The Sino- Japanese War and Youth Literature The Sino- Japanese War (1937–1945) was fought in the Asia-P acific theatre between Imperial Japan and China, with the United States as the latter’s major military ally. An important line of investigation remains, questioning how the history of this war has been passed on to post-w ar generations’ consciousness, and how information sources, particularly those exposed to young people in their formative years, shape their knowledge and bias of the conflict as well as World War II more generally. This book is the first to focus on how the Sino- Japanese War has been repres- ented in non- English and English sources for children and young adults. As a cross- cultural study and an interdisciplinary endeavor, it not only examines youth- orientated publications in China and the United States, but also draws upon popular culture, novelists’ memoirs, and family oral narratives to make comparisons between fiction and history, Chinese and American sources, and published materials and private memories of the war. Through quantitative nar- rative analysis, literary and visual analysis, and socio- political critique, it shows the dominant pattern of war stories, traces chronological changes over the seven decades from 1937 to 2007, and teases out the ways in which the history of the Sino- Japanese War has been constructed, censored, and utilized to serve shifting agendas. Providing a much needed examination of public memory, literary representa- tion, and popular imagination of the Sino-J apanese War, this book will have huge interdisciplinary appeal, particularly for students and scholars of Asian history, literature, society, and education. Minjie Chen works at the Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University, USA. Routledge studies in education and society in Asia Edited by Edward Vickers Department of Education, Kyushu University, Japan This series focuses on analyses of educational practices and structures in Asia in their broader social, cultural, political, and economic context. The volumes further our understanding of why education systems have developed in particular ways and examine to what extent and why education in Asia is distinctive. 1 Designing History in East Asian Textbooks Identity politics and transnational aspirations Edited by Gotelind Müller 2 Globalisation, Employment and Education in Sri Lanka Opportunity and division Angela Little and Siri Hettige 3 Re- Evaluating Education in Japan and Korea De- mystifying stereotypes Hyunjoon Park 4 Imagining Japan in Postwar East Asia Identity politics, schooling and popular culture Edited by Paul Morris, Edward Vickers and Naoko Shimazu 5 Constructing Modern Asian Citizenship Edited by Edward Vickers and Krishna Kumar 6 The Sino- Japanese War and Youth Literature Friends and foes on the battlefield Minjie Chen The Sino- Japanese War and Youth Literature Friends and Foes on the Battlefield Minjie Chen First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Minjie Chen The right of Minjie Chen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. A variation of Chapter 1 was published as two book chapters, “Chinese Youth Literature: A Historical Overview” and “Chinese Lian Huan Hua and Literacy: Popular Culture Meets Youth Literature,” in Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Chinese Literacy in China edited by Cynthia B. Leung and Jiening Ruan (Springer, 2012). Used with permission of Springer. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-85969-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-71704-3 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Dedicated to the brave women of Yunhe, Zhejiang Province, China This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures ix List of Maps x List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xii List of Abbreviations xiv Introduction 1 Prelude: “Plague-P its is Good Eatin’ ” 1 Research Questions 3 The Sino- Japanese War 7 1 Chinese Youth Literature: An Overview 14 The Historical Transformation of Chinese Youth Literature 14 Lian Huan Hua: Popular Culture Meets Youth Literature 28 Discussion 45 2 The Sino- Japanese War as Depicted in Chinese Youth Literature: The Big Picture 52 Primary Source 53 Limitation of the Data 56 Method 57 Publication and Thematic Patterns 57 Summary 74 3 The Sino- Japanese War as Depicted in Chinese Youth Literature: A Thematic Analysis 77 Portrayal of Military Combat 77 Portrayal of Violence and Wartime Atrocities 85 Portrayal of Class 118 Portrayal of Partisan Membership 126 Summary 140 viii Contents 4 Family Narrative as Information Source: A Case Study 148 Yunhe Caught in the Sino-J apanese Conflict 149 Wartime Yunhe in Historiography 152 Method 154 Her Story of the War 157 Discussion 170 Epilogue 174 Appendix: Questionnaire for Interviewees 175 5 Ethnic Chinese Wartime Experience in American Youth Literature 181 World War II in American Youth Literature 181 Chinese American Youth Literature: From the Gold Rush to World War II 183 Scope and Primary Source 191 Publication Patterns 192 Subject Matter 200 Summary 205 Appendix: Sino-J apanese War Stories in American Juvenile Fiction (1937–2007) 205 Conclusion 211 Future Research 213 Index 216 Figures 1.1 Children’s Morning Paper (儿童晨报) 21 1.2 LHH and Sample Pages 30–31 1.3 The Records of the Three Kingdoms in Linked Pictures (连环图画三国志) (1927) 32 1.4 An LHH Rental Stall 33 1.5 Steel Meets Fire (烈火金钢) 43 2.1 A Pile of LHH at the Yunhe County Public Library, China 54 2.2 Starting Year of the Storyline and a Chronology of the War History 66 2.3 The Subject Matter of LHH About the Sino-J apanese War 71 3.1 Sister Double Happiness (1977 English Edition) 88 3.2 A Clever Attack Against Okamura (巧打冈村) (The Railway Guerrillas, Vol. 5) 91 3.3 Friends and Foes on the Battlefield (战地恩仇记) (1943) 93 3.4 Comic Book, A Criminal Record of the United States Militarizing Japan (美国武装日本罪行录) (ca. 1951) 97 3.5 The Fall of Nanjing (南京的陷落) (1997) 111 3.6 A Magnified View of Bloody Tears of “Comfort Women” (血泪 “慰安妇”) (2001) 115 3.7 The Opening of Sanmao Joins the Army (三毛从军记) 128 3.8 Visual Depictions of Chiang Kai- shek 134–135 3.9 Portrait of General Zhang in The Story of Zhang Zizhong (张自忠的故事) 137 4.1 Photo of Interviewee gao Caiqin 158 4.2 The Lady Liu’s Temple, Site of a Former Air-R aid Shelter 160 4.3 Photo of Interviewee Mei Xiunü 163 4.4 Metal Band of a Bomb From 1942 164 4.5 Photo of Interviewee Wang Jingju 167