This study investigates the production, use and legacy of underground war tunnels in Jizhong Plain, China, a region of great military importance during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). Through spatial transformation and vernacular responses to crisis in the form of tunnelling, this study explores how conflict reshaped the everyday life as homes and the underground became entry points to resistance, and how local contexts and cultures were absorbed into the ideological frameworks that impacted historical progress. Designed, constructed and documented by soldiers and local civilians, extensive networks of tunnels were made with locally sourced materials and vernacular knowledge. They mirrored the spatial logic of overground villages and interconnected individual households and neighbouring villages. Initially functioning as shelters and escape routes, the design of tunnels evolved in response to the intensifying demands and complexities of the conflict, forming entrances hidden within homes, multi-level branches and defensive mechanisms that allowed soldiers and civilians to engage directly with invading forces. After serving a wartime purpose, the image and story of tunnels continued to mediate in popular culture across films, television shows, comic books and exhibitions that were widely consumed across generations of people, continuing to shape post-war memory and collective consciousness.

Amelie Yizhou Liu is a PhD candidate and first-year HTS Tutor at the AA and Content Writer at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). Amelie has taught seminars and workshops at the University of Toronto in Canada, where she holds a BA in Architectural Studies with a specialist in History and Theory of Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism. She also holds an MA in History and Critical Thinking from the AA. Amelie’s notable works include The New World exhibition and catalogue at the Guardian Art Centre in Beijing, the new ZHA website and Architecture of Possibility exhibition at MOCAUP in Shenzhen.