The Anti-japanese War In West Yunnan Province And Myanmar And The Image Construction Of “Borderland China”

Thinking from the perspective of how “modern literature” constructs and imagines“modern China”,the author reflects on the course of how “modern literature” integrates the“marginal regions” of traditional China or “borderland China” into “modern China” in the special historical context of the Anti-Japanese War in West Yunnan Province and Myanmar.It is obviously seen in Chinese modern literature that most soldiers show strong national feelings such as pride and excitement in the Anti-Japanese War for national reconstruction.By centering on the relevant writings by three types of observing and constructing subjects such as travelers and investigators,expeditionary soldiers and journalists accompanying the army,and writers from borderland Yunnan Province,we can discover how “borderland China” in the period of the Anti-Japanese War in West Yunnan Province and Myanmar is narrated by “modern literature” and thus homogenized into “modern China” by it.Taking the travel writings of the borderland regions of west Yunnan Province and Myanmar and those of west Yunnan Province and Vietnam in the period of the Anti-Japanese War as the research object,the first chapter explores how geographical modernity and modern nation-state conception is integrated in these writings in wartime.These travel writings,aimed for the recording of actual events and practical purposes,are neither writings for impression and leisure nor traditional travel writings only for the purpose of describing beautiful landscapes.In that particular geographical space,these travelers and investigators,with their own knowledge and discourse in wartime context,observe the borderland of Yunnan Province already at the forefront of the international war and transform their former imaginary “image symbols”of the borderland into the real world experienced by them.From this we can think about how people in the Anti-Japanese War view the landscapes of the borderland and how the relationship between the landscape narrative of the spacial-mobility travelling by railway or road and nation-state identity is developed;how these travelers and investigators,when equipped with cognitive devices to discover the abundance in people and things of the borderland,shape the ethnic groups in the border areas into compatriots in the Anti-Japanese War and how the appearance of the border cities is presented in their works;after west Yunnan-Myanmar and west Yunnan-Vietnam borderland are integrated into the identity of modern China,problems can also be found in the borderland when considering the significance of the borderland in the formation of the modern nation state in Anti-Japanese War.Coming to the border areas from inner land or central places,all these travelers,investigators,take the initiative to understand Yunnan Province from the perspective of“outsiders”.Then how the native writers living in these marginal areas respond to the time and probe into the relationship between the marginal areas inhabited by these writers and modern nation state,which is left for the exploration in the second chapter.Together with the first chapter and the second chapter,this offers an inside-outside perspective to observe and write the border areas.As the “culture holders”,these writers from the border areas in Yunnan Province regard the Anti-Japanese War as an important factor to enhance the role of the border regions and strengthen the ethnic groups’ national identity in the border regions and “introduce” through the media of writings full of strong local color the impact of war on the border regions to the world.By seeking the truth from the actual facts on the spot,these writers unveil the vague veil of the alienated borderland peoples,dig out the historical pain hidden in the West Yunnan-Burma border regions and think about the relationship between the frontier and the country.By selecting the representative writers of different regions focusing on the writings of the Anti-Japanese War in West Yunnan Province and Myanmar,the author intends to explain the frontier writers’ concept of the state from the perspective of highlighting the “locality”.The third chapter probes into the relationship between modern nation state and violence through the image of “borderland in war” constructed by expeditionary soldiers and journalists accompanying the army.These soldiers and journalists write down what they see and feel on the Yunnan-Burma battlefield in their round expedition either from setting out for battle to going to the forefront or from the retreat after the defeat in the first Anti-Japanese War in Burma to the triumphant return from the second counterattack.Originated from the battlefield and from the fighting or observing in the forefront,these works present the truest life experience and the most intuitive expression of the war.Acting as the narrators,these soldiers present in empathy not only the common destiny shared by all fellow compatriots in the Anti-Japanese War but also the special mission as soldiers to safeguard the country,thus presenting a real and complex situation of the in-war borderland in their works.All the feelings such as excitement at the departure for war,anxiety with the retreat and pride in triumphant return manifested in these works offer a different viewing perspective for the borderland areas of West Yunnan Province and Myanmar,thus we can think about how these soldiers and journalists as defenders view the war and the borderland areas.In the construction of the image of “borderland China”,the three types of observing subjects’ writing of Yunnan-Burma Road,China-India Road and Savage Mountain is verydistinctive.As the modern transportation system in the Anti-Japanese War,Yunnan-Burma Road and China-India Road not only connect closely the border regions of Yunnan province with the central parts of China but also act as gateways for the border regions to the world.The relevant writings centered on Yunnan-Burma Road not only emphasize that this modern road will bring a great “leap to the new century” to the border regions of Yunnan Province and Myanmar but also praise its strong cohesion,thus making the “isolated regions” on the original map much closer to each other.Writings on China-India Road are divided mainly into two parts: one is the descriptions made by the members of the survey team of China-India Road in 1941,which is in-the-center people’s active understanding of the ethnic groups along the line,another is the writings made by the journalists accompanying the troops and Chinese army in India,which are mainly the witnesses’ praise of the modern projects.Modern intellectuals’ investigations on the battlefield and soldiers’ experience of life and death make Savage Mountain a place through which people can think about the relationship between borderland and country,and frontier and border.Taking this as a case study,chapter four offers an interpretation of the sense of national community illustrated in the relevant works concerning the two international roads stretching to India and Myanmar on the map.What is identified by these travelers,investigators,expeditionary soldiers,journalists accompanying the army and writers from the border areas in Yunnan Province as a country is a modern China with a long history of empire and limited state patterns.In order to construct a modern nation-state community during the Anti-Japanese War,they transform their“imaginary” object into a perceptual object closely related to each other and create in the writings of what they experience and see an identity basis and a cultural identity space for the common historical memories shared by people from the border regions and the inland areas.We can conclude on the basis of the long-formed historical and cultural community,a self-evident “country”,that the Anti-Japanese War in West Yunnan and Myanmar advances the process of the integration of the border regions in Yunnan Province into “modern China”.