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ABSTRACT
This article suggests that the study of the War of Resistance against Japanese aggression should pay due attention to the effect of the war on the wartime everyday, that is, on Chinese culture, politics, society, and the economy away from the battlefield. Not only was the impact deep and enduring, but evolving, regionally and socially divergent responses to the war also shaped the war’s military. In modern war, as Karl von Clausewitz pointed out, public morale is a key factor in deciding the outcome of the fighting. The article first sketches the war’s impact on the Chinese economy, suggesting that the main consequences were “demodernization” and the revival of traditional trading patterns. It then discusses the reading lives of a young woman who grew up during the war and a senior Nationalist official to delineate contrasting emotional private responses, with one person finding in literature an inspirational alternative and the other becoming increasingly disillusioned. The article concludes with an examination of three popular history textbooks. They all stressed the importance of an awareness of Chinese civilization but narrated its nature and its prospects in contrasting ways. Such textbooks were used in required Chinese history courses at universities. The article makes no attempt to be comprehensive but instead uses a few examples as illustrations of the potential of researching wartime everydayness.
Notes on contributor
Hans VAN DE VEN is Professor of Modern Chinese History at Cambridge University. He studied Sinology as an undergraduate student at Leiden University and then earned a PhD in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University. His main publications are From Friend to Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), Breaking with the Past: the Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), and China at War, 1937-1952 (London: Profile Books, 2017). He believes that the classroom is a fantastic place, and loves travelling in China.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Glossary
| Ai yu ci | = | 《爱与刺》 |
| Ba Jin | = | 巴金 |
| Beijingren | = | 《北京人》 |
| Bian Zhilin | = | 卞之琳 |
| Cao Yu | = | 曹禺 |
| Chen Kewen | = | 陈克文 |
| Chen Quan | = | 陈铨 |
| Chuci | = | 《楚辞》 |
| Du Fu | = | 杜甫 |
| Emei | = | 峨嵋 |
| Fan Wenlan | = | 范文澜 |
| Fei Xiaotong | = | 费孝通 |
| Feng Youlan | = | 冯友兰 |
| Feng Yuxiang | = | 冯玉祥 |
| ganqing | = | 感情 |
| Gei qingnian de shier feng xin | = | 《给青年的十二封信》 |
| Guo Moruo | = | 郭沫若 |
| Guofang sheji weiyuanhui | = | 国防设计委员会 |
| Guoshi dagang | = | 《国史大纲》 |
| Gushi shijiu shou | = | 《古诗十九首》 |
| He Qifang | = | 何其芳 |
| Hou Kunhong | = | 侯坤宏 |
| huaxia | = | 华夏 |
| Jiang Tingfu | = | 蒋廷黻 |
| kangzhan bagu | = | 抗战八股 |
| Kong Xiangxi | = | 孔祥熙 |
| Lao She | = | 老舍 |
| Lei Haizong | = | 雷海宗 |
| Leshan | = | 乐山 |
| Liang Shuming | = | 梁漱溟 |
| Liguo zhi dao | = | 《立国之道》 |
| Lihun | = | 《离婚》 |
| Lin Tongji | = | 林同济 |
| Lin Yutang | = | 林语堂 |
| Meng Zhisun | = | 孟志荪 |
| Qi Bangyuan (Chi Pang-yuan) | = | 齐邦媛 |
| Qian Mu | = | 钱穆 |
| Richu | = | 《日出》 |
| shaobing | = | 烧饼 |
| Shapingba | = | 沙坪坝 |
| Shijing | = | 《诗经》 |
| Siqu de taiyang | = | 《死去的太阳》 |
| Tan mei | = | 《谈美》 |
| tongshi | = | 通史 |
| Wang Jingwei | = | 汪精卫 |
| Wenxue zazhi | = | 《文学杂志》 |
| Xia Yan | = | 夏衍 |
| Xiangcun jianshe lilun | = | 《乡村建设理论》 |
| Xin lixue | = | 《新理学》 |
| Xu Jilin | = | 许纪霖 |
| Yan’an | = | 延安 |
| yi gu | = | 疑古 |
| youtiao | = | 油条 |
| Yue Fei | = | 岳飞 |
| Ziyuan weiyuanhui | = | 资源委员会 |
| Zhang Junmai | = | 张君劢 |
| Zhang Zizhong | = | 张自忠 |
| Zhanguoce | = | 《战国策》 |
| Zhongguo tongshi jianbian | = | 《中国通史简编》 |
| Zhongguo wenhua yu Zhongguo de bing | = | 《中国文化与中国的兵》 |
| Zhu Guangqian | = | 朱光潜 |
Notes
1 Eastman, Seeds of Destruction; and Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience.
2 Mitter stresses this point in China’s War with Japan, 1937–1945, whose American title is Forgotten Ally.
3 van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China.
4 See for instance, Peattie, Drea, and van de Ven, The Battle for China; MacKinnon, Wuhan, 1938; Mitter, China’s War with Japan, 1937–1945; Lary, The Chinese People at War; van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China; Harmsen, Shanghai 1937; Yang Tianshi, Zhaoxun zhenshi de Jiang Jieshi and Jiangshi midang yu Jiang Jieshi zhenxiang; Zhang Xianwen, Zhongguo kang Ri zhanzheng shi and Zhonghua minguo shi; Yang Kuisong, Geming, vol. 3. The Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences publishes a special journal, The Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War Against Japan (Kang Ri zhanzheng yanjiu), devoted to this topic.
