WWII resource: “Memories of a Museum” documentary and Jianchuan Museum exhibits
- Mar 7, 2011
- 7 min read
Jianchuan Museum outside Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China
CCTV Video Program (
)
Today, I’d like to bring to light the above excellent resource for studying the WWII, a video documentary program called “
” in four parts. I was delighted to find this resource, a recently released documentary (August 2010) and made available on the new Feb 2011 CNTV “Memories of a Museum” website.
While there have been a fair number of solid documentaries both British and American (and a few Australian-made) side, these tend to be biased from the viewpoints of POW or victor-participants of war. Here, in Japan we have the textbook versions of the war and on TV, mostly from the victim-of-the-atom-bomb-attack-ravage-of-war type perspective as well as a number of documentaries offering some analysis of the circumstances that led the Japanese to become involved in the WWII. While all accounts and viewpoints are important, what we now have is an English-medium resource that offers an invaluable Chinese perspective — that China was a major battlefield is undeniable, the Chinese voice should be heard and its account of the war must be understood. This new documentary series captures the feeling of the threat of war from those on the ground themselves – the Chinese, and circumstances surrounding the Japanese invasion of China that led the Chinese to unite against that threat.
In my search for educational materials for my children, I have found it difficult to convey to this younger generation the atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution and strong nationalism in China surrounding WWII events … it is somewhat lopsided with the great deal of Japan-bashing Asian media news about Japanese nationalism and anti-Japanese online-diatribe that has become fashionable in recent decades. So I was happy to discover this new Memories of a Museum video which shows a great deal of never-before-seen or hard to obtain film footage of the actual Japanese invasion itself and of the build-up of Chinese war resistance. The montage of war film footage has given the documentary an almost virtual-reality TV feel to this Chinese war account – except for the Jianchuan Museum tie-in introduction.
War Heroes Plaza, Jianchuan Museum
The museum tie-in in the introduction of the documentary is interesting because the shots of the 200 bronze statues of war heroes is at once evocative of the era of Communist China and the Cultural Revolution, but it can also be off-putting to others as a graphic reminder of the cultural trait of Chinese propaganda that the western world has come to identify the Chinese government with. Equally off-putting and unfortunate is the hostile and antagonistic tone taken in the museum promotional pamphlets in characterizing the museum exhibits as “The Anti-Japanese War Museum series”. The Jianchuan “Memories of a Museum” exhibits and documentary were prepared to time with the celebration of the 65th anniversary of victory against Japanese invasion (3 Sep 2010). The museum and the documentary’s as a WWII resource are together an important educational resource, it is highly unfortunate because the anti-Japanese antagonistic sentiments will clearly deter most Japanese from visiting the museum’s valuable exhibits, and thereby coming to terms with the war atrocities perpetuated by Japanese soldiers. (The museum is privately-run which leads us to think its anti-Japanese sentiment is quite representative of the general public sentiment in China).
Watch here: Memories of a Museum CCTV Video Program (Part 1 Fighters of WarPart 2 Rising against the TorrentsPart 3 BattlefrontPart 4 Hands of Victory ) (in 4 parts) is extremely long and should be split over various sessions for viewing.
Excerpted below is today’s Japan Times article on the Jianchuan Museum Cluster “History museum takes no prisoners” – the featured museum focuses on four major topics: the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the “Red era,” the Wenchuan Earthquake, and Folklore and Culture. The largest museum cluster in China, containing many Class-One National Treasures and located in Anren which dates back to the Tang Dynasty (620AD). Anren’s highlights include the hundred-year-old town mansions, the picturesque “old town,” and the local markets.
“Jianchuan Museum Cluster, with an area of 500 mou (a unit of Chinese area, one mou is 1/15 hectare), is located in a historically and culturally famous ancient town, Anren. At present, the museum has over 8 million pieces of collection, among which 57 items are national first-class. Over 20 halls of Resistance War series, Folk-custom series and Red Age series will be constructed in the museum cluster, which is one of the civil museums of the most civil investment, the largest construction scale and exhibition area and the most abundant collections in China.
Among exhibition halls of the Resistance War series, construction of the Mainstay Hall, Frontal Battlefield Hall, Flying tigers hall, Unyielding War Prisoner Hall, Sichuan Resistance Army Hall, Chinese Veterans’ Handprint Square and Chinese Hero Statue Square has been completed; exhibition halls of the Red Age series consist of Chinese Porcelain Exhibition Hall, Daily Necessity Exhibition Hall, Badge, Clock and Seal Exhibition Hall, Poster Exhibition Hall, Ticket and Certificate Hall, Mirror Exhibition Hall, Audio and Video Article Exhibition Hall; Folk-custom Series Exhibition Halls consist of Old Mansion Furniture Exhibition Hall, Three-inch Gold lotus Cultural Relic Exhibition Hall and Traditional Seventy-two Trades Exhibition Hall.
