
China’s Good War
How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.33
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Dennis Kleinman
-
By:
-
Rana Mitter
About this listen
Chinese leaders once tried to suppress memories of their nation’s brutal experience during World War II. Now they celebrate the “victory” - a key foundation of China’s rising nationalism.
For most of its history, the People’s Republic of China limited public discussion of the war against Japan. It was an experience of victimization - and one that saw Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek fighting for the same goals. But now, as China grows more powerful, the meaning of the war is changing. Rana Mitter argues that China’s reassessment of the World War II years is central to its newfound confidence abroad and to mounting nationalism at home.
China’s Good War begins with the academics who shepherded the once-taboo subject into wider discourse. Encouraged by reforms under Deng Xiaoping, they researched the Guomindang war effort, collaboration with the Japanese, and China’s role in forming the post-1945 global order. But interest in the war would not stay confined to scholarly journals. Today public sites of memory - including museums, movies and television shows, street art, popular writing, and social media - define the war as a founding myth for an ascendant China. Wartime China emerges as victor rather than victim.
The shifting story has nurtured a number of new views. One rehabilitates Chiang Kai-shek’s war efforts, minimizing the bloody conflicts between him and Mao and aiming to heal the wounds of the Cultural Revolution. Another narrative positions Beijing as creator and protector of the international order that emerged from the war - an order, China argues, under threat today largely from the United States. China’s radical reassessment of its collective memory of the war has created a new foundation for a people destined to shape the world.
©2020 Rana Mitter (P)2020 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Forgotten Ally
- China's World War II, 1937 - 1945
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.
-
-
Bland
- By Rodney on 01-23-14
By: Rana Mitter
-
Modern China (2nd Edition)
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China today is never out of the news: from international finance to human rights controversies, global coverage of its rising international presence, and the Chinese "economic miracle". It seems to be a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers the listener an entry to understanding the world's most populous nation, giving an integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics, and art.
By: Rana Mitter
-
Influence Empire
- The Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition
- By: Lulu Yilun Chen
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip, Lulu Yilum Chen
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2019, a Chinese entity called Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world's fifth-largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Valley: Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all.
-
-
Anti china sentiments
- By Anonymous User on 05-26-23
By: Lulu Yilun Chen
-
Bloodlands
- Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required listening for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
-
-
a warning for the future
- By judith on 11-06-19
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
-
-
Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
-
The New China Playbook
- Beyond Socialism and Capitalism
- By: Keyu Jin
- Narrated by: Jenapher Zheng
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding. Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist and a professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time.
-
-
Good content but missing important information
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-23
By: Keyu Jin
-
Forgotten Ally
- China's World War II, 1937 - 1945
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.
-
-
Bland
- By Rodney on 01-23-14
By: Rana Mitter
-
Modern China (2nd Edition)
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China today is never out of the news: from international finance to human rights controversies, global coverage of its rising international presence, and the Chinese "economic miracle". It seems to be a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers the listener an entry to understanding the world's most populous nation, giving an integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics, and art.
By: Rana Mitter
-
Influence Empire
- The Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition
- By: Lulu Yilun Chen
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip, Lulu Yilum Chen
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2019, a Chinese entity called Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world's fifth-largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Valley: Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all.
-
-
Anti china sentiments
- By Anonymous User on 05-26-23
By: Lulu Yilun Chen
-
Bloodlands
- Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required listening for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
-
-
a warning for the future
- By judith on 11-06-19
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
-
-
Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
-
The New China Playbook
- Beyond Socialism and Capitalism
- By: Keyu Jin
- Narrated by: Jenapher Zheng
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding. Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist and a professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time.
-
-
Good content but missing important information
- By Anonymous User on 07-03-23
By: Keyu Jin
-
Never Turn Back
- China and the Forbidden History of the 1980s
- By: Julian Gewirtz
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julian Gewirtz recovers the debates of the 1980s, tracing the Communist Party's diverse attitudes toward markets, state control, and sweeping technological change, as well as freewheeling public argument over political liberalization. After Tiananmen, however, Beijing systematically erased these discussions of alternative directions. Using newly available Chinese sources, Gewirtz details how the leadership purged the key reformist politician Zhao Ziyang and indoctrinated China and the international community in the new official narrative.
-
-
Last half is best
- By Banyan on 09-19-24
By: Julian Gewirtz
-
Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 29 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this Pulitzer Prize - winning biography, Barbara Tuchman explores American relations with China through the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed "Vinegar Joe", Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of the National Review, "one of the historian's most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story."
-
-
A period that directly affected our world today
- By Charlotte on 08-29-12
-
Party of One
- The Rise of Xi Jinping and China's Superpower Future
- By: Chun Han Wong
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the most admired reporters covering China today comes a vital new account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of the People’s Republic whose hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies. Party of One shatters the many myths that shroud one of the world’s most secretive political organizations and its leader. Many observers misread Xi during his early years in power, projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness, rule of law, and pro-market economics.
-
-
Impartial, we’ll researched and critical view that is hard to find
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-24
By: Chun Han Wong
-
A World Safe for Democracy
- Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order
- By: John Ikenberry
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 200 years, the grand project of liberal internationalism has been to build a world order that is open, loosely rules-based, and oriented toward progressive ideas. Today this project is in crisis, threatened from the outside by illiberal challengers and from the inside by nationalist-populist movements. This timely book offers the first full account of liberal internationalism’s long journey from its 19th-century roots to today’s fractured political moment.
By: John Ikenberry
-
Eat the Buddha
- Life and Death in a Tibetan Town
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the best-selling author of Nothing to Envy.
