Changchun City Cultural Plaza and the Eight Great Leaders of Weiman
🇨🇳 Day 20 of the Northeast-North China Tour
🗓 2025.01.27
Walking south across the Cultural Plaza in front of Jilin University, the plaza is one of the most visited places by Changchun citizens.
There are many buildings built in front of the plaza, but most of them are closed due to the Lunar New Year holiday, but the remaining one has been transformed into a general hospital and is open to the public.
■ The Story Behind the Manchukuo Buildings
: Looking at the Manchukuo-style buildings on the streets of Changchun, I recalled a conversation between Manchukuo writer Ko Ding (古丁) and a Japanese merchant. It was 1943, and Ko Ding said this to Ikeshima (池島), who later became the president of the Japanese literary company: "No matter how strong Japan is, it will not be able to take all the facilities here." After the 9.18 Incident, Japan occupied the entire northeast region in less than half a year. Then, it established the puppet emperor Puyi and established the Manchukuo. The buildings built during this period are the Manchukuo buildings, and Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo, was called Xinjing at the time and was the center of activity for the entire Manchukuo government.
"The large building top, the circular square, and the two rows of trees" are the characteristics of the buildings of the Manchukuo era. The Japanese invaders at that time wanted to make the entire Changchun a future key immigration city.
The Japanese had already firmly seized the right to build the Middle East Railway south of Changchun during the Russo-Japanese War. And they established the famous South Manchurian Company. Later, as the tsar collapsed, the Japanese gradually took over the rights to the entire Middle East Railway. At the same time, as Manchukuo was established, Changchun, which Japan had painstakingly managed, finally came to prominence. It can be said that the Japanese avoided Shenyang, the hometown of the Manchurian people, and Harbin, which had been managed by the Russians for a long time, and eventually made Changchun the new capital of the puppet regime.
■ Manchukuo buildings scattered throughout Changchun
Manchukuo buildings were gradually built under this historical background. Xinmin Street is the most representative site among the Changchun Manchukuo buildings. During the Manchukuo period, this place was called "Shuncheon Street." The locals call it "Eight Great Departments." In other words, during the Manchukuo period, there were eight major state agencies, such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of People's Livelihood, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These Eight Great Departments were all under the jurisdiction of the Manchukuo State Council. Standing on Xinmindae, looking at these buildings, most of them are a style that combines large roofs with Western-style architecture. This style is what architects call 'Manchurian style'. The characteristic of Manchurian style architecture is that it is a mixture of various architectural forms. Not only do they combine Chinese, Japanese, and Western architectural elements, some of them even have Korean and Manchu architectural styles. In fact, the reason Japan did this was to promote the idea of 'Greater East Asia Culture'. This 'Greater East Asia' culture is nothing more than a political slogan that was implemented under Japan's leadership to control the ruled. On the surface, it is to protect the interests of the people of Asian countries, but in reality, it is to guarantee Japan's interests as much as possible.
#China travel #Jilin Province #吉林省 #長春