Blanket Fort Radio Theater
THURSDAYS
SIU Press and WSIU present Blanket Fort Radio Theater, a project highlighting works published by SIU Press. This series includes work from students in the SIUC Creative Writing Program, who have taken SIU Press books and brought them to life. Join us each Thursday for a new installment of Blanket Fort Radio Theater.
Inside the Blanket Fort features special segments: Meet the producers, get previews and reviews of episodes, and get a special glimpse behind the blankets.
BFRT Collection
Latest Episodes
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Religious services are revived in Nanking, just in time for the residents of Ginling College to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Chinese civilians continue to register themselves with the Japanese army, under the impression that it will protect them. Meanwhile, the Chinese government begins bombing the city. Minnie finds comfort in religion, while Shui-fang struggles to see past the ongoing horrors. -
The registration of Chinese civilians continues as the first discussions of a postwar government take place. Japanese soldiers continue to block the entrances of the city and cut off communication. Meanwhile, the refugees at Ginling College do their best to celebrate the New Year.
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Two weeks after the invasion, the Japanese army begins its effort to register all refugees in an attempt to identify and capture Chinese soldiers. Refugee numbers at Ginling continue to shrink, but the fires burn on, and bodies fill the streets. Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang fear the purpose of the registration of women.
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A period of relative peace settles over Ginling College in the days following Christmas. Refugees begin to leave the camp, but it remains overcrowded and unsanitary. The stress of protecting the camp takes a physical toll on Minnie.
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Minnie negotiates with the Japanese military advisor, on Christmas Eve, about the ongoing abductions of women from the refugee camp. While the numbers of soldiers invading Ginling is slightly reduced, communications are still impossible and the growing cold worsens living conditions. Minnie finds a sliver of hope on Christmas Day.
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As Christmas approaches, the atrocities continue and food becomes more and more scarce. We learn of Minnie Vautrin’s harrowing experience during the Nanking Incident in 1926 and her role in the preservation of Ginling College.
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Minnie Vautrin describes the horrors she witnesses on the streets of Nanking as she continues to report the atrocities of the soldiers to the Japanese consulate. She and Tsen Shui-fang attempt to restore some order in the Ginling camp, which now holds thousands of refugees and remains without a method of communication with the outside world.
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Food scarcity, looting, and daily incursions on Ginling College by the Japanese soldiers and military police enrage and demoralize Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang as they attempt to protect their refugees and resources. Minnie Vautrin meets with the Japanese consul and shows him the inhumane conditions in the Ginling camp.
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We hear Tsen Shui-fang’s account of the previous episode’s events. Having failed to prevent the assault of Ginling College by the Japanese soldiers, she and Minnie Vautrin take stock of the camp in the aftermath. They hope to expand the camp to make more room for the overcrowded refugees as the Japanese soldiers abduct yet more women.
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The days following the fall of Nanking see the the city become a shell of its former self. Japanese soldiers enter the safety zone and conduct a thorough search of Ginling College campus under the pretext of searching for Chinese army deserters. Despite the best efforts of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang, the soldiers take food, money, and clothing from the refugees, and abduct several young women.