With originality, Jianchuan Museum Cluster breaks through the traditionally limited concept of “Museum”, and beyond imagination, over 20 museums are gathered together for the first time in China, as well as supporting facilities of hotel, inn, teahouse and cultural relic shops, presenting the same in the form of museum. These combinations jointly define a new concept of museum and a destination of China century culture and museum tourism as well as rural leisure and vacation by integrating multiple functions of collection exhibition, educational research, tour leisure, collection exchange, art fair and movie-making. ” – The Jianchuan Museum website
By JEFF KINGSTON
Special to The Japan Times Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011
A powerful earthquake devastated Sichuan Province in 2008 and recovery is still ongoing, but this prosperous and fertile region of southwest China has also suffered a series of man-made disasters.
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Red-handed: A captivating display in the Anti-Japanese Veterans’ Handprints Plaza at the Jianchuan Museum Cluster outside Chengdu commemorates some of those Chinese who fought and survived the conflicts that raged from 1937-45. JEFF KINGSTON PHOTOS |
During the Great Leap Forward (1958-61), when as many as 45 million Chinese died from Mao Zedong’s colossal policy blunder, Sichuan was one of the regions hit hardest by the famine. The region also suffered more than its share during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) because many local people had wartime links with the Nationalists (Kuomintang), who had retreated to Chongqing from Nanjing in 1937.
The privately operated Jianchuan Museum Cluster of 13 buildings located about 90 minutes’ drive outside Chengdu has an entire building devoted to that Sichuan earthquake, but it was closed during my visit. I was told that the families of the victims had criticized the exhibits. In addition, visitors who had seen the exhibits said there was a lot that would irritate officials and make them squirm
For example, in detailing just how many devastating earthquakes have struck the region over the past century, visitors could not help but wonder why the government’s emergency disaster preparations were so woefully inadequate in 2008. Officials also remain sensitive about the collapse of so many public-school buildings, while adjacent structures were able to withstand the seismic jolts. This led to widespread speculation that corrupt officials turned a blind eye to building-standard violations.
Visitors can ask to see a remarkably corpulent pig nicknamed “Zhu Jianqiang” (“Strong-willed Pig”), who is pampered and living high on the hog having survived the 2008 earthquake despite being buried for 36 days under the rubble.
But fear not — Japan’s wartime depredations do get covered.
But my guide complained, “There was not enough about Japanese atrocities.” Not enough?! Well it all depends on your taste for such things, but in my view the Jianchuan Museum Cluster doesn’t exactly deny the Japanese their due.
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Hate figure: A wartime U.S. poster at the Jianchuan Museum Cluster outside Chengdu, where five of the 13 halls cover Japan’s wartime depredations. |
As the pamphlet explains, “The Anti-Japanese War Museum series is composed of the Hall of the Core of the Resistance, the Hall of the Conventional Battlefront, The Hall of the Sichuan Army in the War of Resistance, the Hall of the Heroes of the Flying Tigers, The Hall of Unyielding Chinese Prisoners of War, the Chinese Heroes Statue’s Plaza, and the Anti-Japanese Veterans’ Handprints Plaza.” To my mind, five buildings seemed sufficient to get the message across, especially when you throw in the two plazas.
The Handprint Plaza is visually captivating, a series of large opaque glass panels emblazoned with vermilion handprints of aging veterans from the 1937-45 conflict. I also thought the POW Hall was impressive as you enter a structure designed to replicate a prison and soon discover just how horrible being a prisoner of the Japanese could be.
One of the quirkiest galleries in this gem of the so-called Museum Cluster features the practice of foot-binding. It is a fascinating peek at the hard-to-fathom practice of breaking young women’s feet and binding them tightly with cloth to ensure they would remain dainty. One can only wince when looking at the tiny shoes on display.
The museum devoted to the Cultural Revolution has an intriguing entrance through a curtain that thrusts the unsuspecting visitor into a long, dark, narrow hall reverberating with the sounds of a large crowd chanting and screaming as you walk toward a large video projection showing Mao waving his Little Red Book in front of a rapturous and reverential audience. It was totally creepy — like being thrown back into that time of mass hysteria and random viciousness.
Mao-mania is the subject of the exhibits and there are all sorts of mementos from the day. One of the interesting inclusions is a series of the annual New Year covers of the People’s Daily from 1966-76. It always shows a portrait of Mao, but it’s an image that grows in size until 1971 and then shrinks steadily thereafter — perhaps a useful political barometer as the gruesome toll mounted.
This was the most crowded of all the galleries as middle-aged visitors found something compelling about visiting a painful past. Jianchuan also plans a new building to commemorate the Great Leap Forward, another brave effort to broach a touchy subject that explores the party’s checkered legacy. (JK)
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Further information below:
Memories of a Museum CCTV Video 5 parts (Part 1 Fighters of WarPart 2 Rising against the TorrentsPart 3 BattlefrontPart 4 Hands of Victory )
Jianchuan Chinese History Museum Cluster (Flicker Photo Gallery)
ww2talk forum – a forum post on an account of a private visit to the museum
Lessons learnt from history CNTV’s interview with current affairs commentator Professor Tao Wenzhao on China’s 65th anniversary of victory in the war against Japan
Growing up with Chinese series: 100 episodes, each 15 minutes in length. The series´ aim is to use dramatic skits to teach three hundred of the most commonly spoken Chinese phrases to teenagers. It is hosted by Charlotte MacInnis, a television host who is known to Chinese audiences as Ai Hua.
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