Old wounds

Jiawu－Observations of the Western Press 120 Years Ago By: Wanguo Baoguan Publisher: Sanlian Joint Publishing Bookstore Year published: 2014 Price: 68 yuan Pages: 339

A new book based on Western media's coverage of the Battle of Jiawu sheds light on the anti-China feelings that many sought to promote. Xing Yi reports.

As the Chinese traditionally record history in cycles of 60 years, 2014 is of significance because it marks the 120th anniversary of the First Sino-Japanese War, known as the Battle of Jiawu in China.

Dozens of books have been published on the subject.

Written by Chinese scholars, novelists and military officials, these books provide analyses of the defeat of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) from a Chinese perspective. But Jiawu - Observations of the Western Press 120 Years Ago, published by Sanlian Joint Publishing Bookstore, has chosen an unusual angle, presenting the war as reported by Western newspapers.

The book translated more than 300 war-related news items, most of which were printed in 1894-95, from publications such as the now defunct European newspapers The Illustrated London News and Le Petit Journal, and Harper's Weekly of the United States.

Since most of the reports from which the book is drawn were either accompanied by pictures or were photo essays, the book gives readers a vivid picture of how the Western media presented the war to the world.

"We were surprised to discover the great interest in the West about the war, and how differently they saw it," says Tian Tong, a Beijing-based journalist and one of the book's main editors.

"In China, the Battle of Jiawu is considered an invasion. Yet little sympathy was found in those stories and pictures. Instead, China was portrayed as a closed state, with its people xenophobic and its officials overly bureaucratic. Japan was shown to be a more civilized country - strong in their military and caring of their soldiers."

The war was fought at sea, and the newspapers had engaged in a public perception battle to present their own versions of it to Western readers.