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The Legacy of the Second Sino-Japanese War in the People's Republic of China: Mapping the Official Discourses of Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Mo Tian
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Abstract

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The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) occupies an integral position in the memory politics of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In recent years, dominant representations of the war create a memory discourse which portrays the heroic triumph of the Chinese people led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over Japan. This article shows how the war has been remembered from the victory of the Communist revolution in 1949 to the present in the PRC. It contributes to the debate on the effectiveness and limitations of the monopoly of war memory by the CCP.

Keywords

warnarrativememorycontrolstateinstitutionmyththe Chinese Communist Party
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 11 , June 2022 , e4
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2022

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