A Survey of Overseas Transmediation of Literature on the Chinese War of Resistance against Japan

Employing documentary research within an intercultural communication framework, this study systematically analyzes the historical trajectory, dissemination mechanisms, and contemporary challenges in the overseas transmediation of Chinese literature on the War of Resistance against Japan. Three critical findings emerge: First, a systemic cognitive bias persists in global WWII narratives, wherein Western academic works and textbooks consistently marginalize the strategic significance of the Chinese theater, epitomized by Basil H. Liddell Hart’s History of the Second World War, which dedicates a mere 3% of its content to China, thereby obscuring the historical reality of 35 million Chinese military and civilian casualties. Second, despite the establishment of a tripartite dissemination system (literary-media-commemorative), transmediation efforts exhibit three structural contradictions: the omission of rear-battlefield narratives (e.g., documentation of the Hundred Regiments Offensive), erasure of localized resistance experiences (e.g., guerrilla warfare in southern Jiangxi), and cultural discounting through unmediated translation (e.g., semantic dissipation in key terminology). Third, transmission efficacy is hindered by stratified accessibility barriers, academic translations are limited in their dissemination to the public domain and struggle to transcend professional circles. Meanwhile, Chinese film and television works, in terms of their overseas dissemination, have far less popularity and attention than Japanese works on World War II themes. To address these issues, we propose a three-pronged strategy: 1) Implementing tiered transmediation protocols for core versus vernacular texts; 2) Pioneering deep-translation technologies with contextual augmentation; 3) Forging digital dissemination nodes via UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme. These solutions aim to rectify China’s narrative fissures within the global anti-fascist mnemonic community, reclaim historical discursive power, and advance transcultural civilizational dialogue.