-
-
TIBET
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 08-24-21
By: Barbara Demick
-
China After Mao
- The Rise of a Superpower
- By: Frank Dikötter
- Narrated by: Daniel York Loh
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning historian Frank Dikötter explores how the People’s Republic of China was transformed from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today. His account is the first to be based on hundreds of previously unseen archival documents, from the secret minutes of top party meetings to confidential bank reports. Unfolding with great narrative sweep, this riveting, richly detailed chronicle recasts our understanding of an era that both the regime and foreign admirers celebrate as an economic miracle.
-
-
This guy's writing style is trash
- By L YS on 10-06-24
By: Frank Dikötter
-
Overreach
- How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise
- By: Susan L. Shirk
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three decades after Mao's death in 1976, China's leaders adopted a restrained approach to foreign policy. To facilitate the country's inexorable economic ascendance, and to prevent a backlash, they reassured the outside world of China's peaceful intentions. Then, as Susan Shirk shows, something changed. China went from fragile superpower to global heavyweight. Combining her decades of research and experience, Shirk, one of the world's most respected experts on Chinese politics, argues that we are now fully embroiled in a new cold war.
-
-
Performance is poor
- By Paul Reviewer on 01-28-24
By: Susan L. Shirk
-
Tower of Skulls
- A History of the Asia-Pacific War, Vol. 1 (July 1937 - May 1942)
- By: Richard B. Frank
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story casts penetrating light on how struggles in Europe and Asia merged into a tightly entwined global war. It features not just battles, but also the sweeping political, economic, and social effects of the war, and are graced with a rich tapestry of individual characters from top-tier political and military figures down to ordinary servicemen, as well as the accounts of civilians of all races and ages.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Patrick on 03-16-20
By: Richard B. Frank
-
The Tragedy of Liberation
- A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957
- By: Frank Dikotter
- Narrated by: Bruce Mann
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, after a bloody civil war, Mao hoisted the red flag over Beijing's Forbidden City, and the world watched as the Communist revolution began to wash away the old order. Due to the secrecy surrounding the country's records, little has been known before now about the eight years that followed, preceding the massive famine and Great Leap Forward. The Tragedy of Liberation bears witness to a shocking, largely untold history.
-
-
I don't believe this is read by a real person
- By Bjornie Herjolfson on 09-16-20
By: Frank Dikotter
-
The World According to China
- By: Elizabeth C. Economy
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An economic and military superpower with twenty percent of the world's population, China has the wherewithal to transform the international system. Xi Jinping's bold calls for China to "lead in the reform of the global governance system" suggest that he has just such an ambition. But how does he plan to realize it? And what does it mean for the rest of the world? In this compelling book, Elizabeth Economy reveals China's ambitious new strategy to reclaim the country's past glory and reshape the geostrategic landscape in dramatic new ways.
-
-
Excellent Book on China Expansionism
- By WLC on 08-19-22
-
China in the 21st Century, 3rd Edition
- What Everyone Needs to Know
- By: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fully revised and updated third edition, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to urgent questions regarding the world's newest superpower and offer a framework for understanding China's meteoric rise from developing country to superpower. Framing their answers through the historical legacies that largely define China's present-day trajectory, Wasserstrom and Cunningham introduce listeners to the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, and the environmental fallout of rapid Chinese industrialization.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 07-11-20
By: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, and others
-
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
- A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917--2017
- By: Rashid Khalidi
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Rashid Khalidi - introduction
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members - mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists - The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age.
-
-
Thoroughly Researched and Evidence-Based, but...
- By K on 05-24-21
By: Rashid Khalidi
What listeners say about China’s Good War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JIM CALLAHAN
- 06-24-22
Educational, informative and thought provoking
The book was very informative about China’s involvement in World War II and beyond. From a western perspective, my sense is we have seen Asia largely through our study of World War II from an American/Japanese perspective. Very thought-provoking in terms of national use of months history not to inform or educate but to indoctrinate.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam Burke
- 02-04-23
Incisive text undermined by fumbling performance
Rana Mitter is a modern historian and public intellectual, and you can often find him in venues like Sinica or In Our Time offering sharp, clear commentary on China's modern journey. This is the first book of his I've read, and I wasn't disappointed - in the text.
Unfortunately, the voice actor chosen for the performance systematically mispronounces every single Chinese name in the book. This includes people, places, films, and texts. There are many actors without this disability which should have been used instead. Though Chinese can be a difficult language to master, the basic pronunciation rules of pinyin are not. That is literally the first lesson of any intro Chinese course. Even Duolingo is right there, for free. As an encore, in a section on Chinese political memes, the actor even manages to mispronounce the Lord of the Rings character Gollum. He also has a self-important, stentorian tone somewhat at odds with the author's nimble analysis and occasional humoruous asides.
Read the book instead. For the next audiobook, Mitter should perform it himself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 09-12-23
Scholarly work
A very in depth look at China’s approach to its WWII and post WWII narrative. A must read for anyone who wants to understand China today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 09-29-20
Excellent
Very engaging book overall but you have to get past the first chapter which is a bit like a long lit review. Really picks up from there. Narrator was good except when pronouncing Chinese book titles.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
- J. Pietersen
- 07-22-22
Convincing
China is poorly understood by lay people, and judged by standards that shouldn't be applied to them, considering their very long and unique history. They deserve better respect.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Fred Lee
- 04-24-22
hire competent readers
try getting someone who can speak Chinese to read it, who cares if the reader has a posh accent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!