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When China’s War of Resistance against Japan began in July
1937, it sparked an immediate health crisis throughout China. In
the end, China not only survived the war but emerged from the
trauma with a more cohesive population.
Intimate Communities
argues that women who worked as military and civilian nurses,
doctors, and midwives during this turbulent period built the
national community, one relationship at a time. In a country with a
majority illiterate, agricultural population that could not relate
to urban elites’ conceptualization of nationalism, these
women used their work of healing to create emotional bonds with
soldiers and civilians from across the country. These bonds
transcended the divides of social class, region, gender, and
language.