This collection reveals how, in Manchukuo (1932-1945), literature both furthered national aims while contesting them, as writers of varied ethnicities engaged in multivalent strategies to continue cultural production amidst difficult political circumstances. Studies of their work by transnational scholars today demonstrate that these writers faced factors influencing outcomes of their production, such as censorship, the Japanese puppet regime's propaganda aims, and even the market. In addition, particular hybrid language practices emerged, with writers engaging in transnational practices in a ... More

This collection reveals how, in Manchukuo (1932-1945), literature both furthered national aims while contesting them, as writers of varied ethnicities engaged in multivalent strategies to continue cultural production amidst difficult political circumstances. Studies of their work by transnational scholars today demonstrate that these writers faced factors influencing outcomes of their production, such as censorship, the Japanese puppet regime's propaganda aims, and even the market. In addition, particular hybrid language practices emerged, with writers engaging in transnational practices in a border region. This volume examines what we call "Manchukuo perspectives" unique to cultural producers in a state transformed by Japanese interests, but later shaped by more inclusive multivalent aims, reflected in the writings of Chinese, Korean, and Russian intellectuals who felt a keen loss of nation, which also included Japanese converted leftists who transformed their antipathy towards imperialist capitalism into support for a fascist state offering the utopian promises of a "right-wing proletarianism".