Chinese leaders once tried to suppress memories of their nation’s brutal experience during World War II. Now they celebrate the “victory key foundation of China’s rising nationalism. For most of its history, The people Republic of China limited 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 world War II 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 mediating 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.
On China
HENRY KISSINGER
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE GROUP
The Long Game How the Chinese Negotiate with India
VIJAY GOKHALE
Out of China How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination
ROBERT BICKERS
The Hundred Year Marathon Chinas Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower
MICHAEL PILLSBURY
ST. MARTIN PRESS/PAN MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LIMITED
Private Revolutions Coming Of Age In A New China Shortlisted for the WOMENS PRIZE 2025
YUAN YANG
BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
MODERNISATION OF THE CHINESE PLA
JS BAJWA
LANCER PUBLISHERS
CHINESE LESSONS FROM ORTHER PEPOLS WAR
ANDREW SCOBELL
A New Cold War Henry Kissinger and the Rise of China
BARU SANJAYA,SHARMA RAHUL
HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS LIMITED
Dragon on Our Doorstep Managing China Through Military Power
PRAVIN SAWHNEY,WAHAB GHAZALA
ALEPH BOOK COMPANY/RUPA PUBLICATIONS
Gazing Eastwards Of Buddhist Monks and Revolutionaries in China
ROMILA THAPAR
Fill up your details to notify you when this book will be available