Japanese Devils and American Wolves: Chinese Communist Songs from the War of Liberation and the Korean War

This article analyzes anti-American songs from China's protean mobilization for the Korean War. After constructing the historical context of Maoist attitudes toward music and exploring Japan's role as an idee fixe for Chinese song, the article arrives at the Korean War via an analysis of song tunes and texts from the Chinese home front in 1950, emphasizing the role of wolf and devil imagery in anti-American song propaganda. From student amateurs to the conservatory administrator Ma Ke, song composers under communist rule used music and lyrics to drape China's new American enemies in the garb of past Japanese foes, suggesting that Chinese songs from the Korean War extend beyond buoyant patriotism, evoking past traumas and prefiguring the animistic fury of the Cultural Revolution.