Recent readings XXVIII

Modern Asian Studies Vol. 45, Special Issue 2: China in World War II, 1937-1945: Experience, memory, and Legacy. Part I: Experiencing China's War with Japan: World War II, 1937–1945


Rana Mitter, "Classifying Citizens in Nationalist China during World War II, 1937–1941," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 243-275.


Matthew D. Johnson, "Propaganda and Sovereignty in Wartime China: Morale Operations and Psychological Warfare under the Office of War Information," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 303-344.


Andres Rodriguez, "Building the Nation, Serving the Frontier: Mobilizing and Reconstructing China's Borderlands during the War of Resistance (1937–1945)," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 345-376. Rodriguez argues that the notion of 'frontier service' and the 'cultural reconstruction' project propounded by the Chinese anthropologist, Li Anzhai, not only sought the modernize and unify China around a distinct multicultural identity, it was also an important mobilizing force amongst sectors of wartime youth which arguably introduced young Han Chinese to a region which they had hitherto only imagined in the pre-war period.


Felix Boecking's "Unmaking the Chinese Nationalist State: Administrative Reform among Fiscal Collapse, 1937-1945," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 277-301. Boecking contends that from 1937 until 1940, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang) fiscal policy managed to preserve a degree of relative stability even though, by early 1939, the Nationalists had already lost control over ports yielding 80 per cent of Customs revenue. The introduction of war-time fiscal instruments led to administrative changes, which in return created one of the preconditions for the disintegration of the Nationalist state, which facilitated the Chinese Communist Party victory in 1949.




Part II: Remembering China's War with Japan: The Wartime Generation in Post-war China and East Asia


Parks M. Coble, "Writing about Atrocity: Wartime Accounts and their Contemporary Uses," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 379-398. Coble finds that most wartime writing stressed the theme of 'heroic resistance' by the Chinese rather than China's victimization at the hands of Japanese. Exceptions to his approach included efforts to publicize Japan's action to Western audiences in the hope of gaining support for China's cause, and a related focus on the bombing of the civilian population by the Japanese.


James Reilly's "Remember History, Not Hatred: Collective Remembrance of China's War of Resistance to Japan," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 463-490. Reilly examines four historical periods: China's 'benevolent amnesia' on Japan's wartime atrocities before 1982; China's patriotic education campaign from the mid-1980s; the rise of history activism in China in the late 1990s; and the post-2005 reversal in official rhetoric on Japan and the wartime past. He argues that while the party-state retains an impressive capacity to shape the narratives of critical periods of modern Chinese history, Chinese leaders are likely to find themselves increasingly constrained by domestic forces and by external events beyond their control.


Neil J. Diamant, "Conspicuous Silence: Veterans and the Depoliticization of War Memory in China," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 431-461. Diamant argues that the relative silence of authentic military voices in the post-war period can be attributed to several peculiar features of modern Chinese history. The nature of warfare, the absence of a national army, veteran organizations and a consensus over the the legitimacy about the wars, has overshadowed the validity of veteran's claims for a higher political and cultural status. Intellectual elites in various cultural and propaganda offices dominate national war memory presenting a simplistic and artificial rendering of the wars, and marginalize veterans' position to portray war from their perspectives.


Arron William Moore, "The Problem of Changing Language Communities: Veterans and Memory Writing in China, Taiwan, and Japan," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2011), pp. 399-429. Moore analyses six categories of 'memory writing' that veterans used to engage with memory debates: post-war diaries, 'testimonial literature', articles and literary works, surveys and oral histories, memoirs, and paratext. He argues that veterans can only be 'heard' by members of their language community, or by a post-war society that is prepared to 'listen' to their message with little mediation.