May 17, 2007
Wu Guojiang
The Japanese Esperanto Institute is issuing a special invitation to 23 Asian Esperanto activists to take part in this year's World Esperanto Congress in Yokohama. In the April issue of the Japanese magazine La Revuo Orienta JEI has published statements by each of these people. I am reproducing them here, in English translation, one by one.
The next listed activist is WU Guojiang of China. Wu is a 42-year-old petrochemical engineer. He is the moving force behind the "Twin Cities" movement within the Esperanto movement.
Esperanto and I
On July 21, 1984, I read in a local newspaper a message of recruitment for a course in Esperanto (in Chinese named "the world language"). Up to that time I had never heard the words "the world language". Laughingly, I thought at that time that the language was a foreign language or another name for one of the other foreign languages widely taught, intentionally given by the course organizer to recruit more pupils. Wanting to know more, I announced myself for the course. After entering it, I really learned what was the world language named. It was Esperanto! I deeply love this language and have never abandoned it in the last more than 20 years, because Esperanto has a beautiful, noble ideal of promoting world peace and can play a role in constructing a harmonious society. From that time on I decided to become a practitioner of Esperanto and a genuine Esperantist.
World Esperanto Congress and After
If I succeed in taking part in the 92d World Esperanto Congress, to be held in Japan, I will use all means to get any experience which will be able to guide me to promote the project of the "Twin Cities" and the local Esperanto movement. Concretely, I will consider the use of the experiences I get in building and development of local Esperanto organizations and in applying Esperanto to widen the community of Esperanto, after I return to my country. I believe that my visit to Japan will not be fruitless, that I will certainly return with my fruit basket full.