The Invention of Revolutionary Cultural Workers in Wartime China, 1937-1945

My dissertation examines how literary and artistic experiments shaped the social relationships and the new culture of wartime China from 1937 to 1945. It investigates this problem by focusing on the making of cultural workers and, in particularly, the creation of cultural institutions that harnessed the creative power of social groups. Narrative experiments and cultural production proliferated in China during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). From the beginning of the war, many writers and artists sought to use cultural production to mobilize the populace in the rural areas of northern China. Engaging with a wide spectrum of individuals and social groups, they experimented with new cultural practices that transformed their own sentiments and actions, thereby inventing themselves as revolutionary cultural workers for the purpose of mobilizing the populace. Their experiments were not only radical attempts at creating the workforce for China’s revolutionary enterprise and should also be understood as part of a worldwide movement of democratic politics. My research shows how innovative narrative experiments intersected with popular spiritual empowerment, cultural transformation, and t