Research On Cultural Resistance In Manchukuo Literary Magazines

During the 1930 s, the Japanese invasion of China included aspects of military, politics, economy, and culture, forming a complex, multilayered system of invasion. Japan’s cultural aggression towards Northeast China was mainly reflected in its autocratic rule of northeast culture and in a cultural propaganda that worked in a high degree of concentration and monopoly. Because of Japan’s colonial rule and cultural oppression, Chinese literature and thought lost much freedom of expression.For Chinese nationalists, finding a way to keep alive the national spirit of China, with its national traditions and culture, became especially important, so an alternative form of communication developed through cultural resistance. Cultural resistance is one of the phenomena of alternative communication. Although children were encouraged to learn Japanese language and culture, some old people retained Chinese culture by teaching children to learn poetry, besides, some students boycotted Japanese language learning, and etc. Chinese people managed to do cultural resistance, using mass media to silently convey Chinese national culture and literature, with literary magazines being a very important form.The focus of this research will be on literary magazines in the puppet regime of Manchuria that managed to communicate Chinese nationalist content in spite of Japanese control. The research method is literature analysis. The introduction includes research background, significance of research, and research methods of expression. The second part examines the social and cultural situation of northeastern occupied areas in Manchuria, analyzing the meaning of cultural resistance in a social context and an interpretation of cultural policies during this period. The third part discusses the agenda, content, and development of literary magazines during the Manchuria period. The fourth part will analyze China’s cultural resistance against Japan, examining official journals and selection from the publications New Manchuria and Youth Culture as representative examples. The fifth part will continue this analysis of cultural resistance, this time examining unofficial journals such as Selected Works and Yi Wen Zhi as the representative. Finally, the conclusion will discuss the topic’s relevance for today, discussing how these literary journals created an alternative public sphere and demonstrated resistance against and subversion of ideological and cultural control, which can provide insights into those who conduct research in Manchuria today.