5 There is now a vast literature on the Nanjing Massacre. Chang, The Rape of Nanking, is a controversial classic. See also Wakabayashi, The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38; Li, Sabella, and Liu, Nanking 1937; Yang Daqing, “Revisionism and the Nanjing Atrocity,” 625–648. Zhang Xianwen has compiled a 28-volume collection of relevant documents from archives around the world: Zhang Xianwen, Nanjing datusha shiliao ji. For research on Unit 731, see: Harris, Factories of Death; Gold, Unit 731 Testimony; Qinhua Rijun Guandongjun 731 budui zuizheng chenlieguan, Qinhua Rijun Guandongjun 731 xijun budui. On comfort women, see: Hicks, The Comfort Women; Kimura, Unfolding the Comfort Women’s Debates; Qiu, Chinese Comfort Women.
6 Famous recent examples are Lung Yingtai, 1949: Dajiang dahai; Chi Pang-yuan, Juliu he; and Chen Kewen, Chen Kewen riji. The Institute of Modern History of the Academia Sinica publishes an outstanding series of memoirs of leading historical figures.
7 For an overview in English of Alltagsgeschichte, see David Crew, “Alltagsgeschichte,” 394–407.
8 Chi Pang-yuan, Juliu he.
9 Chen Kewen, Chen Kewen riji.
10 Chi Pang-yuan, Juliu he, 254–255.
11 Ibid.
12 Chen Kewen, Chen Kewen riji, 173.
13 Ibid.
14 van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China, 258–263.
15 Hou Kun-hung, “Kang Ri zhanzheng shiqi liangshi.”
16 “The Economic Situation in Free China: The Food Situation in Szechuan,” January 1942, UK National Archives, HS 1/148.
17 van de Ven, War and Nationalism, 282.
18 Ibid.
19 Zhang Lijie, “Kangzhan houqi guotongqu de yanzheng,” 141–162.
20 Jiang Tingfu, Jiang Tingfu huiyilu, 217–225.
21 Yang Kuisong, “Zhongjian didai” de geming, 479.
22 Kinzley, “Assessing the ‘Stockpile.’”
23 Muscolino, “Refugees, Land Reclamation,” 453–478.
24 Muscolino, “Water Conversation Projects in Shaanxi.”
25 Chen Fong Ching, introduction to Chen Kewen riji, xv.
26 Hearnshaw, An Outline Sketch, 13 and 170.
27 Fitzgerald, Awakening China.
28 Chen Kewen, Chen Kewen riji, 144–145.
29 Ibid., 145–146.
30 Ibid., 156.
31 Ibid., 170.
32 Ibid., 852.
33 Ibid.
34 Chi Pang-yuan, Juliu he, 115.
35 For an astute characterization of Zhu as a Socratic intellectual, see Chen Jinling, “The Socratic Tradition in Modern China,” 533–539. See also Li Zehou, “Lun meigan, mei he yishu,” 52–60.
36 Chi Pang-yuan, Juliu he, 183.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid., 192.
39 Qian Mu, introduction to Guoshi dagang, n.p.
40 For an astute survey of historical debates in the Republican period, see Schneider, Ku Chieh-kang and China’s New History. See also Tu Cheng-sheng, Xin shixue zhi lu.
41 Chen Yung-fa, Zhuiqiu zhuoyue, 1: 29–31; Li Chi, Anyang; and Tu Cheng-sheng, Xin shixue zhi lu, 174–215.
42 Li Ping, “Zhongguo tongshi xiezuo,” 93–96.
43 Ho Ping-ti, “Lei Haizong xianshi huiyi,” 42–47.
44 Lang, “Globalization and Global History,” 759–774. For a biography of Toynbee, see McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee.
45 See Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations; McNeill, The Rise of the West; and Ferguson, Civilization. On the possible return of civilization as a concept, see Kumar, “The Return of Civilization,” 815–843.
46 Jiang Tingfu, Jiang Tingfu huiyilu, 173–175.
47 Israel, Lianda, 148.
48 Lei Haizong, Zhongguo wenhua yu Zhongguo de bing.
49 See Ho Ping-ti, “Bei hushi de ‘Lei Haizong’”; and van de Ven, China at War, 109.
50 Pu Weidong, “Yijiusier-yijiusiwu nianjian Qunzhong.”
51 Xu Jilin, “Cong guo de jingjie.” See also Xu Jilin, “Jinzhang er fengfu de xinling,” 100–110, and 190–191.
52 Qian Mu, Guoshi dagang, preface, 2.
53 Ibid., author’s notes on the book, 3.
54 Ibid., preface, 13.
55 Tu Cheng-sheng, “Qian Mu yu Ershi shiji,” 229–230.
56 Fei Xiaotong, Peasant Life in China.
57 Jiang Tingfu, Jiang Tingfu huiyilu, 217.
58 Fan Wenlan, Zhongguo tongshi jianbian.
59 Zhongguo kang Ri zhanzheng shixuehui, Kangzhan shiqi de wenhua, 122–125.
60 Xue Yu, Buddhism, War, and Nationalism.
61 I am grateful to my colleague, Dr Adam Chau, for his remarks about wartime religion in our conversations.
62 Waldron, “China’s New Remembering in WWII,” 953–954.
63 Hung Chang-tai, War and Popular Culture, 51–92.
64 My student William Moriarty is writing a doctoral dissertation about this topic.