Scholars' Blog

22 February 2014 The Documentary - BBC World Service
Haining Liu
By Haining Liu

Missing Histories: China and Japan - Part Two

  Listen in pop-out player - 55 minutes

They are Asia’s economic giants – yet the historical record of Japan and China continues to cause tensions. In part two, Japanese journalist Mariko Oi and Chinese journalist Haining Liu, travel around China, including the city of Nanjing, where Japanese forces committed rapes and mass killings during the war. They explore how events like these are remembered in modern China and ask why the young Chinese can consume Japanese pop culture while demonstrating against Japan’s historical record. But is China really ready to face up to its own history? The pair discover that, despite the deep cultural links between their nations, history remains a barrier.

This programme was broadcast on BBC World Service on 22 February 2014.