Young people in China are reviving old clothing Hanfu, and maybe nationalism too

[Hamartia Antidote]

Japanese has indeed absorbed a large number of foreign words, which are transliterated into Japanese using katakana and then used in the language. Have you heard of 「Katakana Hell (カタカナ地獄)」?

In their work and daily lives, Japanese people often complain about the large number of foreign words transliterated into katakana, to the point that even Japanese people themselves have difficulty understanding them.

▼▼▼ The following are all complaints by Japanese people themselves about 「Katakana Hell (カタカナ地獄)」:

◉ カタカナ地獄【ＮＬＰ】
◉ Katakana Hell【ＮＬＰ】
https://ameblo.jp/kokoronlp/entry-12415358760.html

◉ 「副業用語で溺れる──カタカナ地獄の住人たちを紹介しよう」
◉ 「Drowning in Side-Business Terminology — Let Me Introduce the Residents of Katakana Hell」
https://note.com/0309_satou/n/n3b17b6128c96

◉ 「カタカナ地獄からの脱出！」
◉ 「Escape from Katakana Hell！」
https://note.com/ovcreer_yukiko/n/na74afcec51ea

◉ ネットバンキング・クレカ明細の「カタカナ地獄」を、AIで読める摘要に整える
◉ Turning the 「Katakana Hell」 of Online Banking and Credit Card Statements into Descriptions That Can Be Read with AI
https://note.com/keiri_hack_/n/ne535eded6f05
















And there are indeed many elements of Japanese culture that originated in China or were heavily influenced by China, including various institutions and systems, writing, clothing, architecture, food, and so on.
The influence of China is particularly profound in Japanese writing, since Chinese characters were formally introduced into Japan as early as the 4th–5th centuries AD.

Today, the Japanese writing system contains a huge number of 「kanji」, and kanji are the absolute core of the Japanese writing system.
Only about 92 basic hiragana and katakana are writing forms developed in Japan, but they were also simplified from Chinese characters, so they cannot really be considered creations of the Japanese themselves.

The current 《Table of Commonly Used Kanji (常用漢字表)》, promulgated by the Japanese government, contains a total of 2,136 kanji. It is said that approximately 1,400 of these kanji are identical to Chinese characters.
The remaining kanji are also extremely similar to Chinese characters. We Chinese people can tell at a glance that they are Chinese characters with their strokes slightly modified.

Therefore, Japanese kanji can basically be said to be Chinese characters. If kanji were removed from Japanese, the Japanese writing system would collapse.........

---------------------------------

▼▼▼ The image below is a screenshot from a Japanese video on YouTube:
The Japanese characters (kanji) marked in red are 100% identical to Chinese characters (Traditional or Simplified).
The Japanese characters (kanji) marked in green have only undergone slight changes to their strokes, but a Chinese person can immediately tell which Chinese character they originated from.
View attachment 217988

View attachment 217989

As if Chinese (or any language) doesn't have foreign word issues?

Microphone becomes 麦克风 (mài-kè-fēng). The literal meaning? "Wheat grams wind".

Bus becomes 巴士 (bā-shì). The literal meaning? "Cling to scholar".

Chocolate becomes 巧克力 (qiǎo-kè-lì). The literal meaning? "Opportunist overcomes strength"

You have to suddenly flip your brain and say "hey what a minute this makes no sense whatsoever and then deduce it must be some wacky way of writing some English spoken word"

Happens all the time in English too.
Chinese people have to finagle a way of writing their first name like "Yexin".

The first time I saw "Yexin" I had no idea what I was looking at...it's not an English word...not even sure how to pronounce it.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

BTW, Japanese culture is really quite strange. At the coming-of-age ceremony for Prince Hisahito in September 2025, Prince Hisahito wore traditional Japanese clothing, yet traveled in a traditional European-style horse-drawn carriage. Couldn't they have just used an ordinary black car?

Well I can't argue with an image of Japanese royalty in an obvious Western carriage.
I even have 2 of those gold colored lanterns outside my front door.

But you guys aren't exactly doing your own thing either

Not exactly 锦衣卫