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CHINA THE FORGOTTEN ALLY IN WORLD WAR II
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“I wanted it to be manageable. Books of more than 500 pages tend to be respected rather than read. I wanted it to read as a story with characters,” he says.
With any history of this conflict, one wants to know how it treats the Massacre of Nanjing, where thousands of women were raped and many innocent Chinese civilians gruesomely slaughtered in what many see as a uniquely evil incident.
Mitter, who deals with it in a single chapter, makes clear it was a tragic episode. “In the crucible of total war soldiers behave very badly... Nanjing needs to be seen in its own terms.”
“I don’t think it is useful to have a ladder of comparative atrocity.”
Mitter, a fluent Chinese speaker, says a risk for historians is getting diverted by the blood and gore of this conflict.
“I had had too many Japanese atrocities in the original version. The editors told me that to tell two of them in a detailed way was a better way of making your point than to have, say, seven,” he says.
The book sets the war in historical context and how before the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Japan was seen as a beacon of development in Asia and a place where a number of China’s eventual war leaders, including Chiang himself, had studied.
“Japan can be seen as a monster and invader but had actually been a mentor for China. Unlike China, Japan had modernized and learnt fast that it needed to have a strong tried out their mixed basket and full English breakfast, with Eggs Benedict, coffee and black pudding, and spent 70 pounds ($107), although “it was too much to finish”.
After that, he visited Borough Market and Billingsgate Market, bought seafood there and took some home to cook himself.
“I used smoked mackerel to make a sandwich,” he says.
At a soccer game, he watched Arsenal play and enjoyed a pie at Piebery Corner, where the pastries are named after famous soccer stars.
He also went for afternoon tea, and for a beer at a pub while watching the Premier league on TV.
“I believe to improve food here in the restaurant, it has to be based on a good understanding of local life,” he says. “I feel I’m more integrated into British culture after the trip.”
For the last breakfast of the nine-day tour, he made a traditional English sandwich with bacon, mustard and cheddar cheese.
“Local English dishes emphasize freshness and flavors using local ingredients,” Liu says.
“Another important characteristic is the big variety of ingredients.”
When he returned to Beijing, the chef pondered how he was going to make British food.
“Some things you cannot change, like Cheddar, Stilton cheese, and important seasoning such as malt vinegar,” he says. “But that doesn’t stop me from using fresh local ingredients.”
For example, he makes a salty beef sandwich with Beijing’s famous Muslim beef producer Yueshengzhai. But he still uses rye bread, mustard mayonnaise
OXFORD HISTORIAN DRAWS ON NEW MATERIAL TO TALK ABOUT ONE OF THE GREAT UNTOLD STORIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY and developed economy,” he says.
Although Japan was a more advanced country, it would be wrong to conclude the Chinese army was second rate. Some 30,000 of its officers had been trained by the German generals Hans von Seekt and Alexander von Falkenhausen and the resistance they provided helped deny Japan victory.
“There was a certain group of Chinese troops that were very well trained and this has been a discovery over the past 10 to 15 years by both Chinese and Western historians.”
The game plan for China was to avoid defeat until they got international help, which came in the not so harmonious form of the Americans led by General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell after Pearl Harbor.
“There is a very close link between the toxic relationship that grew between China and America and the failure to understand each other in the war years,” he says.
Mitter says the war clearly still has legacies — China’s permanent membership of the United Nations for one — and also on Sino-Japanese relations.
“There is something in the (Chinese) public culture that argues Japan has not properly atoned for the war and it remains a running sore, particularly in sensitive places like Chongqing and Nanjing. I think both sides still need to understand more about the history,” he says. and gherkins.
He says Gordon Ramsay, the three-Michelin-star chef in London, uses local cheeses, herbs and vegetables, but prepares them in a French style, thereby enhancing British cuisine.
“That’s the direction we are going — local ingredients prepared in a British style,” he says.
For example, the fish and chips comes with the three traditional elements — tartare sauce, malt vinegar and mashed peas.
But there are balsamic flakes on the batter on the fish has dark beer in it.
“You need to stick to tradition, but put in local ingredients, and introduce the chef ’s own research,” he says.
He uses codfish and traditional chips, because he thinks they taste better. “Britain is a diversified country. You can find a mixture of French, Italian and Spanish food there, besides the best Indian food outside India,” he says.
He also uses wagyu beef for the Sunday roast beef, and Guinness stout to prepare lamb shank. Apart from these, he recommends the lunch set menu that costs just 118 yuan for two courses, and suckling pig with high-quality pork from Guangdong. His apple raisin crumble and Eton mess are among the best desserts in the city.
Presently his customers are half Chinese, half expats.
“My aim is to make foreigners feel the food is authentic, and make Chinese people think it is tasty and acceptable,” he says.
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Contact the writer at yejun@chinadaily.com.cn.