Thanks for this. As I watched the parade on television here in Beijing, I was also on Twitter and watching my Weixin thread, comparing the commentary from my non-Chinese friends, many of whom work in the media for major publications, and my Chinese friends. Two things struck me: One, that many of my Chinese friends (as well as friends of my wife, who unlike me grew up in Beijing) had been quite cynical in the lead-up to the parade, and yet I saw very little of that same cynicism expressed during the parade itself. Instead there was unmistakable, and clearly quite heartfelt, pride. We also saw many of our friends sharing pictures of their grandparents and other older relatives; my wife’s maternal grandfather, now in his mid-90s, wore his medals and we shared photos of him too.

The other thing that struck me of course was the disconnect between this and the sneering that prevailed among non-Chinese people watching and commenting on Twitter.

I’m not wholly unsympathetic with those who were sneering: I think it’s fair to say that most of those who were sneering would have done the same were they to have witnessed a military parade with formations of goose-stepping soldiers in their home countries.

But as you rightly point out, your attitude toward the military might be quite different if your country had experienced invasion and suffered incredible cruelty and atrocity. Indeed as someone born in the US myself, I’m very disturbed by flag-waving jingoism and unreflective support for the American military when I see it at home — but in a Chinese context, as someone whose father grew up in wartime Chongqing, running into bomb shelters almost every night in his childhood with his younger brother on his back and his father’s precious manuscripts in his arms, I can also very much understand how much historical context matters.

There’s been a lot of criticism about Beijing’s manipulation of the victimization narrative, and I do think that some of it is valid. The facts of what happened during the Japanese invasion are in some sense objective truths, and yet the way that they’ve been interpreted has changed as relations with Japan, with the United States, with Taiwan, and with various claimants to the reefs and shoals of the South China Sea. Feelings about the century of humiliation have an essential validity, and result in some sense organically. And yet it disturbs me how the intensity of those feelings can be manipulated.

Yours is a very useful perspective, but as I’m sure you well know, there are many other perspectives on what the parade meant. It’s important for people to recognize how the majority (I think it’s safe to say) of Chinese viewed this, but I don’t think that invalidates all the other views.

Thanks again for sharing this. I’m looking forward to reading more of your writing.