“A City at War: Political Culture in Guilin during China’s Anti-Japanese War, 1938-1944”

September 27th
Pingchao Zhu - History

ABSTRACT: Japanese full-scale invasion of China in 1937 led to the Japanese control of most of the strategically important locations in northern, central, and coastal China . The ruling Nationalist government fled to relocate in inland area in Chongqing . Communist forces remained in rural northern land far way from major battle grounds. Southwestern China , including the city of Guilin , however, was spared of the Japanese occupation between 1938 and 1944. It was in this fourth zone that many China 's leading intellectuals and some foreign scholars and journalists were able to stay active in China ’s war efforts. This talk examines the six years of cultural glamour in the city of Guilin and how it was transformed from a provincial town to a cosmopolitan cultural center in China ’s war of resistance against Japan . Important contributing factors, namely the role of the regional warlord, composition of intellectuals from “out of town” and their literary production, and activities of the international groups will be discussed.