Paradise of adventurers

Episode number 1 of Series “China Rising”.
A two part program that details the history of China in tumultuous stages of its history from the 1920s through to the 1940s, seen through the eyes of the people living in Shanghai. Part one opens with Shanghai in the 1920s, a centre of foreign trade and colonialist occupation by the English and Japanese, disjointed rule of the country at the hands of warlords and the beginning of a concerted Nationalist and unification movement under the direction of Chiang Kai-Shek. The program discusses Chiang Kai-Shek and his KMT troops as they battled and defeated the warlords across China to unify the country under a Nationalist flag and outlines the growing opposition to foreign ownership and occupation and a reign of terror against them that also included those who had been made wealthy from foreign trade and saw an influx of these people to the International settlement in the relative safety of Shang-hai. The explosive Nationalist atmosphere of the time is also depicted through coverage of the “White Terror” which resulted in the execution of thousands of suspected communists in the country as the definitive drive for national unification increased. Part two discusses Shanghai under Nationalist rule where the left movement still thrived but under careful auspices of representing Nationalist ideals and where the strength of Japan as a ruler over China’s economy became ever more pointed in the puppet government of the Last Emperor and the Japanese invasion of Shang-hai in 1932. The program then outlines the subsequent humiliation of a truce with Japan and the rise to power in Northern China of the powerful son of a warlord that aligned himself with Chiang Kai-Shek and heightened the Nationalist’s campaigning and instigated an attempt to oust Japan which eventually consumed the country in a 12 year war with Japan which failed for the Nationalists but became a foundation for a rising tide of Communism. This comphrehensive documentary uses rare archival footage, interviews with the chinese and ex-patriot people of the time and coverage of the impact of this stage in China’s history on contemporary China and Taiwan to tell the story of this complex period of 20th century Chinese history. Includes Teachers notes.