Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China

by Danke Li

This collection of annotated oral histories records the personal stories of twenty Chinese women who lived in the wartime capital of Chongqing during China's War of Resistance against Japan during World War II. By presenting women's remembrances of the war, this study examines the interplay between oral history and traditional historical narrative, public discourse, and private memories. The women interviewed came from differing social, economic, and educational backgrounds and experienced the war in a variety of ways, some of them active in the communist resistance and others trying to support families or pursue educations in the face of wartime upheaval. Their stories demonstrate that the War of Resistance had two faces: one presented by official propaganda and characterized by an upbeat unified front against Japan, the other a record of invisible private stories and a sobering national experience of death and suffering. The accounts of how women coped, worked, and lived during the war years in the Chongqing region recast historical understanding of the roles played by ordinary people in wartime and give women a public voice and face that, until now, have been missing from scholarship on the war.

215 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2009

Reviews

[carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

siempre es interesante leer el testimonio de mujeres durante la guerra pero en este caso, al tratarse solo de la ciudad de chongqing, se hace muy repetitivo. los hechos y las historias se repiten una y otra vez.

[Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and moving oral histories of a strange moment in Chinese history, organised so as to give a variety of perspectives. It's fascinating to see how people conceptualise and live through the worst moments