Editing J. G. Ballard (section)

===Shanghai===
J. G. Ballard was born to Edna Johnstone (1905–1998)<ref name=autogenerated1/> and James Graham Ballard (1901–1966), who was a chemist at the [[Calico Printers' Association]], a textile company in the city of [[Manchester]], and later became the chairman and managing director of the China Printing and Finishing Company, the Association's subsidiary company in Shanghai.<ref name=autogenerated1/> The China in which Ballard was born featured the [[Shanghai International Settlement]], where Western foreigners "lived an American style of life".<ref name="pringle">[[David Pringle|Pringle, D.]] (Ed.) and Ballard, J.G. (1982). "From Shanghai to Shepperton". ''Re/Search'' '''8/9''': J.G. Ballard: 112–124. {{ISBN|0-940642-08-5}}.</ref> At school age, Ballard attended the Cathedral School of the [[Holy Trinity Church, Shanghai]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Books__Film-Book_features/11260/JG-Ballard-in-Shanghai.html|title=JG Ballard in Shanghai|website=Timeoutshanghai.com|access-date=21 May 2018|archive-date=2 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602185521/http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Books__Film-Book_features/11260/JG-Ballard-in-Shanghai.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Upon the outbreak of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945), the Ballard family abandoned their suburban house, and moved to a house in the city centre of Shanghai to avoid the warfare between the Chinese defenders and the Japanese invaders.

After the [[Battle of Hong Kong]] (8–25 December 1941), the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the International Settlement and imprisoned the Allied civilians in early 1943. The Ballard family were sent to the [[Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre]] where they lived in G-block, a two-storey residence for 40 families, for the remainder of the Second World War. At the Lunghua Centre, Ballard attended school, where the teachers were prisoners with a profession. In the autobiography ''Miracles of Life'', Ballard said that those experiences of displacement and imprisonment were the thematic bases of the novel ''Empire of the Sun''.<ref name="lookback">Ballard, J.G. (4 March 2006). "[http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1722984,00.html Look back at Empire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111044214/http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1722984,00.html |date=11 January 2008 }}". ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 25 April 2009.</ref><ref name="rickmcgrath">{{cite web |url=http://www.jgballard.ca/ |title=J.G. Ballard |website=Jgballard.ca |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=4 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104163735/http://www.jgballard.ca/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Concerning the violence found in Ballard's fiction,<ref>Cowley, J. (4 November 2001). "[http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,587000,00.html The Ballard of Shanghai jail] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724145628/http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,587000,00.html |date=24 July 2008 }}". ''The Observer''. Retrieved 25 April 2009.</ref><ref name="livingstone">Livingstone, D.B. (1996?). "[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0899ballard.php J.G. Ballard: Crash: Prophet with Honour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821142454/http://www.spikemagazine.com/0899ballard.php |date=21 August 2016 }}". Retrieved 12 March 2006.</ref> the novelist [[Martin Amis]] said that ''Empire of the Sun'' "gives shape to what shaped him."<ref name="spike1">Hall, C. "[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0697lard.php JG Ballard: Extreme Metaphor: A Crash Course in the Fiction Of JG Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125020730/http://www.spikemagazine.com/0697lard.php |date=25 January 2017 }}". Retrieved 25 April 2009.</ref> About his experiences of the Japanese war in China, Ballard said: "I don't think you can go through the experience of war without one's perceptions of the world being forever changed. The reassuring stage-set that everyday reality in the suburban West presents to us is torn down; you see the ragged scaffolding, and then you see the truth beyond that, and it can be a frightening experience."<ref name="livingstone"/> "I have—I won't say ''happy''—[but] not unpleasant memories of the camp... I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on—but, at the same time, we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!"<ref name="pringle"/> In his later life, Ballard became an atheist, yet said: "I'm extremely interested in religion ... I see religion as a key to all sorts of mysteries that surround the [[human consciousness]]."<ref>Welch, Frances. "All Praise and Glory to the Mind of Man"</ref>