To the Chinese public, the Korean war is an easily grasped symbol
lot for Americans to dislike in the Chinese propaganda film “Shangganling”. It is based on a real battle in late 1952, during which American and South Korean forces failed to take a mountain ridge from more lightly armed Chinese troops, who suffered terrible casualties. The weeks-long campaign came near the end of the Korean war of 1950-53, which began when the Stalinist regime of Kim Il Sung invaded the pro-American south and which eventually drew in millions of Chinese andforces.
, signifying that “even if we go head-to-head with the Americans we should not be afraid. We can take them,” says the best-known Chinese historian of that conflict, Shen Zhihua. He hopes that China’s negotiators are signalling toughness to the public in order to leave themselves wriggle room in talks with America.
Propaganda should not be confused with history, the professor says, drawing deeply on a cigarette in his office at East China Normal University in a suburb of Shanghai. Chinese academics know about the “huge price” that China paid for a war that ended where it started, with Korea divided along the 38th parallel. Early Communist leaders “knew in their hearts” what happened, too. He is less sure that today’s still do.
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