- Convenors:
-
Igor Saveliev
(Nagoya University)
Joshua Lee Solomon (Hirosaki University)
JIACHENG DONG (Indiana University Bloomington)
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Sven Saaler
(Sophia University)
- Discussant:
-
Sven Saaler
(Sophia University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Interdisciplinary Section: Trans-Regional Studies (East/Northeast/Southeast Asia)
Short Abstract
This panel examines Manchuria in the early 20th century as a site of inter-imperial rivalry and interethnic interaction among Japanese, Chinese, Manchu, and Russian actors. The papers explore how everyday encounters, colonial spaces, and political reporting articulated the ambivalences of empire.
Long Abstract
The three papers in this interdisciplinary and trans-regional panel examine the history and literature of East and Northeast Asia with a focus on Northeast China (Manchuria) in the first half of the twentieth century. The papers address various dimensions of the multifaceted interactions among Japanese, Chinese, Manchu, and Russian people in Manchuria—a region that became a stage for inter-imperial rivalry and developed fragmented and uneven settlement patterns. While the region’s history has been extensively examined from the perspective of political and military confrontations among competing powers, this panel seeks to reframe its history and culture by focusing on the interactions and mutual influences among people of different cultural backgrounds. Rather than treating imperial power as a monolithic force, the panel highlights the ambivalences, contradictions, and pragmatic adaptations that characterized life and expression in Manchuria. The first paper examines Aoki Minoru’s “Manchu works” and Hinata Nobuo’s 1937 short story Train Junction No. 8. It argues that sympathetic portrayals of Chinese railway workers articulate the ambivalent politics of Manchukuo’s “multiethnic nation” ideology, depicting local Chinese caught between imperial transitions while maintaining deliberate ambiguity that both aligns with and subtly critiques Japanese colonial rule. The second paper analyzes migration and settlement in northern Manchuria from the late 1890s to the early 1920s. It argues that labor recruitment based on circular migration produced unstable demographic structures and uneven development, shaping colonial spaces marked by shifting Russian and Japanese influence and persistent local Chinese resistance to imperial railway expansion. The third paper examines Dagong Bao’s reporting on the 1931–1932 Japanese invasion of Manchuria in comparison with Shen Bao and Central Daily. It argues that Dagong Bao’s political stance was shaped less by moral commitments than by editorial pragmatism, reflecting efforts to navigate censorship, protect reputation, expand circulation, and signaling a broader turn toward politicization and state cooperation in Chinese journalism.
Key words: Manchuria, inter-imperial rivalry, inter-ethnic interactions, railroads, labor, Japanese literature, mass media
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This paper analyzes Hinata Nobuo's 1937 story, "Train Junction No. 8" and the politics of Manchukuo as a "multiethnic nation." Hinata grapples with the double-bind of local Chinese under the transition to Japanese rule by using strategic ambiguity to allow both nationalistic and subversive readings.
Paper long abstract
Writer and editor Aoki Minoru was a central figure of the Japanese-language Manchurian literary establishment, and influentially penned a series of short stories later dubbed "Manchu works" (Manjin mono). These works contained sympathetic portrayals of their continental subalterns in narratives mostly or completely absent of Japanese characters. Crucially, Aoki chose to write from the perspective of Chinese characters from all walks of life, rather than portraying Manchukuo from a Japanese point-of-view character's perspective. While Manchu works were not as popular as other genres of Japanese-language writing, some notable examples later appeared, including some from the less-prolific author Hinata Nobuo. Hinata's award-winning 1937 short story "Train Junction No. 8" engages directly with the complicated politics of Manchukuo as a "multiethnic nation" (fukugo minzoku kokka) by centering its plot around railway workers during the transition from Russian to Japanese ownership of the Hokutetsu railway line. Like Aoki, he writes from the perspective of Chinese railway workers and sympathetically portrays a versions of their lives under Japanese rule. He contextualizes these lifestyle changes in particular through very concrete examples of changes to the rhythms of the workers' lives, with an eye toward very practical matters concerning their diverse economic incentives and planning. These issues are crystallized through the contrasting reactions to the two central characters: one man endeavors to stay with the Japanese railway company while the other flees to the city to begin a Russian-style bakery. Throughout the narrative, rather than replicate staid narratives of railroad-driven modernization, Hinata grapples with the double-bind these Chinese were caught in as they struggled to quickly adapt to demands for Japanese language and work ethic. He does not shy away from describing the compounded pressures applied by the new railroad management, yet also paints a laudatory picture of the Japan-led advancements in continental transportation. In this way, Hinata's story maintains a careful ambiguity about its subjects, allowing it to be read in multiple ways, both aligning with the Japanese project in Manchuria and critiquing its implementation through an empathetic portrayal of its characters.
Paper short abstract
This paper argues that labor recruitment for railway construction in northern Manchuria fostered circular, short-term migration that created unstable settlement patterns and uneven development. While railways spurred population increase, these patterns partially hindered the long-term growth.
Paper long abstract
This paper examines the dynamics of migration and settlement in northern Manchuria between the late 1890s and early 1920s, catalyzed by the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). Drawing on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, it argues that the recruitment practices used to mobilize construction labor—characterized by circular and short-term migration—produced an unsustainable demographic structure that contributed to uneven regional development. Although railroad construction led to the emergence of new urban spaces and an overall increase in both the Chinese and Russian populations, these patterns partially hindered the long-term stabilization of the settler population and, in some ways, constrained economic growth until more substantial and permanent migration flows emerged in the 1920s.
Railroad construction and operation also engendered new colonial spaces that were alienated from Chinese territory and reorganized under colonial administration. The transfer of the CER’s southern branch to Japan in 1905 and the gradual expansion of Japanese influence over northern Manchuria after the Russian Revolution of 1917 heightened the differences in interethnic interactions and regional development between southern and northern Manchuria. The diverse and uneven patterns of settlement reveal the complexity of relations among various political forces and ethnic groups, as well as the resistance of local Chinese communities to oppression by imperial “developers” and railway constructors.
Paper short abstract
This paper juxtaposes how Dagong Bao (大公报) shaped its political reporting in response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (today’s Northeast China) from 1931 to early 1932. I argue that the Manchurian Incident marked beginning of Chinese newspapers' politicization and cooperation with the state.
Paper long abstract
This paper juxtaposes how Dagong Bao (大公报) shaped its political reporting in response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (today’s Northeast China) from 1931 to early 1932. In particular, I compare Dagong Bao’s political stance with those of Shen Bao (申报) and Central Daily (中央日报) to demonstrate the strategies it employs to adapt to the challenges posed by uncertain nationalist sentiment and the unpredictable political situation in China. This paper challenges the assumption made by some earlier studies that Dagong Bao editors’ moral and cultural commitments shape the newspaper’s political stance. I argue that Dagong Bao's political opinion was carefully crafted by a limited group of editors to serve the newspaper’s practical interests in coping with state censorship, avoiding reputational setbacks, and expanding its popularity and circulation. I also intend to demonstrate that the Manchurian Incident, along with a few subsequent political events, marked the beginning of Chinese newspapers’ turn toward politicization and cooperation with the state, a change that would have a profound impact on Chinese journalists’ self-identity throughout the twentieth century.