Faces of China

One of the biggest differences between Western and Chinese culture is the role one plays in society. It is hard to explain this in a single article, but in short you could say that we in the west live for ourselves and the Chinese live for their country. They are born with the mentality that stems from the Confucianist school of thought. The highest goal in life is to serve the state. This helps to explain how they built the Great Wall, or how they managed to build the biggest dam in the world in Sanxia (the Three Gorges Dam). You can safely say that the position in society of a Chinese man is not the same as the position of a Dutch man. It seems as if in China, you are born for a greater cause, and you die for a greater cause. You can find everyday examples of this on the streets of Beijing. You can recognize it in some of the policies of the Chairman. Most foreigners use this sociological fact to underline their statement that individuality doesn’t exist in China. In some cases, like the enormous Museum for the Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing (Jiangsu Province) it makes us wonder how we will ever be able to understand this country.

The Nanjing Massacre is a curious event in the Sino-Japanese War. After weeks of warfare the Japanese, with a much more advanced and stronger military, still had not succeeded in completely taking control of China. Out of pure frustration, or so history tells us, they released their anger on the innocent civilians of Nanjing. They raped, killed, burned and slaughtered everything that crossed their path. After three weeks of rage, 300,000 people were left murdered and raped (hence the term “the Rape of Nanjing”). The events that took place in the first months of 1938 still influence the diplomatic relations between China and Japan. There are still many in China who detest the Japanese, especially the older generations. China is seeing a wave of fresh nationalism, or even patriotism, and the most nationalistic thing to say right now is: we will eat the Japanese when we have the chance. The government uses this anti-Japanese sentiment just like they have been doing for decades. When you visit the Massacre Memorial you will see why.

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum is the biggest museum I have seen in China. Over the past few years it has been completely renovated. Visit the museum nowadays and you will spend a great part of the day in and around. The authorities have made sure that you will never forget a trip to this museum. When you arrive at the gates, you first see a formation of statues that show you what the victims looked like when they died. The statues depict dead bodies of women and children, naked young girls with ripped off body parts and old people dying in a pool of blood. The ‘poems’ written under each of the statues tell their stories. “Raped by the bloodsucking devils of Japanese destruction”, a typical poem starts, “she will never again be able to embrace her innocent child, lying cold and lifeless in the mud”. This is only the entrance. Inside you are offered a detailed explanation of what happened in those three weeks. Using video, photographs, computer animated images, objects, installations and archeological foundings, the museum offers a vivid account of one of the bloodiest pages of modern Chinese history. At the end of the tour one enters a huge square, with a monument that resembles the Statue of Liberty.

What strikes the visitor is not the aggression of the events themselves, but the aggression with which the Chinese tell this story to the new generation. The bloody accounts seem to reveal the real reason for making such an effort to remember this massacre. Because one thing is clear from the first moment one enters the museum. There is a purpose in all this: on the one side to remind people how bad the Japanese are, and on the other side and more importantly, to remind us how good this regime is.

Who saved China from feudal slavery? Who prevented China from falling in the hands of foreign imperialists? Who united the good willing people of this country? Who kicked out the Japanese? The Communists. From the early days of their rise they have been using these facts, twisting the history in the right direction, exploiting the historical coincidence that created the opportunity for them to seize power. In the last room of the museum in Nanjing, in every language you can think of, the Communist Party speaks to you. Concluding everything you just saw, like the great finale to an opera or the final blow in a boxing match, they explain what the meaning of all this is to us, the new generation. “To learn from the atrocities of the past, to work together to make sure that war will never happen again and to fulfill the dream of a harmonious democratic socialist state with Chinese features”. That last catch phrase, ‘democratic socialist state with Chinese features’, is something they always write. Every newspaper article, every speech by the chairman, it always refers to this ideal of communist China.

The 300, 000 victims are not all buried under that museum. They don’t have their own private grave. Most of them don’t even have a grave in their place of birth. What these people have become, after being raped and murdered by the Japanese, is a tool for CCP-rhetoric. Walking past the empty and nameless tombstones that are supposed to symbolize the numerous victims and increase the sense of tragedy, I felt that it was all just a little too much. The computer images are too colorful, the descriptions too violent, the accompanying music just a little too tasteless, and the sounds of people screaming and being tortured are just too absurd. The ‘Statue of Liberty’ with the permanently burning torches and the fresh flowers in front make this whole museum into what it really is, a confirmation that the Communist Party is the best thing that ever happened to China.

In a way, the victims of ‘Nanjing’ died for a greater cause. These people died for their country, and the regime celebrates them as patriotic heroes or as martyrs for the modern China. But the victims are celebrated because they were killed by the Japanese. They are not mourned because of their innocent death. I suppose this doesn’t strike the Chinese as strange, remarkable or even mildly offensive. It has always been like this. The Chinese who visit the museum are genuinely touched, angry and moved. People cry when they walk out. Even though I personally felt nauseous and disgusted by the cruelty on display, I knew why they cried and I understood them. The victims are heroes, they truly are. They are heroes who now make us understand the difference between good and bad. Their death hasn’t been in vain; their sufferings weren’t for nothing. They teach us a valuable lesson in Chinese history. It is just a pity that history is always written by the winners.

Thomas de Groot,
Beijing
2008