Fu Jen University Holds Grand Academic Forum Marking Endo Shusaku Anniversary

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of Japanese literary giant Shusaku Endo, and the domestic academic and literary circles have held a deeply meaningful commemorative event. Fu Jen Catholic University grandly hosted the "Shusaku Endo 30th Anniversary Commemorative Academic Forum" today, drawing numerous literature researchers, translators, and readers with a deep interest in Japanese literature. During this highly anticipated academic gathering, Professor Lin Shui-fu, former dean of the College of Foreign Languages at Fu Jen Catholic University and a renowned domestic translator of Japanese literature, delivered a keynote speech titled "A Letter to Mr. Shusaku Endo." Through this epistolary speech filled with personal emotion and profound insight, Lin led the audience back into Endo's complex and captivating literary world, while deeply exploring the love portrayed in the author's work that can pierce through the barriers of different faiths and cultures.

As one of the representative figures of 20th-century Japanese literature, Shusaku Endo's creative career constantly revolved around a core and weighty theme: the collision and integration between Japanese culture and the Christian faith. As a Catholic growing up in a society with traditionally strong Shinto and Buddhist underpinnings, this unique dual cultural background caused him to experience a profound sense of tearing within his life experiences. However, it was precisely this tension that became the inexhaustible source of his creations. Rather than directly proselytizing, his works often explored the relationship between divine love and human suffering through a microscopic historical perspective, human weakness, and guilt. Lin has long been dedicated to the promotion of Chinese translations and research on Endo's works, and his understanding of the author's spiritual world has long surpassed that of the average reader. This time, adopting the form of a letter for dialogue added an uncommon human warmth to academic discourse.

In his keynote speech, Lin particularly focused on the "love transcending religious boundaries" embodied in Endo's works. This theme appears especially important in the context of contemporary multiculturalism and religious dialogue. The characters in Endo's writings—whether they are priests facing crises of faith, believers struggling under persecution, or ordinary people carrying a sense of guilt—experience pain and redemption that often are not confined within the framework of a single religion. Lin pointed out that the love conveyed by Endo through literature is not a lofty, flawless compassion, but rather an empathy laden with the scent of earth that accepts human weakness and betrayal. This love can touch the heartstrings of people from different religious backgrounds and even atheists, because it confronts our shared human loneliness and the yearning to be understood, demonstrating literature's powerful capacity to cross borders.

Fu Jen Catholic University's hosting of this commemorative forum not only honors a writer who has left an important footprint in world literature history, but also provides a precious platform for literary research and cross-cultural exchange in Taiwan. For a long time, Fu Jen has played a pivotal role in the research and teaching of languages and literature, and Professor Lin, as the former dean of the College of Foreign Languages, has had an academic career closely intertwined with the study of Endo. His sharing laid a solid academic foundation and emotional depth for the forum. Through local interpretation and dialogue by domestic scholars, the reception history of Endo's works in Taiwan has once again been endowed with new contemporary significance, allowing contemporary readers to re-examine the complex relationships among faith, human nature, and the essence of love within a rapidly changing society.

As the "Shusaku Endo 30th Anniversary Commemorative Academic Forum" successfully concluded, Lin's letter to Endo was not only the presentation of an academic speech, but also a profound spiritual encounter transcending time and space. It reminds us that the reason great literary works endure is precisely because they touch the deepest resonances of the human soul. Although Endo passed away thirty years ago, the literary assets he left behind, along with the tireless introductions and interpretations by translators like Lin, enable readers in Taiwan to continuously seek answers regarding love and redemption within these classics. In a modern world full of uncertainty, this exploration of understanding and inclusion that transcends religious boundaries continues to possess powerful inspiration and healing strength.

(Source of Facts: Central News Agency)