Biyu Iposhimi: A Short Story

Although Iris Chang’s book provides meaningful details and thoughtful interviews about the Nanking massacre, many argue that her book is seriously flawed. Donald Zagoria asserted, “Chang’s account, based on extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, is utterly compelling yet, at the same time, in places unbearable to read” (Zagoria 163). The novel is full of good intentions from Chang, but is also full of misinformation and harebrained explanations. Joshua Fogel suggested, “The book begins to fall apart when she tries to explain why such a horror took place. Part of the problem is her lack of training as a historian and part is the book’s dual

Mao Dun, or rather his true name Shen Dehong, was a 20th century novelist and later the Minister of Culture of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1965. He is considered one of the most well-known and celebrated left-wing realist writers of modern China and is best known for two of his stories, Ziya and Spring Silkworms, the latter which will be referenced throughout this essay. Spring Silkworms tells the story of an elderly man named Old Tong Bao, his family, and his village as they prepare for the coming silk worm season. Throughout the story, we are able to get a sense of the desperation and turmoil that Old Tong Bao’s village is experiencing. From learning about the debt that his family has, how they had to sacrifice food in

The various negative influences on China are depicted through the characters that come and go in the Tea House and by the monologues of the three men who had ideals that were crushed by self-interested corruption. Foreign influence is portrayed negatively and Qin Zhongyi laments that although he advocated saving China by industrializing it, the government took his factory from him, demolished it and sold the equipment as scrap. “Is there anywhere,m anywhere in the whole world that you’ll find another government like this one?” he asks mournfully.

“As one of the Red Guards in the middle school, I was given power through Mao to torture and humiliate our teachers, headmaster or anyone we didn’t like. I didn’t know it was wrong. I thought I was doing the right thing to continue the revolution, to fight and win the class struggle”- Zhao, Lin Qing. As a teenager Zhao was a Red Guard in Guangzhou during the Cultural Revolution. When asked what her impression was a member of the Red Guards, Zhao answered with two words: “naïve and senseless”. She refused answering anything more about her experience. She said, “The memories are still too painful to recall.”

Bob Fu conveys clearly the inexorable control that Communist leaders in China have over their people. For example, after Fu and his friends participated in the Tiananmen Square protests, Fu was coerced, day in day out, to write a confession of his purported misdeeds against China and her people as a “counterrevolutionary” (79-82, 85, 87).

Even with her previous experiences at Beijing University and at Big Joy Farm, Wong still held some belief that the Chinese system wasn’t as bad as it was sometimes made out to be. This event proved to her that it was. “The enormity of the massacre hit home…Although it had been years since I was a Maoist, I still had harbored some small hope for China. Now even that was gone” (259). As a reporter Wong was able to view the progression of the protests in leading up to the massacre, and in viewing it understood that the Chinese people were much more independent than they had previously demonstrated over the past 50 years. She had continuously seen the Chinese people following what they were told between learning in school or with physical labor, yet this protest was one of the first large scale displays of the unacceptance of the regime by the people, and the government did not know what to do with it. But because of this, Wong was able to recognize that the people were not reliant on this way of life that they had previously been bound to, but truly could lead for themselves and take control. The massacre awakened Wong both to the reality that the government was not acting to benefit the people, and that the people were more than capable of acting for

A scream echoed throughout the harsh winter air, where it passed a frail man tied to a post whose eyes drooped and arms rotted. The noise flew past a few soldiers loading a biological weapon into a plane. The scream landed upon the ears of a scientist who stood inches away from that horrible cry, and continued his work, uncaring of a heart beating at his fingertips. He was the sole spectator and sole perpetrator of this person’s death through live dissection. This was what happened in Japan’s biological warfare experimental camp from 1935 to 1945. The camp was made possible by the Manchurian Incident which is when the Japanese bombed their own property and claimed it was an attack by the Chinese, prompting the Japanese conquest of Manchuria. However, Japan yearned to conquer more nations. Sensing a war with Manchuria’s north

