The Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social Transformation, 1937–1945

New Approaches to Asian History

by Diana Lary

The Chinese peoples’ experience of war during the Second World War, as it is known in the West, was one of suffering and stoicism in the face of dreadful conditions. China’s War of Resistance began in 1937 with the Japanese invasion and ended in 1945 after eight long years. Diana Lary, one of the foremost historians of the period, tells the tragic history of China’s war and its consequences from the perspective of those who went through it. Using archival evidence only recently made available, interviews with survivors, and extracts from literature, she creates a vivid and highly disturbing picture of the havoc created by the war, the destruction of towns and villages, the displacement of peoples, and the accompanying economic and social disintegration. Her focus is on families torn apart, men, women, and children left homeless and struck down by disease and famine. It is also a story of courage and survival. By 1945, the fabric of China’s society had been utterly transformed, and entirely new social categories had emerged. As the author suggests in a new interpretation of modern Chinese history, far from stemming the spread of communism from the USSR, which was the Japanese pretext for invasion, the horrors of the war, and the damage it created, nurtured the Chinese Communist Party and helped it to win power in 1949.

Genres: History, China, School

246 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2010

Reviews

[Alan Tsuei · Rating 3 out of 5]

一本外國學者以八年抗戰內憂外患為中心，億萬人民流離失所當半徑所劃出的一本社會觀察史，概述了戰亂對中國社會產生難以想像的巨變與日後國共相爭勢力逆轉的遠因，雖然外人寫中國史總有些隔靴搔癢之感，但在兩岸政治上數十年分歧的現實之下，這段堪稱中國近代最為悲慘的日子就像流浪異地的孤兒，被拉里老師好心收養並拉拔長大，對個人來說，更多的不是自慚形穢，而是由衷的感謝，那是個最壞的時代，但激發了最無私的奉獻；那是個最混亂的日子，卻留下了最光明的人性…

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost untolerably repetitive in the first half. The book gets slightly better in the second half.

[Chyi · Rating 3 out of 5]

也许是经历的痛苦太多了，生活在这片土地上的我们，习惯了遗忘、回避和沉默。抗战史毫无疑问是当前国内近代史研究的显学，但很少有学者真的怀有同情与理解之心，去关注抗战中受苦受难的民众。戴安娜老师的这本书，读来字字泣血，不是对中国和中国人民饱含情感，写不出这样的文字。至于以“反共”为名发动的侵华战争，最后却导致中共夺取政权，那又是另一段故事。