every day i die, usually more than once

70 drama series about the anti-Japanese war were screened in China last year. Not so much 'killing Kruger with your mouth' as 'killing Tojo and 700 million of his dwarf-like compatriots with your super CGI.'

Zhi Zhongpeng, a professional extra who has been working at Hengdian World Studios for more than 4 years, told in an interview that the role he got most is a Japanese soldier. In 2012, he played Japanese soldiers for more than 200 times in over 30 Sino-Japanese War themed TV dramas. In an extremely case, he, in the role of a Japanese soldier, “died” 8 times in a day...

...If the sheer number of such TV dramas is enough to raise eyebrows, the way in which Japanese soldiers and Chinese anti-Japan heroes are depicted is even worse. Many netizens thought that these TV shows are more like sci-fi dramas than war dramas – anti-Japan heroes are acting like Neo in the Matrix with the ability to dodge bullets and mastering Superman kung fu.

I wonder if all the funky stuff is to do with still not being able to portray the fact that most of the fighting in the war against Japan was done by KMT troops. And to make matters worse, not only did the wrong people do most of the fighting, most of the time they lost. 

Comments

[john malpas]

What war are you talking about?
Not the one in Burma, Iwo Jima , Guadacanal etc obviously.

[chris y]

Same war, but a lot of it happened in China. The Americans weren't directly involved in those bits.

[ajay]

Well, it obviously wasn't a real war then. No wonder poor John was so confused.

[Richard J]

Except for Chennault, the Burma Hump, etc. etc.

[Igor Belanov]

Whatever next! The Chinese will be claiming they started fighting the Japanese in 1937 or something ridiculous like that.

[ajay]

Oh, John will admit there may have been a bit of preliminary scuffling, but axiomatically it wasn't a war until December 1941. It was just, you know, tuning up.

[Chris Williams]

Actually, quite a lot of the war in Burma also involved Chinese troops.* But apart from that, yeah.

*I've just been reading Lewin's biography of Slim which is, frustratingly, probably the last big pre-Ultra WW2 book.

[ajay]

Actually, quite a lot of the war in Burma also involved Chinese troops.*

Quite a lot of the war effort. Rather less of the actual fighting, if I remember "Defeat Into Victory".

[Ben Leeson]

And while there's an endless supply of these historical dramas on the TV here, it seems the market really just wants a decent road movie / buddy film - and will actually pay cash money for it at the cinema!

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1127386/lost-thailand-redefines-mainland-audiences-tastes-films

[Laban]

I wonder how many films about fighting the Brits are made in India each year. My son visited Bombay and within 24 hours was wearing a red uniform as a Bollywood extra.