Wartime Culture in Guilin, 1938–1944: A City at War by Pingchao Zhu (review)
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In this study, consisting of five chapters plus an introduction and conclusion, Pingchao Zhu aims to "analyze the major factors that contributed to the forming and development of Guilin's wartime culture, and to explore in what way the ideal of nationalism effectively united different groups and helped form important characteristics of the wartime culture" (xxiv). The author uses the entire first chapter to explain the "Guangxi System"—nurtured from the early 1930s by militarists, notably Li Zongren (李宗任 1891-1969) and Bai Chongxi (白崇禧 1893-1966)—that transformed the province into a militarily strong, economically prosperous, and politically autonomous region. By the mid-1930s, as Japanese aggression escalated, the Guangxi leaders joined the national resistance movement but managed, with some success, to hold on to their provincial prerogatives. Chapter 2 delves into the pragmatic reasons that motivated the Guangxi leaders and the Chinese Communists, united in their antipathy toward Chiang Kai-shek, to tolerate and even cooperate with one another during the national crisis.
Moving to the core of her study in chapter 3, "War in Fiction and Poetry," Zhu contends that "Guilin's glamour comprised her diversity and free spirit" (67). Because the Guangxi leaders were more tolerant of divergent views than the authorities in Chongqing or Yan'an, a sizable number of Chinese intellectuals fleeing the Japanese invasion settled in Guilin and transformed this provincial capital into a vibrant hub of wartime culture. The author offers a cursory survey of various styles (realism, satire, "rustic," metafiction, and social analysis) of "Guilin novels" and short stories, that is, works either produced or published in the wartime city, plus brief analyses of a few works by luminaries such as Ba Jin, Mao Dun, and Ai Wu (艾蕪 1904-1992). Also mentioned are poems, ranging from lyrical and narrative to satirical and elegiac, by Guo Moruo, Ai Qing (艾青 1910-1996), and others. Dominant in these Guilin works are praise of heroism and sacrifice, and condemnation of cowardice and venality, in both contemporary and historical times.
"Paper Bullets Can Also Annihilate the Enemy," the title of chapter 4, was originally used by a journalist in 1938 to convey the power of the press as a weapon against the Japanese (132). Zhu treats newspapers, journals, plays, and publishing houses all as "paper bullets." Home to over 100 printing shops, wartime Guilin saw the publication of about 200 periodicals at one time or another, and they were sold in numerous bookstores within the city and distributed throughout the dahoufang (大後方 the greater rear area) (119). Several major newspapers, offering war news and a spectrum of ideological views, fed a voracious readership. Plays and operas, in their variegated forms and dialects, were another important outlet for artists, such as Tian Han (田漢 1898-1968) and Ouyang Yuqian (歐陽予倩 1889-1962), and audiences from all walks of life.
Chapter 5, "The International Features," is a catchall account of "foreign patriots" in Guilin, including American war correspondents, Ho Chi Minh, and the Flying Tigers, who contributed to China's war efforts, especially after 1941. Japanese and Korean antiwar activists assisted in an array of propaganda activities. Chinese translations of foreign, especially Russian, works, and Russian and English translations of Chinese works linked Giulin to the global struggle against fascism. [End Page E-15]
No reader of this book could fail to be impressed by the staggering quantity of works produced by Chinese novelists, dramatists, poets, and journalists in Guilin from 1938 to 1944. However, excessively detailed information about Guangxi politics takes space and focus away from discussion of wartime culture. The author's decision to be inclusive rather than selective in her examination of cultural activities results in a narrative crowded with swirls of names and titles, with scant attention to the contents of most of the works mentioned. This approach does not adequately explain how, united by "the ideal of nationalism," intellectuals achieved the paramount twin goals of national resistance and national salvation. Zhu's strikingly heavy...
