East Asian History NUMBER 30 . DECEMBER 2005 Institute of Advanced Studies The Australian National University Editor Geremie R. Barme Associate Editors Benjamin Penny Miriam Lang Business Manager Marion Weeks Editorial Board B0rge Bakken John Clark Louise Edwards Mark Elvin John Fitzgerald Colin Jeffcott Li Tana Kam Louie Lewis Mayo Gavan McCormack David Marr Tessa Morris-Suzuki Kenneth Wells Design and Production Oanh Collins, Marion Weeks, Maxine McArthur Printed by Goanna Print, Fyshwick, ACT This is the thiltieth issue of East Asian History, printed in February 2007, in the series previously entitled Papers on Fa r Eastern History. This externally refereed journal is published twice a year Contributions to The Editor, East Asian History Division of Pacific and Asian History Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Phone +61 26125 3140 Fax +61 26125 5525 Email [email protected] Subscription Enquiries to Subscriptions, East Asian History, at the above address, or to [email protected] Annual Subscription Australia A$50 (including GST) Overseas US$45 (GST free) (for two issues) ISSN 1036-6008 iii � CONTENTS 1 Manchuria as a Borderland: History, Culture and Identity in East Asia ShaoDan and Ronald Suleski 5 State Service, Lineage and Locality in Hulun Buir Christopher P. Atwood 23 Borderlanders Between Empire and Nation: Banner People in Early Twentieth-Century Manchuria ShaoDan 47 Inscribing Manchuria: Gender, Ideology and Popular Imagination Faye Yuan Kleeman 67 Reconstructing Life in the Youth Corps Camps of Manchuria, 1938-45: Resistance to Conformity Ronald Suleski 91 From Pusan to Fengtian: The Borderline Between Korea and Manchukuo in the 1930s Suk-Jung Han 107 Community and Identity in Northeast Asia: 1930s and Today Gavan McCormack iv Cover calligraphy Yan Zhenqing ��n�gRP,Tang calligrapher and statesman Cover illustration Takabatake Kash6, "My skin was like Jade when I left my country"; Yamauchi Hideo, young hero of the "Song of the Mounted Bandit." Reproduced with permission of Yayoi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Errata In recent issues Yan Zhenqing's ��YRP name was mistakenly given as �f&gRP due to a change of fonts. We apologise for this error. In the previous issue of East Asian History(No. 29), in the article "In Search of Smokers" by Xavier Paules, the caption on Figure 4, page 120, should read "Occupation of the population of Cantonese adult males in 1928." The editor and editorial board of East Asian History would like to acknowledge the contribution that two colleagues have made to the creation and evolution of our journal over the years. Professor Mark Elvin, who took up a position as Professor of Chinese History at The Australian National University in February 1990, was the inspiration behind and instigator of East Asian Historyin its present form. With his encouragement and support we redesigned Papers on Fa r Eastern Historyand re-launched it as East Asian Historyin 1991. Mark retired from the department in December 2005. Helen Lo, who began work with us in September 1987, was the designer and editorial assistant of East Asian Historyfrom its inception until her retirement in June 2005. She was the artist behind the style of the journal and her contribution is sorely missed. Lotus at the Garden of Perfect Brightness, Lois Co nner, 1998 BORDERLANDERS BETWEEN EMPIRE AND NATION: BANNER PEOPLE IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY MANCHURIA Shao Dan BHt I suggest that we gather banner people in the Eastern Provinces and give them military training. We should use the Eastern Provinces as a temporary place for our emperor to rest and for banner people to make a living. 1 Manchuria came to the world's attention in the early 1930s with debates This article is adapted from a chapter of between the governments of China and Japan over the legitimacy of Man­ my book manuscript, "Remote Homeland, choukuo.2 Interventions in newspapers and journals focussing on two Recovered Borderlands: Manchus, Man­ choukuo and Manchuria, 1909-1985." I major questions-did Manchuria belong to China in the past? and Could would like to thank the editors of East Asian China or Japan more authentically claim sovereignty in the present?­ History for the revisions of, and comments effectively recast these debates into the so-called "Manchuria Problem." on, this article. While the former question concerned the historical place of Manchuria in 1 "A petition to Zhao Erxun,1912," in ZhaoErx­ China, the latter addressed the authority of agents in nation-building and un Archives (1844-192 7), microfilm,no. 1 08, The First Historical Archives, Beijing. state-formation in the region. Similar questions continue to be posed in 2 relation to Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang; but today even the name "Man­ Such as F.M. (Frederic Morley) Cutlack, The *�t). Manchurian Arena: An Australian View of churia" has given way to "Northeast China" (Dongbei Indeed, the the Far-Eastern Conflict (Sydney: Angus & history of Manchuria as a contested borderland (bianjiang mB:) has Robertson, 1934); S. Dashinsky, Japan