When I was an undergraduate student in Taiwan, I was surprised to learn that Father’s Day in Taiwan is actually on the 8th of August.
The number eight is pronounced as bā in Mandarin Chinese. 8/8 is pronounced bā – bā, close to the pronunciation of father – 爸爸 bàba.
Though Father’s Day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June in the mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, as in the USA and Britain, in Taiwan, Father’s Day on the 8th of August can be traced back to the end of the Second World War in China and is linked with Chinese patriotism.
© IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 5539)
Tens of thousands of lives were lost during the second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. To remember the sacrifice of the Chinese men who fought bitterly during the War of Resistance, after the war ended, in Shanghai, Chinese gentry proposed August 8 as Father’s Day and it was accepted.
Since then, 8th August is celebrated as Father’s Day in Taiwan, Republic of China.
While writing this post, I came across a book by Rana Mitter in Richard Overy’s review in the Guardian: China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival. This book seems substantial and is worth a read.
Like many wars, the Second Sino-Japanese War has many names. The Chinese call it the War of Resistance Against Japan or the Eight Years War of Resistance or the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese often call it the Japan-China War. In the early days they called it the North China Incident or a holy war. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they called it the Greater East Asia War. In the United States, it seems to me that the war in China is seldom mentioned or remembered. Sometimes we consider it as part of WWII or the War in the Pacific. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, 80% of the Imperial Japanese Army were in China.
Thank you Nicki for this great information. I also found it a shame that the war in China is not a main focus in the west. Many children are not even aware of the extent of the war in Asia. I hope we are able to be more open, so that children get to see a more comprehensive picture of WWII, and its impacts on many innocent people, from Europe to Asia.
Your novel Tiger Tail Soup is a novel of China at war, about love and resilience. I’m reading it and I’m already fascinated by the details and the way you tell the story. Wonderful!