Recalling the War in China: The Dahoufang Project in Chongqing and the Restoration of a Legacy

Abstract

This article presents a rare inside view of a unique project currently underway in China to study and preserve the memory of possibly the single most seminal event in Chinese modern history, the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–45). The article introduces a multi-faceted program to preserve the wartime cultural heritage; the work is ongoing in the thriving western metropolis of Chongqing, once China’s bomb-torn wartime capital and international Allied command center. It describes how, seven decades after World War II, scholars, cultural workers, government experts, and artists in China are joining hands in an unprecedented, all-encompassing project to record, restore, and recount the extraordinary legacy of China’s War of Resistance in its local, as well as national and global contexts.

Keywords

Chongqing / War of Resistance / WWII / wartime legacy / heritage preservation

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Brill