This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution

Book Review: Growing Up in the People’s Republic: Conversations Between Two Daughters of China’s Revolution. By- Ye Weili with Ma Xiaodong

John Rabe’s firsthand account of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Chinese capital of Nanking in November 1937 provides a unique insight into a controversial and violent period of the Empire of Japan’s expansion into China. His diary entries from September 1937 to March 1938 provide a neutral third-party perspective on the horrors visited upon the Chinese people, which have helped post-war historians in their attempts to document Japanese war crimes. His personal writings collected in the book “The Good Man of Nanking” and published in 1996 offer the rare perspective of a man who was only doing what he thought right and never imagined his words would carry such importance and his actions save so many lives. John Rabe was a German engineer, who for the majority of his adult life worked in China as an engineer for Siemens. His position allowed him to travel throughout the country, exposing him to the many ethnic and political factions that ruled China.

Unlike many of her compatriots, Eileen Chang did not write with the intent of enacting social change. Instead, her writing features the lives of average, day-to-day people. However, that does not mean that she did not have opinions about the people and lifestyle of the Shanghainese citizens. Eileen Chang uses descriptions of people in “Sealed Off” to reflect what she perceives as the unthinking nature of the inhabitants of Shanghai.

In this introduction, Jicai lists many strange occurrences that happened throughout one day in the city of Tianjin. Before telling the story of these events, Jicai starts with these lines, “If you’re looking for lies, then all become lies; if you’re looking for truth, then

“Dagong” means “working for the boss” or “selling labor,” and illustrates the commodification of labor and the subordinate status of the worker, in contrast to socialist imaginations of work as liberating. “Mei” means little sister, often associated with young, unmarried women in contrast to “jie”, the older, mature sister . Thus, the term dagongmei symbolizes the subordination of female migrants, both as migrant workers under urban factory owners, and as women expected to work long hours, some sacrificing their education, in order to support their families. Pun articulates the very real struggles many dagongmei face, from the 1993 Shenzhen factory fire that killed over 80 migrant workers, all but two female, only then alerting China and the rest of the world of the human costs of China’s rapid development to one woman, Yan, who screams in her sleep after years of work despite being in deep physical and emotional pain. Such pain is unbearable, and to scream out is the only way to survive. Yet as Pun argues, their very survival is of itself a form of resistance. These migrant workers may not be organizing, staging mass strikes or protests against the state or factory owners, but they are resisting. By screaming out, Yan is forcing the world to hear her pain. By telling

Family loyalty in China has had a tumultuous past filled with fluctuation between remaining loyal to the state, yet also remaining loyal to blood relatives. In the autobiography that also serves as a biography, Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, this is seen. The book, which outlines the biographies of the author’s grandmother and mother, as well as her own autobiography, gives an interesting look into the lives of the Chinese throughout the 20th century. This book is beyond eye opening, and is truly a raw glimpse into the daily lives of women throughout China, struggling with situations that no human should ever be thrown into. I loved this book and was truly scared about the world that it opened me up to. The book does many things well, but also has its faults. The author consistently and clearly exemplifies the social hierarchy that consumes China, as well as its obsession with cultural stagnancy. The author also gives intense imagery that thrusts the reader into the scene, and creates a new reality showcasing the truths of China. Although both of those things take main stage in the book, there are a few weaknesses in the book. One, asking the question of how she had such clear anecdotes on her grandmother and mother’s life, how did she have such intimate details? The second shortcoming that Jung Chang had a subjective view of China, partly being that she loves China despite the cards it has dealt her. Her life was not short of hardships, but her family was typically

I stood up, my heart racing in my chest. “Hello? Baek? Are you there?” I waited for 3 seconds. 1. 2. 3. I could hear nothing from the other line. I cursed inwardly. I slammed my laptop shut and shoved it in my case. I grabbed all my things and burst out the door, startling Taeyon, a small girl with blonde hair, my secretary.