Ernst Cordes was a German journalist who covered China in the tumultuous period in the 1930's. This book is a travelogue detailing the important trip he made to Manchukuo after its formation in 1931 as a result of Japan's annexation of the three eastern provinces in China, namely Heilongjiang (黑龙江), Liaoning (辽宁) [Used to be named Fengtian, 奉天], and Jilin (吉林). This book was originally published in German in 1936 and the version reviewed here is a translation by Wang Ying Bin (王迎宪).Although the object of the author's trip was to interview the re-installed emperor, Pu Yi, the section that described that interview was very short, and likely because that was how the interview was. But the interview, while potentially able to provide a good historical record, would not provide readers with the rich account of China (not just Manchukuo) at that time. Fortunately for us, Cordes was conversant in Chinese and was therefore able to communicate with the many common man (老百姓) he met along the way. Add to that his keen sense of observation, and we have a book that is able to paint a most lively picture of what life was like in Manchukuo.
Manchukuo at that time was just going through a spate of construction and this one could easily get from the description provided by the author. The palace where he interviewed Pu Yi was none too grand compared to the Forbidden City the deposed emperor was more used to. More vivid was the 'chicken coop' where the immigration officer worked on the author's arrival. It was a temporary structure hastily constructed while the actual building was being built.
More interesting surely was his description and depiction of the people in Manchukuo. As it happened, Manchukuo was a rather cosmopolitan place. There were the Chinese aplenty, the Japanese predictably, and Russians, surprisingly. The Russians were mainly people who escaped the Russian Revolution and could no longer go back. Each of these races appeared to live separate lives and occupied different strata of the society.
The Japanese were an occupying power, despite all the political theatre of Manchukuo being an independent country, there was no question who was boss. The Japanese were by then a confident and powerful race. Unlike the Chinese, they did not treat Westerners with reverence, and perceiving themselves to be highly superior to the Chinese, they treated the Chinese like dirt. Throughout the book, there were examples of the Japanese's efficiency mixed with brutality. But they also had their quirks (like taking their pants down when they felt hot), but more importantly, their militarism, which even extended to the toys and military-themed candies meant for children.
The author's was at his best however, when he was talking about the Chinese. And if there was one word to describe Chinese live, it was cheap. First of all, then, as with half a century later, Chinese labour could be bought at rock-bottom prices. Already then, the author recognised that at those prices, no European country would be able to match the prices of products coming out of Manchukuo. Secondly, Chinese themselves would gladly give up their lives for a small price. The incredible example of how a general managed to stage a battle with live bullets and real people dying by just offering the winner $500 said it all, this was all done in the name of producing a documentary about the warlords fighting amongst themselves.
If that sounded unbelievable, the description of the everyday life of an average Chinese would substantiate that story. From his own accounts of how the Chinese labourers were treated, to the poverty he witnessed from how the Chinese had to sell their children, to how people were dying in the streets. His description of the filthy restaurant where he had a delicious dinner with the poorest of the Chinese would give one an idea of the general hygiene condition the Chinese put up with everyday.
The best account however, was his own encounter with the bandits who were trying to rob the train he was riding in. Soon after the bandits were repelled by the Japanese soldiers tasked to secure the train, the Chinese passengers seemed to be able to put the whole episode behind them so quickly that it appeared to never have happen (他们谈笑风生). The journalists would later report their disappointment when referring to the incident, saying that "only one baby was killed, everyone else was safe."
Interestingly, throughout the book there wasn't a mention of the Manchus, who were supposed to be of a different race from the Han Chinese. It could be that he could not tell the difference, or more likely, the Manchus had by then been assimilated into the Han race. The author himself made this comment about how Chinese culture is one that easy absorbs another and it appears that the Japanese are the only ones who knew it all along and had deliberately maintain a chasm between themselves and the Chinese. There were few inter-marriages and the few attempts from the more idealistic Japanese to see Chinese as the same (the tea-ist view) ended up in frustration more for the Japanese than the Chinese. If the author failed to discern between the Manchus and the Chinese, he was more than able to aptly describe the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese - 此黄非彼黄。(This yellow is not [the same as] that yellow.) He put it down to the races being 'fundamentally different' (本性差异). Indeed, the Japanese appeared to be a race that was determine to show the world that they were to be reckoned with. The Chinese, on the other hand, appeared to only base their existence on their 5000 years of history and was more than laid back about their lives. The Manchuria Incident (which precipitated the formation of Manchukuo and Japan's eventually withdrawal from the League of Nations) went unchallenged militarily for years. The Chinese themselves, while unhappy about the annexation, nevertheless appeared ambivalent about it (pg 123).
When this account was being written, there was still no agreement on who killed Zhang Zhuolin. Much would eventually happen in China. This book is by no means a scholastic account of China in the early 1930s, it is however a vivid account of what China was through the eyes of a very observant and interested journalist. Capturing a moment in China's history, he served Chinese history enthusiasts greatly by painting a picture of the life of an ordinary Chinese and was able to help one understand the events that would follow later.
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