Why was a Holocaust with a death count of hundreds of thousands a forgotten one? And why is it being remembered now? While this subject has often been placed into the realm of political sentiment, at the heart of it is simply a matter of finding self-identity from the past.

China fifty years ago after the Holocaust was burdened by the toll that Qing dynasty decay, WWII, and a devastating civil war took on it, in no shape to ask for any sort of remembrance for the victims of the massacres. Also, unlike the Jews after World War II, China was communist and thus could not receive help in this matter from abroad. Thus fifty years passed while China tried to rebuild itself with far more pressing matters to think about than the past. Only the present and future mattered. However, recently China has gotten to a economic state where she has the luxury of remembering this forgotten Holocaust.

Recently a string of movies have been made about this subject; as the Chinese movie industry grows, more and more Chinese directors have wanted to tackle it. The newest is perhaps the most promising yet…Nanking! Nanking! by Lu Chuan, starring Liu Ye and Gao Yuanyuan.

Trailer for Nanking! Nanking! (opens this summer)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbjjPGULTfI]

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