Research Note Changed by War: The Changing Historiography Of Wartime China and New Interpretations Of Modern Chinese History

Abstract

In The 1930s, two wars captured the imaginations of western progressives. One of them, the Spanish Civil War, still lives in popular historical memory. The other, the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45, known in China at the War of Resistance against Japan (Kang-Ri zhanzheng), has been much more in the historiographical and cultural shadows since 1945. Only relatively recently has this situation changed. This research note reflects briefly on some of the reasons for those changes, and notes two areas in which rethinking the role of the war against Japan might serve to refocus aspects of the field of modern Chinese history: the relationship of local and national history, and a reassessment of the immediate postwar period (1945-49). Overall, the note argues that the history of China's wartime experience is becoming historiographically both globalized and normalized: in other words, there are trends similar to those seen in the interpretation of the wartime experience in other belligerent countries. The War of Resistance is expanding its territory on China's mental map, and slowly reemerging on a more global historical map as well.