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Frontiers of History in China

ISSN 1673-3401

ISSN 1673-3525(Online)

CN 11-5740/K

Postal Subscription Code 80-980

Front. Hist. China    2019, Vol. 14 Issue (3) : 323-352    https://doi.org/10.3868/s020-008-019-0017-8
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Surviving under the Enemy: Oral Narratives of Middle-Class Women in Japanese-Occupied China (1931-45)
Yihong Pan()
Department of History, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA
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Abstract

In a fragmented wartime China (1931-45), the levels of violence, suffering, and resistance varied in different regions. The Anti-Japanese War left people with different experiences and memories. To date, both Chinese- and English-language scholarship have paid insufficient attention to the more than two hundred million common Chinese who stayed in Japanese-occupied areas. To help fill this gap, this study provides a thematic analysis of interviews conducted by the author with six Chinese women of the urban middle-class about their experiences in the Japanese-occupied areas. It adds voices and perspectives of ordinary, middle-class women to the rich tapestry of everyday life of wartime China. The oral narratives of these women are everyday accounts of uncertainty, fear, and survival. More important, they are testimonies to the evolution of their gender consciousness and their determination to pursue an education as a means of resisting gender inequality. In addition, these oral narratives show how these women developed strategies in their marriages, work, and political views to reconcile with the reality of living with the enemy. Their everyday forms of resistance helped them maintain dignity in the face of foreign imperialism.

Keywords Anti-Japanese War      interviews      pseudo-Manzhouguo      middle- class women      occupied China     
Issue Date: 25 October 2019
 Cite this article:   
Yihong Pan. Surviving under the Enemy: Oral Narratives of Middle-Class Women in Japanese-Occupied China (1931-45)[J]. Front. Hist. China, 2019, 14(3): 323-352.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fhc/EN/10.3868/s020-008-019-0017-8
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fhc/EN/Y2019/V14/I3/323
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