The Latest Chinese WWII Blockbusters Remind Us to See History and the Present in Nuance

After years of popular films that portray Chinese patriotism in contemporary settings, China's film-makers finally turned back to the past, namely World War II, for more inspiration. Two recent films, Dead to Rights (南京照相馆) and 731, respectively depicting the plight of Chinese civilians during the Nanjing Massacre and the biological weapons experiments in Northeastern China, hit theaters. It is a rather opportune time for the pivot. The Chinese government had just concluded a massive military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, reminding people to not forget a painful past.

Unsurprisingly, commentators are already speculating on the impact of these movies on ever-rocky Sino-Japanese relations. As the global trade war rages on and both export-dependent economies are faced with constrained access to the American market, the times call for calm that can ensure commercial transactions stabilize. On the Japanese side, increasing dependence and Chinese tourism, labor, and even technology makes it difficult for open criticism. On the Chinese side, high unemployment rates and depressed consumer confidence require access to more friendly overseas markets for manufactured goods.

Beyond economics, any heightened Sino-Japanese tensions may sway the unstable Japanese political scene. With Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba tendering his resignation amidst his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s inability to fend off challenges from the right-wing, the country's ruling party needs to make a choice: to join forces with the right-wing or to double down on its decades-old reputation as a big-tent party that preaches moderation in the face of political and economic crises. With the country's electorate already evolving due to increased anti-immigrant sentiment, the room for moderation is narrowing.

Movies that depict Japan in a negative light certainly would not help. The ruling party's right wing, led by Sanae Takaichi, has already found common ground with populist right-wing opposition parties such as the Sanseito and the Japan Innovation Party in restricting immigration and portraying foreigners as a potential security threat. With the LDP having lost the majority in both houses of the Japanese legislature, whoever leads the party next will need to heed the opinions of these increasingly popular alternatives to prevent further hemorrhaging of supporters.

And that the right-wingers reserve particular vitriol for the Chinese is well-known and well-established. Even without considering the action of the Chinese government or people in China, Japanese right-wingers have called for limits to Chinese presence in the country. Blaming the Chinese for everything from crime to driving up living costs has become a shorthand for the harms of mass immigration. The fact that the Chinese are seen as brainwashed in their anti-Japanese sentiments only strengthens the additional argument that their mere physical presence is harmful to Japanese society.

Yet, a closer examination of Dead to Rights and 731 shows that there is a need to see past those stereotypes and biases. Both movies have Japanese actors who are portrayed as reluctant participants in the atrocities they were ordered to undertake. And both try to go beyond the simple formula of "Chinese = good, Japanese = evil" that has been the main message of the many historical dramas depicting World War II in the past. Auch nuance may be lost to casual commentators and viewers, but should inform the two countries' and people's relationship moving forward.

The nuance is particularly important now, as a new generation of Chinese immigrants set off for Japan, seeking jobs, affordability, and freedom of speech. A new, albeit small, generation of kids with mixed Chinese and Japanese heritages is being born, not just witnessing by living and embodying these political and racial tensions. It may be an exaggeration to say that the two countries' destinies are intertwined, but it is not at all a hyperbole to say that, for some individuals, they have no choice but to spend a lifetime straddling these conflicts and contradictions.

Of course, we cannot expect xenophobia to be toned down among those who espouse it. The xenophobes live in their echo chambers, comfortable in one-sided communities where similar views validated themselves through repetition, while dissent is construed as unpatriotic. In such a reality, it becomes even more important for those who are still able to see past the black and white, the right and left, this country and that country, to not fall into the traps of we versus them. Only then do we have any hope of each country not just becoming an ethnocentric bastion where "the other" is utterly intolerated.