Imagining a common homeland: A study of Northeast landscape writing during the war of resistance against Japan

Abstract

China has undergone a transition from a dynastic state to a nation-state from modern times. The “dynastic realm” subsequently became “national territory,” and the subjects of dynastic rule also became members of the Chinese nation. Under the backdrop of both domestic and international hardships, border regions became spaces for the practice of nationalism. In particular, after the September 18 incident, Chinese people paid more attention to the Northeast. Intellectuals and political elites attempted to establish the notion of a unified nation-state to resist the Japanese imperialist invasion. By writing about natural landscapes with Northeast features, war-ravaged landscapes from the invasion, and landscapes on the lives of members of the nation, war of resistance songs and Northeast resistance literature established the boundaries between the Chinese nation and the “other” (invaders), and molded the northeast, a border region with diverse ethnic groups and culture into a part of the territory of the Chinese nation. Most writers of war of resistance songs like “On the Songhua River” (松花江上 Songhua jiang shang) were not from the Northeast, and their landscape writing was based on their imagination and perception of the Northeast. The landscape writing of Northeast exiled authors was based on memories of their “lost home.” The generation and transmission of this landscape writing itself constituted a part of the national imagination and identification.