DAY233 [渡英210日] 2020年11月19日（木）：息子のself-isolation 4日目
息子の自己隔離4日目。今日も息子が6時前に起床してしまい，私の仕事も中断。今日は13時から息子の小学校の先生が絵本の読み聞かせをteamsで行うとのことで息子が楽しみにしていた。クラスを幾つかのグループに分けて先生が複数回にわたって本読みをする企画だ。
今日は本来であれば a fancy dress celebrationということで学校にコスチュームを着て投稿する日でもあったので，whats appでは，コスチューム写真のアップが乱れ飛ぶ。
お昼過ぎの13時にteamsにアクセスするとお友達があらわれて静かに先生の読書を聴く。読書が終わると最後に1分程度みんなそれぞれ動いたり話したりするが，息子は静止画のようにほぼ動かずに終了。teamsにつなげる前は「まだ？まだ？」と連呼していたのに何という内弁慶であろうか。
別の話題をしよう。最近，息子と一緒にNetflixでNinjagoというCGアニメを観る。少しニュースで話題になったが，英国の『ベイクオフ』(The Great British Bake Off）で「和食」とは何かというので論争になったことがある。テーマに対して料理を作るという長寿番組だが，出てきた料理が日本料理ではないということで非難殺到した番組である。番組そのものを見ていないので不正確な部分もあるかもしれないが，2つポイントがあるように思える。1つは，日本食を無視しているということで非難されているが，「カレーまん」という解を出したのは，ある種の日本の食事が様々な文化の影響を受けていることを踏まえると正解のようにも思えること。伝統的な懐石のような美しい料理だけイメージするのはそれこそステレオタイプなのかもしれない。もう1つは，英国の人にとって日本食とはそのような認識である，ということだ。美しい懐石，天ぷら，寿司などはともかく，「アジア料理」の１つで特別なものではないのだろう。
さて，Ninjagoの話。忍者は日本だと思うのだが，明らかに中国テイスト。忍者の服装も派手だし，師匠もWuといって仙人みたいに白い長ひげに笠帽子をかぶっている。街の景色も香港みたいな感じだし何よりも制作会社が中国資本だし。おもしろく描いているのかもしれないが，目に留まりづらいサブリミナルなレベルで中国の影響力が増しているように感じる。孫子の兵法の極意は「戦わずして勝つこと」ということを肝に銘じておきたい。
There was the 4th day of self-isolation of my son. My son got up early, at 6 am. Thus I couldn't do anything.
Today there was a reading session for kids via teams at 13:00 by the teacher. My son was looking forward to watching this. This session divided kids into some groups, so the teacher repeated the session.
At the same time, the primary school planned the fancy dress celebration, which kids wore unique clothes, before self-isolation, so many parents uploaded a picture which kid wore the fancy costume.
At 13:00, we accessed teams to watch a reading session by the teacher. After finishing reading, kids attended the session, had spoken and acted each other for one minute, but my son had not moved. Before connecting teams, he said, "when can I see? when?". How vainglorious for the family!
Today, I wrote another topic. Recently, we watched "lego NINJAGO" broadcasted on Netflix. I felt it was the same situation, such as "Bake-off", which has last for many years. In that TV program, they had a topic as to Japanese food. However, the baker made "the strange Japanese food", which was curry tasted steamed pieces of bread, so this TV was criticized because it was not Japanese food. I am not sure that I didn't watch the TV. However, there were two points should be discussed; First, though they were criticised because of ignoring the Japanese food, I thought the curry pieces of bread was one of the Japanese food because like Japanese language, Japanese food has changed as to mixing other cultures. Thinking of Japanese traditional food as the right one may be a stereotyping. The other point is that the cognition of the British for Japanese food is one of the Asian food. Aside from beautiful kaiseki, tempura, sushi, etc., it is probably one of the "Asian dishes" and not special.
Now, back to the story of NINJAGO. I think the origin of the ninja in Japan, but obviously, it has a Chinese taste. The ninja's clothes are also flashy, and the master is also called Wu, the Chinese name, with a white long beard and a hat like a hermit. The view of the city is like Hong Kong, and above all, the production company is Chinese capital. Though it needs to show as entertainment, I feel that the influence of China is gradually increasing at a subliminal level that is hard to see. I want to keep in mind that the Art of War by Sun Tzu's is "to win without fighting."
