The " Chinese Taste"in Sato Haruo’s Travels

Sato Haruo was famous as a major writer of Japanese Aestheticism School. As a Japanese poet and translator, Sato Haruo occupied low popularity in21st China society even in Chinese literary world. Sato Haruo’s travelling notes on China in1920s and late1930s received hardly any attention in Chinese literary world. Sato Haruo had received reproach from Chinese literary world because of his unfavorable comments and works on Chinese affairs during the Sino-Japanese War. This paper is analyzing the "Chinese taste " in Sato Haruo’s travelling notes which are based on Sato Haruo’s four trips in China and Taiwan." Chinese taste " was the great trends of Taisho Period which was first proposed by Tanizaki Junichiro,another major writer of Japanese Aestheticism School. Tanizaki and Sato Haruo shared similar literary views and the " Chinese taste " was the exoticism that they pursued on account of their common aesthetic psychology.This paper consists of three chapters, except the introduction, epilogue and appendix. The introduction consists of three parts and mainly researches on Sato Haruo’s family education from a diachronic perspective. Sato Haruo’s father and grandfather were famous sinologists.Young Sato received good family education in this environment. From his early youth, Sato Haruo was interested in ancient China and aspired to become a famous writer. Upon graduation from senior school,he entered Keio University and studied ancient Chinese literature under the instruction of Nagai Kafu. Sato Haruo appreciated " Chinese taste" from ancient Chinese literature, which accompanied with him from his childhood to the last second of his life, with a crescendo at his four trips to China. Ancient Chinese Literature works had a great influence on Sato Haruo’s outlook on writing, translating and choosing of travelling places as well.The main text discusses travelling notes written by Sato Haruo from a synchronic perspective. The first chapter mainly discusses the first proposer of " Chinese taste " and the cultural connotation of" Chinese taste " in Japan society of Taisho Period.The second chapter focuses on the Sato Haruo’s travelling notes about the main cities which lie on the South of China.This chapter shows a great importance for it occupies the key of the whole paper. The first, second and third sub-chapters discuss Sato Haruo’s writing on some famous cities in south China,such as Amoi,Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanking, from a Japanese literati’s perspective. The fourth sub-chapter is a brief interpretation and comment on Sato Haruo’s travelling notes in China during the Sino-Japanese War.The third chapter is mainly analyzing Sato Haruo’s travelling in Taiwan. The scholars in Taiwan and southern Fujian are famous for their meticulous research and they do lots of research work on Sato Haruo. This paper focuses on Sato Haruo’s travelling novels Jokaisen-kitan which was regarding either as an artistic work dealing with exoticism or as a political work criticizing the colonial polices of Japanese Empire. This paper discusses an ancient fan appearing in this travelling novel which shows the " Chinese taste ". The last sub-chapter focuses on the travelling essay Travels in Sun-Moon Lake.