Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China (Contemporary Chinese Studies)

Synopsis

China Was Afflicted By A Brutal Succession Of Conflicts Through Much Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries. Yet There Has Never Been Clear Understanding Of How Wartime Suffering Defined The Nation And Shaped Its People. In Beyond Suffering, A Distinguished Group Of Historians Of Modern China Look Beyond The Geopolitical Aspects Of War To Explore Its Social, Institutional, And Cultural Dimensions, From Child Rearing And Education To Massacres And Warlord Mutinies. Though Accounts Of War-inflicted Suffering Are Often Fragmented Or Politically Motivated, The Authors Show That They Are Crucial To Understanding The Multiple Fronts On Which Wars Are Fought, Experienced, And Remembered. The Chapters In Part 1, Society At War, Reveal How War And Militarization Can Both Structure And Destabilize Society, While Those In Part 2, Institutional Engagement, Show How Institutions And The People They Represent Can Become Pawns In Larger Power Struggles. Lastly, Part 3, Memory And Representation, Examines The Various Media, Monuments, And Social Controls By Which War Has Been Memorialized. Although Many Of The Conflicts Described In Beyond Suffering Barely Registered Against The Sweeping Backdrop Of Chinese History, Such Conflicts Bring Us Closer To Understanding War, Militarism, And Suffering In Modern China.--pub. Desc. Preface : Lisbon, Xuzhou, Auschwitz : Suffering As History / Timothy Brook -- Introduction / James Flath And Norman Smith -- Society At War. Writing And Remembering The Battle Against Opiates In Manchukuo / Norman Smith ; War, Schools, China, Hong Kong : 1937-1949 / Bernard Hung-kay Luk ; Bombs Don't Discriminate : Class, Gender, And Ethnicity In The Air-raid-shelter Experiences Of The Wartime Chongqing Population / Chang Jui-te ; Militarization And Jinmen (quemoy) Society, 1949-92 / Michael Szonyi -- Institutional Engagement. The Blagoveshchensk Massacre Of 1900 : The Sino-russian War And Global Imperialism / Victor Zatsepine ; Victims And Victimizers : Warlord Soldiers And Mutinies In Republican China / Edward A. Mccord ; Turning Bad Iron Into Polished Steel : Whampoa And The Rehabilitation Of The Chinese Soldier / Colin Green ; Orphans In The Family : Family Reform And Children's Citizenship During The Anti-japanese War, 1937-45 / M. Colette Plum -- Memory And Representation. Controlling Soldiers : The Memory Scars Of Late Imperial China / Alexander Woodside ; Chinese Savages And Chinese Saints : Russians And Chinese Remember And Forget The Boxer Uprising In 1920s China / Blaine Chiasson ; Setting Moon And Rising Nationalism : Lugou Bridge At Monument And Memory / James Flath ; War And Remembering : Memories Of China At War / Diana Lary. Edited By James Flath And Norman Smith. China Was Afflicted By A Brutal Succession Of Conflicts Through Much Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries. Yet There Has Never Been Clear Understanding Of How Wartime Suffering Defined The Nation And Shaped Its People. In Beyond Suffering, A Distinguished Group Of Historians Of Modern China Look Beyond The Geopolitical Aspects Of War To Explore Its Social, Institutional, And Cultural Dimensions, From Child Rearing And Education To Massacres And Warlord Mutinies. Though Accounts Of War-inflicted Suffering Are Often Fragmented Or Politically Motivated, The Authors Show That They Are Crucial To Understanding The Multiple Fronts On Which Wars Are Fought, Experienced, And Remembered. The Chapters In Part 1, Society At War, Reveal How War And Militarization Can Both Structure And Destabilize Society, While Those In Part 2, Institutional Engagement, Show How Institutions And The People They Represent Can Become Pawns In Larger Power Struggles. Lastly, Part 3, Memory And Representation, Examines The Various Media, Monuments, And Social Controls By Which War Has Been Memorialized. Although Many Of The Conflicts Described In Beyond Suffering Barely Registered Against The Sweeping Backdrop Of Chinese History, Such Conflicts Bring Us Closer To Understanding War, Militarism, And Suffering In Modern China.--publisher's Description. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 295]-297) And Index.