Features
Words Against the Regime
U of G historian's new book shows how Chinese women were able to write critically about their Japanese occupiers and earn a living doing it
BY REBECCA KENDALL
After six years of research and writing, Prof. Norman Smith, History, has added a new title to his bookshelf. Resisting Manchukuo: Chinese Women Writers and the Japanese Occupation was released last month and is the first book to examine the lives of 20th-century women living in Manchuria and how they expressed their experiences with Japanese imperialism through their writing.
“The book shows that women were able to critique Japanese imperialism in Manchukuo and earn a living doing so in a way that most men found impossible,” says Smith, who returned from a three-week trip to China earlier this month.
“Manchukuo was a misogynistic regime, but these women were able to turn elements of that misogyny to their advantage. Whereas men were under constant scrutiny, women were able to use their writing to build careers and literary legacies for themselves and their country. Their activities provide a different perspective on Japanese imperialism.”
In China, this history has been all but forgotten, he says, adding that the exclusion of women's history in the study of nations and culture is all too common.
Japanese military forces occupied Manchuria, the region lying east of the Great Wall of China, from 1931 to 1945. During that time, Japanese intellectuals and colonial officials allowed certain writings that were critical of the Japanese regime, including the work of Mei Niang, who in 1944 was awarded the prize for Best Novel of the Year in the Japanese Empire for her book Xie (Crabs).
She is representative of female writers who were unafraid to voice their opinions of long-standing patriarchy and the societal issues it caused, says Smith.
“These women were pioneering feminists in that part of China. They focused on criticizing patriarchy rather than the occupation not only because this was an issue central to their lives but also because it was far less dangerous than overtly critiquing Japanese colonial rule. Instead, they criticized the dehumanization of their society and how Manchukuo patriarchy was ruining their lives.”
Interestingly, although the novel Xie was celebrated, the Japanese tortured and imprisoned male authors who engaged in similar writings, says Smith.
“The women's critiques were perceived as being less politically damaging, so women for the most part were not penalized like the men,” he says.
“Resisting Manchukuo reveals how complex the time was. Chinese and Japanese intellectuals, writers, publishers and editors could combine to create and distribute critiques of the Japanese Empire, and at times officials turned a blind eye to their activities. Some officials may even have shared their criticisms.”
By the final year of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the political tide was shifting, and authors like Mei were criticized by colonial officials and later by Chinese communists as degenerates for their criticisms of patriarchy. Chinese nationalists mistakenly argued that by working within the Japanese Empire, these women demonstrated a sense of solidarity with the Japanese, says Smith.
Unlike with European or western forms of imperialism, Japanese colonial culture has yet to receive intense critical examination, he says.
“These women's lives underline a long-forgotten feminist legacy in China, and I think their legacy does a lot to illustrate how women have struggled in different ways to liberate themselves. It's fascinating to consider these lives that have been shadowed by a complex colonial history that most people in China would prefer to forget, but one can't possibly understand the history of a society without understanding the historical experiences of women.”
Smith, who has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to study male and female narratives of addiction in 20th-century Manchuria, is currently finalizing details for “Global Approaches: The Fourth International Alcohol and Drug History Conference,” to be held Aug. 10 to 12 on campus. The event, which he is co-organizing with Prof. Catherine Carstairs, History, will draw more than 50 speakers from around the globe to discuss a variety of historical, social and cultural aspects of alcohol and drug use.