scholarly journals Remembering forgotten heroes and the idealisation of true love: Veteran memorial activism in contemporary China

2021 ◽  
pp. 175069802110179
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Zhenru Lin
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
World War ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
War Of Resistance ◽  
Redress Movement ◽  
Intellectual Elites ◽  
War Commemoration ◽  
Second World ◽  
Veteran Memorial

Recent research on collective memory and war commemoration highlights the ‘conspicuous silence’ of war veterans in Chinese history. Studies of the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945) typically reflect either a state-centred approach, which emphasises the official history constructed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or the alternative narratives constructed by intellectual elites in post-socialist China. In response to these top-down narratives, this essay focuses instead on a historical redress movement led by ex-servicemen of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The former PLA members, the participant volunteers of this movement, devote themselves into seeking and supporting a group of forgotten Kuomintang (KMT) veterans who fought against the Japanese invaders in the Second World War but now struggle with impoverished living conditions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from 2013 to 2015, I will show how the daily interactions between these two groups of veterans embody a more private and internalised sense of commemorative yearning for a lost past, highlighting in the process the value of ethnographic research in breaking through the wall of silence constructed by hegemonic histories around veteran communities and their role in making war history.

Redefining Wartime Chongqing: International capital of a global power in the making, 1938–46

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
VINCENT K. L. CHANG ◽  
YONG ZHOU
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
International Capital ◽  
World War ◽  
New Era ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
War Experience ◽  
War Of Resistance ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis article examines the historical role and legacy of the foreign establishment in China's temporary capital Chongqing during the Chinese War of Resistance against Japan and the Second World War. This extraordinary episode, lasting from 1938 to 1946, ushered in a new era for China's foreign diplomacy and laid the foundation for its rise to world-power status. Placing Chongqing at the very heart of this epochal chapter in modern Chinese history, this article describes the major events, trends, and actors that directly or indirectly were instrumental to China's wartime transformation from a partitioned, de facto colony to a first-rate global power with a permanent seat among the ‘Big Five’. Seventy years after the end of the Second World War, this article presents fresh perspectives on a near-forgotten episode of China's war experience. Moving beyond the traditional typecasting of ‘Chungking’ as a primitive backwater in China's remote hinterland, this article reappraises wartime Chongqing as a major international centre at the spearhead of global change and as an important cradle of the modern power that China is today.

scholarly journals Siege Memory – Besieged Memory? Heroism and Suffering in St Petersburg Museums dedicated to the Siege of Leningrad

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Porzgen
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Critical View ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Memorial Sites ◽  
War Commemoration ◽  
Second World

The official Soviet narrative of the Second World War used the concept of heroism to imbue war commemoration with an obligation towards the state. Such a concept was designed to make subsequent generations feel inferior to their predecessors and obliged to give of their best. Today, the victory serves as the strongest connection between Soviet and modern Russian patriotism. The paper argues that the memory of the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) as treated in museums in St Petersburg today is an appropriation by present-day Russian propaganda of the Soviet narrative. Soviet memorial sites are developed to foster support for Russia rather than the former Soviet Union. While the use of the heroic paradigm continues, the definition of heroism has changed to include each and everybody who suffered during the Siege. With collective heroism as the leading image, a critical view of the historic events becomes all but impossible. The paper makes references to the alternative narratives of literature, memoirs and diaries to contrast the version of the Siege presented in the museum exhibitions.

That Which Is Carved in Stone: Nanjing’s Monuments and Chinese Commemoration of the Second World War

Modern China ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 009770042094285
Author(s):  
Jonathan Henshaw
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Past ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
Nanjing Massacre ◽  
History Of ◽  
Memorial Sites ◽  
Second World

Chinese commemoration of the Second World War and of the Nanjing Massacre that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s has been framed as a “new remembering” in response to political change in China and Japanese denial. This periodization obscures both earlier Chinese commemorations and the multiple ways the past has been (re-)remembered. In fact, Chinese commemoration of the victims of the Nanjing Massacre began much earlier, in 1937. Nanjing and its history of building, bulldozing, and restoring wartime monuments and memorial sites offer a case study of how China’s shifting political priorities have provided frameworks that alternately enable and restrain commemoration of the wartime past. This article explores these frameworks, with particular attention to occupied territory, in order to more fully understand the war’s legacy in the People’s Republic of China.

scholarly journals Cast Down, But Not Forsaken

2018 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Elliot Worsfold
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
Hyphenated Identity ◽  
English Canadian ◽  
War Commemoration ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World ◽  
Wartime Experience

This study seeks to reassess the notion that German-Canadians in Ontario were “silent victims” during the Second World War by exploring the wartime experience and memory of German-Canadian Lutheran congregations in Oxford and Waterloo Counties. Far from silent, Lutheran pastors initiated several strategies to ensure their congregants did not face discrimination and internment as they had during the First World War. These strategies encompassed several reforms, including eliminating German language church services and embracing English-Canadian symbols and forms of post-war commemoration. However, these reforms were often met with resistance and ambivalence by their congregations, thereby creating a conversation within the German-Canadian Lutheran community on how to reconcile its Germanic and Lutheran heritage with waging a patriotic war. While previous studies have primarily focused on identity loss, this study suggests that the debates that occurred within these Lutheran churches were representative of the community’s German-Canadian hyphenated identity.

scholarly journals Monetary Overextension: Why the Chinese Yuan will not become the next Global Currency

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wing Wong
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Massive Growth ◽  
The Us ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Second World

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the People’s Republic of China has experienced massive growth to become the world’s second largest economy. Along with this rise, China has taken steps to expand its economic power and influence overseas. One of the ways it has pursued this is to promote the Chinese Renminbi as an alternative to the US Dollar, which has served as the international currency since the end of the Second World War. By analyzing the features of the Chinese economy through various paradigms, this paper will argue that, despite the best efforts of the Chinese government, the RMB will be unlikely to displace the USD as the premier currency in the near future.

We Won’t Be Bullied Anymore

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredy González
Keyword(s):  
Financial Support ◽  
Guangdong Province ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Republic ◽  
First Time ◽  
Second World

Chinese Mexican political and financial support in support of the Republic of China during the Second World War was motivated by a desire for ‘home’ – both the desire for peace in migrants’ home communities in Guangdong province as well as a desire for increased respect in Mexico. Activities in support of the Chinese government included monetary contributions as well as cultural activities which helped bring the community together around the country. Chinese Mexican political activities and celebrations for the first time brought them in contact with friends and neighbors in Mexico and presented an alternative image of the community.

An Indian Town’s Entry into the Second World War: Holding Together the Congress Party and Training Chinese Soldiers in Wartime Raj

China Report ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Cao Yin
Keyword(s):  
Northeast India ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
Training Centre ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
War Of Resistance ◽  
Second World ◽  
India And China

During the Second World War, Ramgarh, a small town in northeast India, was the site of the 53rd Session of the Indian National Congress and the training centre for the Chinese Expeditionary Force. By uncovering the links between the two events and knitting them into the broader context of the Indian nationalist movement and China’s War of Resistance, this article tries to break down the hegemony of the Eurocentric national narratives of the history of the Second World War in India and China. In doing so, it provides an alternative way of writing an entangled history of India and China during the Second World War.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document