in received relatively little scholarly attention compared with Tibet and Xin­ Manchuria (New York: Workers Library jiang in "Borderland Studies" outside China, in all likelihood because Publishers, 1932); and John R. Stewart, Manchuria since 1931 (New York: Secre­ it has been more successfully integrated into the Chinese nation-state. tariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1936). Studies of the Manchurian region have been limited by an adherence Japanese writings such as travel accounts either to contemporary national borders or periodizations marked by and academic research about Manchuria pivotal dates in Chinese and Japanese history (1911, 1931/32 or 1945) or are numerous; see Joshua Fogel, The Litera­ ture of Travel in the Japanese RedisCOVery of both. In this way, the repositioning of Manchuria in the political mapping China, 1862-1945 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford of East Asia has been overlooked. This article will examine how Manchuria University Press, 1996). Regarding the trans­ became transformed from being the "remote homeland" of the Manchus literation of the name for the political /oVER 23 24 SHAO DAN /regime that lasted from 1932 to 1945 in Man­ to become a "contested borderland," how this process affected the experi­ churia: most scholars have used "Manchukuo" ence of the banner peoples, and how Manchu identity was reconfigured or "Manzhouguo" in recent publications. in the early twentieth century.3 I use "Manchoukuo" simply beecaue the Manchoukuo government claimed that the Manchu rulers treated Manchuria as the sacred homeland in their edicts, correct English name of their state was policies and literary works, and the region was still regarded in the early "Manchoukuo or the State of Manchuria" in twentieth century as a possible base for Manchu restoration and a place an officialstatement titled "Regarding Names" in Bulletin Extra (Manchoukuo Government of refuge for banner people (as indicated in the epigraph to this article). Department of Foreign Affairs, October 14, Manchuria's transformation from the legendaIY homelandof the Manchus 1932), Information Bulletin 1-50 (September to a historical borderland and then to an "inseparable" part of China's 1932-April 15, 1933): 113. national territOlY provides clear contrast to the model of a "homeland­ 3 It is necessary to briefly trace the history of borderland-bordered land" trajectoty often seen in theories of frontiers the banner system and Manchus in the Qing before further discussion of banner people, and borderlands. Such theories have been one of the major analytical tools qizu 1i1!�, and Manchus. It is difficult to in European and US histOlY, and they have had considerable influence give an accurate definitionof who constituted on studies of East Asia 4 Perspectives from so-called "minority popula­ an ethnic group in history and not only tions" whose homeland is redefined as a borderland in changed histori­ because ethnic boundaries are not fixed. cal settings require more scholarly attention. I will focus here on the Concrete questions concerning historical and taxonomic elements other than inter­ consequences of this homeland-borderland transformation as reflected in ethnic relations (and Manchu-Han relations peoples' experiences in and expressions of Manchuria. The Manchurian in particular) require particular examination case thus provides an opportunity for examining the importance of place when ethnicity as a primary analytical tool in relation to people's experiences during national and ethnic identity is applied to the studies of banner people. Pamela K. Crossley not only discusses the formation and transformation. use of ethnicity as an analytical tool and a Previous historical studies of China's transformation from an empire research subject in China studies but also to a modern state have provided insightful analyses of changes and con­ questions the historicity of using "ethnicity" tinuities in the economic political, militalY, legal, intellectual and cultural to study Manchu identity in the Qing , dynasty. See Pamela Crossley, "Thinking About spheres both at the centre and in local areas, and these works provide the 5 Ethnicity in Early Modern China," Late historical and theoretical foundations for the present study. The following Imperial China 11.1 Oune 1999): 1-35. Hong Taiji renamed the Jurchen tribes /historians of the late Qing, the question of land American history, such as Peter Salins' "Manju" (in Manchu) or "Manzhou" ClIMJ+1 who the Manchus are in contemporary times studies on the Pyrenean frontier of France and in Chinese) in 1635. Though Han and demands a closer examination of banner people Spain, Laszl6 Kurti's work on the contesta­ Mongolian banners came into being during the transitional years from the Qing to tion between Hungary and Rumania over the during the years 1635-42, "Manju" or the Republic of China. Transylvanian borderland, or the thought­ "Manzhou" usually referred to those regis­ 4 Turner's frontier theory was introduced provoking debates among US historians in the tered in Manchu banners.