Rana Mitter on the reshaping of China’s World War II legacy

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2020

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Rana Mitter, professor of the history and politics of modern China at St. Cross College, Oxford, and director of the University of Oxford China Centre, about his new book, China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism. The book is a meditation on how the evolving official narrative of World War II in contemporary Chinese political discourse shapes not only China’s domestic politics but its foreign policy as well.

8:51: What Chinese nationalism looked like before World War II

30:48: Shaping the narrative of China’s wartime experience

47:13: Giving China the postwar period it never had

57:55: Chinese public discussion about the war

Recommendations:

Rana: The Sword and the Spear, by Mia Couto.

Kaiser: How the coronavirus hacks the immune system, by James Somers, and the anti-superhero series The Boys, available on Amazon Prime.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the cynical podcast.
0:15.2	Weekly discussion of current affairs in China produced in partnership with SubChina.
0:19.0	SubChina is simply the best way there is to keep on top of all the important news coming out of China,
0:23.1	especially if you subscribe to our daily email newsletter, SubChina Access.
0:28.4	And visit SubChina.com.
0:29.9	Check out our wide range of reported pieces, our op-eds, videos, and of course podcasts.
0:35.4	It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation
0:39.9	that is reshaping the world. I'm Kaiser Guo. Coming to today from my home in Chapel Hill,
0:44.5	North Carolina, Jeremy Goldcorn was unable to join, especially once he realized how much
0:49.1	words like discourse and narrative were inevitably going to come up today on this episode.
0:53.9	And as his friend and
0:54.7	colleague, I must be respectful of his severe lexical allergies. Today, I am thrilled to have as our
1:01.2	guest, Ron Amitter, professor of the history and politics of modern China at St. Cross College,
1:05.9	Oxford, and director of the University China Center at Oxford. He has a new book out now called China's Good War,
1:12.7	how World War II is shaping a new nationalism,
1:15.9	and in it he argues that the Second World War,
1:18.2	the Conner-Jangzeng or War of Resistance against Japan,
1:21.4	shaped and continues to shape the way China constructs its own national identity
1:24.9	and understands its place in the world.
1:27.3	It is a profound meditation on how this episode of China's modern history constructs its own national identity and understands its place in the world.
1:32.2	It is a profound meditation on how this episode of China's modern history, the evolving thinking about the war, the uses to which the war is put in contemporary Chinese political
1:37.0	discourse, see, there's that word already, discourse, how this is all really critical if we
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kaiser Kuo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kaiser Kuo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.