Ｔｈｒｅｅ Ｇｅｎｅｒａｔｉｏｎｓ ｏｆ Ｏｌｄ Ｊａｐａｎ Ｈａｎｄｓ

CCTV hostess Liu Fangfei has got a double blessing recently. A celebration was launched at CCTV.com in commemoration of the 10 million hits at her blog and a collection of memorial essays has been published by Jilin People’s Press in commemoration of her late grandfather Liu Yuxin， a veteran educator.

The book lauds the contributions Liu Yuxin made to education and his noble character. What is more， the book reveals his Sino-Japan complex and his effort to turn his children and grandchildren into envoys for friendship between the two neighboring countries.

Liu Yuxin was born in 1915 in Harbin， the capital of the northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province. He won a scholarship in 1936 to study political economics at Waseda University， Japan. At the university， his scholastic brilliance won him another highly competitive scholarship. Liu began to teach back home in 1946 and participated in the underground work of the Communists. After the founding of New China， he took the positions of headmaster of Jilin Provincial Senior High School， Chuangchun Bureau of Education， Dean of Foreign Languages Department of Jilin University， and Advisor of Education to the Jilin Provincial Government. As an acclaimed educator， he was recognized for his education philosophy and undertakings.

Liu Yuxin had a desire to promote the Sino-Japanese friendship and he had great hopes for the relations of the two countries. He knew that it is not easy for the two countries to enjoy normal relations and that the friendship needs the unflagging efforts of both Chinese and Japanese one generation after another. In his last years， he visited Japan three times for the sake of nostalgia and told his children his past experiences in Japan. He encouraged his children and grandchildren to work toward promoting friendship between the two countries.

The relay race for friendship

In 1964 when China and Japan had not yet normalized the bilateral relations， Liu Guangyu， the second son of Liu Yuxin， entered Beijing University to study the Japanese language， with his father’s encouragement and blessing. After graduation， he worked at jobs all related to cultural exchanges between China and Japan. In 1987 and 1996， he served respectively as a guest research fellow and a guest professor at Kansai Institute of Japan， studying modern Japanese literature and translating modern Japanese literary works.

In 1978， Liu Yuxin’s fourth child Liu Xingyu went to Jinlin University to study the Japanese language and his third child Liu Guangchi went to Northeast Normal University to study the Japanese language. Liu Xingyu went to Japan for further studies in 1989 and， upon his graduation in 1992， he worked for a Japanese business to enhance the economic relations between the two countries. Since 1994， he has been working in colleges in Japan to teach Chinese and help Chinese students. Liu Guangchi migrated to Japan in 1985 and has been teaching Chinese in colleges in Japan since then. She has groomed quite a few Japanese students in the field of the Chinese language. She has also played an active part in some dictionary and textbooks projects and Chinese-teaching research projects.

The third generation

Liu Fangfei is the daughter of Liu Guangyu and granddaughter of Liu Yuxin. Carrying on the family tradition， she developed a special passion for the Japanese language. Recommended on the strength of her brilliant scores， she went to Jinlin University where she studied Japanese and for four years she was the number one student in the department. In December 1998， she took part in an international forum in Japan. Since she began to work at CCTV， she has emceed many important programs and done her part to promote international cultural exchanges.

Lin Xia， the daughter of Liu Guangchi and another granddaughter of Liu Yuxin， was born in Japan. She has been learning Chinese. As a student， she took active part in cultural exchanges between China and Japan. Sent as a student by the Japanese government to participate in friendship programs， she visited China in 2003， 2004， and 2005. Since her graduation， she has been working at the international exchanges center of her alma mater.□