탈혁명시대 중국 항미원조 기억 서사의 난처함― 영화 「나의 전쟁」을 둘러싼 논쟁을 중심으로

Abstract

With the slogan of “Resisting the United States, Assisting the North Korea and Protecting our motherland”, China sent a Chinese People’s Volunteer Army and formally joined the war on October 19, 1950. For China, this war was not only the national defense war after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, but also a concept war that realizes the spirit of the proletarian internationalism. As a means of soft propaganda and of cultural approach, the literary narrative, whose dominant idea and core theme was “Resisting the United States, Assisting the North Korea and Protecting motherland”, representing the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's revolutionary heroism, patriotism and internationalism, was in the category of socialist literature. There is certain isomorphism between the idea of the war and the two historic missions – “to strengthen China” and “to revolutionize China” – that China shouldered in the Mao era. Since 1990s, the socialist revolution has faded and China's economic reform has begun, it has become inevitable to establish a new narrative that can contain the main melody of China. At this time, the new meaning of “Other” (the U.S. Army, South Korea and North Korea) who complete “self-image” is a very important and key issue. However, the enemy of ideology in the past (the U.S. Army, South Korea) are now closely related to China's regional, political and economic interests. North Korea who was an ally, can no longger be called a “class brothers” either. So, the division of the enemy, which can not be divided into ideologies as in the past, adds to the difficulty of establishing a new narrative. In this situation, the year 2016 has become a turning point in popular writing about War to Resist America and Assist Korea’s history. But contrary to expectation, the film failed at the box office and a pre-release trailer summoned the forgotten War to Resist America and Assist Korea into the public’s sight at once. Even the controversy over the Internet about a trailer has widened to political and military areas, including the legitimacy of this war and the view of war in China. This paper begins by capturing the controversy surrounding the film as cultural signs which show the difficulty of new narrative about War to Resist America and Assist Korea in post- revolutionary China. I judged that the ultimate cause of this problem was the failure of Other’s reasonable interpretation in this war. Based on the above critical thinking, this article deals with the film and the controversy surrounding the trailer. In doing so, we will consider China's desire and difficulties reflected in this narrative. However, the memory of this war will continue to serve as a catalyst for China’s nationalism in ‘The Rise of the Great Nations’. And this film will be an important starting point for the upcoming attempts. Whether it is anti-U.S. or pro-North Korea, it needs to pay close attention, the Chinese government how to convey appropriate political messages and lead the people’s unity through its memories of the war.