| Description |
1 online resource (316 pages) |
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text file PDF |
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nat Britons |
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Twentieth century |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction : war, memory, and nationalism in China -- Hot war, cold war : China's conflicts, 1937-1978 -- History wars : how historical research shaped China's politics -- Memory, nostalgia, subversion : how China's public sphere embraced World War II -- Old memories, new media : wartime history online and onscreen -- From Chongqing to Yan'an : regional memory and wartime identity -- The Cairo Syndrome : World War II and China's contemporary international relations -- Conclusion: China's long postwar. |
| Summary |
Chinese leaders once tried to suppress memories of their nation's brutal experience during World War II. Now they celebrate the "victory"--a key foundation of China's rising nationalism.For most of its history, the People's Republic of China discouraged public discussion of the war against Japan. It was an experience of victimization--and one that saw Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek fighting for the same goals. But now, as China grows more powerful, the meaning of the war is changing. Rana Mitter argues that China's reassessment of the war years is central to its newfound confidence abroad and to mounting nationalism at home. China's Good War begins with the academics who shepherded the once-taboo subject into wider discourse. Encouraged by reforms under Deng Xiaoping, they researched the Guomindang war effort, collaboration with the Japanese, and China's role in forming the post-1945 global order. But interest in the war would not stay confined to scholarly journals. Today public sites of memory--including museums, movies and television shows, street art, popular writing, and social media--define the war as a founding myth for an ascendant China. Wartime China emerges as victor rather than victim.The shifting story has nurtured a number of new views. One rehabilitates Chiang Kai-shek's war efforts, minimizing the bloody conflicts between him and Mao and aiming to heal the wounds of the Cultural Revolution. Another narrative positions Beijing as creator and protector of the international order that emerged from the war--an order, China argues, under threat today largely from the United States. China's radical reassessment of its collective memory of the war has created a new foundation for a people destined to shape the world. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Nationalism and collective memory -- China.
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Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 -- Public opinion.
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Chinese -- Attitudes.
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China -- Historiography.
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China -- Civilization -- 1949-
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HISTORY / Asia / China. |
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Chinese -- Attitudes |
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Civilization |
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Historiography |
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Nationalism and collective memory |
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Public opinion |
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China https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJcrd4RjtCBk4wfMhTwwG3 |
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Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39Qhp4vB9x3rjW8YHtB8b7bTb |
| Chronological Term |
Since 1937 |
| Other Form: |
Print version: Mitter, Rana, 1969- China's good war. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020 9780674984264 (DLC) 2020005100 (OCoLC)1141442704 |
| ISBN |
9780674249554 (epub) |
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0674249550 (epub) |
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9780674249578 (pdf) |
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0674249577 (pdf) |
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9780674249561 (MOBI) |
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0674249569 (MOBI) |
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9780674984264 (hardcover) |
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0674984269 (hardcover) |
| Standard No. |
10.4159/9780674249578 |
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