Chinese movie ‘My War’ glorifies China’s participation in Korean War

“No one should infringe upon even a single inch of our territory. If anyone touches us, it will need to deeply reconsider.”

This reciting by a character in the movie ‘My War’ which China released on the Chinese Mid-autumn Festival (Chasee or Thanksgiving in Korea)’ on the Korean War graphically reveals distorted views of Chinese on the war of the time. Thesis also not in compliance with the historical fact that China was not invaded in the Korean War, the war broke out after North Korea invaded South Korea, and China only participated in the warfare to support the North.

A teaser for the 120-minute video, which describes friendship and love between members of the Chinese cultural propaganda troupe that took part in the Korean War, is also criticized as being ‘excessively instigating patriotism.’ The promotional clip, which was posted on the Chinese video sharing site Youku and other sites, includes a scene in which an elderly Chinese lady, who used to be a member of the troupe, states “We came here holding the Chinese flag’ in the past,” and “We did not need a passport, “while visiting Seoul for a tour.

In another scene, Chinese war veterans chant the war, saying, “We all participated in ‘the war to support (North) Korea and to protest the U.S. (the way China refers to the Korean War)’ after writing in blood, and won the war even without weapons in our hands, which was impossible to win. Let’s protect our family and defend our nation.”

The Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post introduced the criticism suggesting “It seems that we don’t have a bottom line in promoting patriotism,” which Prof. Lin Qi of Harbin Normal University uploaded on Weibo. “Veteran actors who appear in the promotional video are joyfully telling history that was disastrous to South Korea,” the professor said. “What would you feel if elderly Japanese group tourists come to Nanjing and say that they had visited the city during the Nanjing Massacre holding the Flag of the Rising Sun?”

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Zhao Hu, a Beijing-based lawyer, questioned “We can see a nation has been divided into the North and the South, and countless Chinese died while benefiting three generations of family in North Korea. Are we still proud of that?”

As controversy escalated, Kong director Oxide Pang said in Weibo, “The video and the teaser are not related each other,” adding, “The movie describes complex emotions that human beings feel amid atrocity of the war, separation, and reunions.”

베이징=구자룡특파원 bonhong@donga.com