Echoes of Tragedy: WWII Narratives in China

Rana Mitter, professor of Chinese history at Oxford University, discusses his book from earlier this year, China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism.

Now seventy-five years after China’s victory over Japan, China is rethinking how it grapples with the legacy of WWII (see, for example, The Eight Hundred, the highest-grossing film of 2020, discussed towards the end of the show).  Mitter argues that this growing emphasis on World War II is evidence of a subtle rewriting of history, where 1945 takes on a significance comparable to 1949, and the CCP adopts historical victories of the Kuomintang.

Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk   Intro music: 赴戰, 'To Battle,‘ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB9TmKdo0qU&feature=youtu.be Outtro music: 大刀进行曲, or "Sword March," written in honor of the poorly armed Chinese fighters at the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. See here for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_March. Get bonus content on Patreon

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