The Soldier Image and State-Building in Modern China, 1924-1945

Abstract

Yan Xu’s book The Soldier Image and State-Building in Modern China, 1924–1945 focuses on the connection between soldiers, urban publics, and party governments of wartime China in an effort to provide a nuanced analysis of the complicated state-society relations. Xu structured this work in a way that united the chapters through the multiple soldier figures in China and the imagery cast upon them due to wars. Xu scrutinizes how political, social, and literary perspectives influenced the rhetoric and ideal of the soldier figure. Xu’s book works chronologically from the initial start-up of the prestigious Whampoa Military Academy in the 1920s, to the issue and revision of compulsory conscription laws in the 1930s, to the urban intellectuals and professionals serving and writing about the soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War, to the students conscripted into the army during the later years of the war. Xu integrates the party struggles into the analysis of wartime China by devoting the last chapter to the creation of the soldier image by the Chinese Communists. Xu highlights how crucial the construction of the discourse on the soldier image was to the state-building processes for both Chinese Nationalists and Communists. The Soldier Image and State-Building in Modern China, 1924–1945, fosters insight into the 1920s-40s of modern China that uncovers how war operates as a cultural event rather than simply one utilized for political strategy.