THE ENDURING LEGACY OF THE WAR OF JIAWU

摘要

In the harbor of Weihai, China, there is docked an unusual museum ship, the Dingyuan, built in 2005 as a re-creation of the flagship of the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang (Northern) Fleet. She is a popular tourist destination, resplendent in her livery of white and black and flying the yellow Imperial Dragon ensign. However, unlike the typical museum ship that preserves an actual historic vessel and commemorates some past naval glory, the Dingyuan is a faithful replica of a warship that had an ignominious career-defeated in battle and eventually meeting destruction at the hands of her own crew. Why would China go to the great expense of creating a monument to its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)? The answer is that the ship is not only a memorial to the brave sailors who fought and died in what the Chinese refer to as the "War of Jiawu." It has a political purpose as well: reminding the Chinese people of the inability of the Qing Dynasty to adapt to the modern world. Reminding them of when China depended on foreign nations to provide it with modern weapons and expertise, as those same nations intervened in Chinese affairs with impunity. Reminding them of the consequences of failing to resist Japanese aggression.