡移民为例 / Development and evolution of Wenzhounese migrant culture throughout time: the case study of Guifeng (Rui'An)

With China’s economic opening, and in particular since the beginning of this century, the economy and the society of Wenzhou have been characterized by an enormous development. However, little research has focused on the relationship between the changes occurred within Wenzhounese migrant culture and the development of the Wenzhounese society. The current contribution takes the case of the village of Guifeng (Rui’An, Wenzhou) as an example in order to analyze different historical steps in the development of Wenzhouese migrant culture. By describing the general situation of Guifeng’s migration it will be possible to summarize the reasons at the basis of Wenzhounese migrant culture, and by examining the new trends in Guifeng’s migration it will be possible to trace the future tendencies of Wenzhounese migrant culture.

Chinese migration(s) to Italy beyond stereotypes and simplistic views: the case of the graphic novels Primavere e Autunni and Chinamen

The current contribution aims at describing some key-aspects of Rocchi and Demonte’s graphic novels “Primavere e Autunni” (2015) and “Chinamen” (2017), especially in relation to: 1) the historical reconstruction of Chinese migration to Italy; 2) the challenge of widespreading negative stereotypes against Chinese migrants, which still characterize dominant public discourse in Italian society. The first paragraph will highlight theoretical aspects of both works, in particular relation to the literature on migration and of migration, with Sinoitalian literature, as well as with macro- and micro-aspects of Chinese migration to Italy. After that, some common points of both works will be underlined, including structure and style, semiotic aspects, communicative functions and multimodality. The third paragraph will specifically focus on a series of key-figures described in the graphic novels, which contribute to draw the attention to specific aspects regarding Chinese historical presence in Milan and in Italy.

我是中国人: Identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region

This article analyzes the issues of identity and social integration of Chinese youth in the Marche region. The focus on these two themes arises from the recent increase in the number of Chinese students in schools in this region. This change points to a need to study an unexplored phenomenon. In this regard, the intention of this contribution is, on the one hand, to observe the dynamics related to social integration of these young people and to understand how they navigate their multiple identities, and, on the other hand, to provide guidance for future research as well as useful tools to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for them to live in. Following a review of the literature, this article analyzes research results regarding data collected from 198 young people and 21 teachers, and concludes with insights into the identity and social integration problems confronting Chinese youth in the region.