Behind the scenes at the museum: Nationalism, history and memory in the Beijing War of Resistance Museum, 1987-1997

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 161, 2000, Pages 279-293

  Mitter, Rana ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 23044517151     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0305741000004033     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. Arthur Waldron, "China's new remembering of World War II: the case of Zhang Zizhong," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No.4, (1996), pp. 869-899.
2. On the delegitimation of communism, see X.L. Ding, The Decline of Communism in China: Legitimacy Crisis, 1977-1989 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
3. Vera Schwarcz, "Strangers no more: personal memory in the interstices of public commemoration," in Rubie S. Watson (ed.), Memory, History and Opposition under Slate Socialism (Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 1994), p. 49.
4. For a recent example, see Edward Friedman, "Reconstructing China's national identity: a southern alternative to Mao-era anti-imperialist nationalism," Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 53, No. 1 (1994), pp. 67-91. For another perspective, see John Fitzgerald, " 'Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated': the history of the death of China," in David S.G. Goodman and Gerald Segal (eds.), China Deconstructs: Politics, Trade and Regionalism (London: Routledge, 1994).
5. On the changing meaning of Mao, see Geremie Barmé, Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996).
6. Waldron, "China's new remembering," p. 950.
7. Tamara Hamlish, "Preserving the palace: museums and the making of nationalism(s) in twentieth-century China," Museum Anthropology, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1995), p. 20.
8. Ibid. p. 22.
9. Rubie S. Watson, "Palaces, museums, and squares: Chinese national spaces," Museum Anthropology, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1995), pp. 7-19. Wu Hung, 'Tiananmen Square: a political history of monuments," Representations, No. 35 (1991), pp. 84-117.
10. Zhongguo renmin kang-Ri zhanzheng jinianguan: jianjie (The Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japan: Introduction) (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin kang-Ri zhanzheng jinianguan, 1997), p. 3. Descriptions in this article which cite the museum's own publications are supplemented by my own research in the museum in September 1997.
11. Wu Hung, "Tiananmen Square," p. 85.
12. Liu Jiachang and Tie Han, Ri, \\-ei, Jicing zlianfan gaizao jilu (Records of the Re-education of Japanese, Puppet, and Pro-Chiang Kaishek War Criminals) (Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chubanshe, 1993). Author's visit to War Crimes Museum, September 1997.
13. Zhang Chengjun, "Chongfen fahui jinianguan de aiguozhuyi jiaoyu zhendi zuoyong" ("Fulfilling and giving full rein to the Memorial's position and role in patriotic education"), in Zliongguo remain kang-Ri zJiandteng jinianguan: wencong (The Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japan: Essays), Vol. 1 (1990), p. 198.
14. For a concise summary of recently published primary sources and academic monographs from the PRC on the War of Resistance, see Hans van de Ven, "The military in the Republic," The China Quarterly, No. 150 (June 1997), n. 46, pp. 367-68.
15. Arif Dirlik, " 'Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide to the future'; or, what is a text? The politics of history in Chinese-Japanese relations," in Masao Miyoshi and H.D. Harootunian (eds.), Japan in the World (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993), p. 71.
16. Taiwan wenli yu Zliongguo de tongyl (The Taiwan Question and Reunification of China) (Beijing: Guowuyuan xinwen bangongshe, 1993), p. 23. Jianjie, p. 7.
17. Jianjie, p. 10.
18. Ibid. p. 9.
19. Ibid. p. 9.
20. Geremie Barmé, "History for the masses," in Jonathan Unger (ed.), Using the Past to Sen-e the Present (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), p. 278. Waldron, "China's new remembering," p. 974.
21. There is a massive literature on Chinese nationalism, and it continues to grow year by year, if not month by month. An excellent starting point is Jonathan Linger (ed.), Chinese Nationalism (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996).
22. Two stimulating works on these two concepts respectively are Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nonini (eds.), Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Chinese Transnationalism (London: Routledge, 1997), and Tu Wei-ming (ed.), The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994).
23. Dirlik, " 'Past experience,' " p. 50.
24. This distinction also allowed the then Japanese prime minister, Murayama Tomiichi, to attend the opening of a new section of the museum in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.
25. Jianjie, pp. 13-14.
26. Zhonggiio renmin kang-Ri zltanzlieng jinianguan: jiangjieci (The Memorial Museum of the Chinese People 's War of Resistance to Japan: Explanation) (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin kang-Ri zhanzheng jinianguan, 1997), p. 34.
27. Ibid. p. 34.
28. Ibid. p. 34.
29. Wu Hung, "Tiananmen Square," pp. 99-100.
30. Ibid. p. 94.
31. Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 27-28.
32. Waldron, "China's new remembering," p. 965.
33. Jianjie, pp. 2-3.
34. Ibid. p. 3.
35. Author's visit to museum, September 1997.
36. On the manipulation of language for political purposes in China, see Michael Schoenhals, Doing Things with Words in Chinese Politics: Five Studies (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, China Research Monograph, 1992).
37. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 179.
38. Jianjie, p. 3.
39. Ibid. p. 17. Zliongguo renmin kang-Ri zhanzheng jinianguan: kangzJian yinglieting minglu (The Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japan: List of Names in the Hall of Martyrs of the War of Resistance) (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin kang-Ri zhanzheng jinianguan, n.d.).
40. Jianjie, p. 17.
41. Ibid. p. 17.
42. Ibid. p. 17.
43. Jiangjieci, p. 34.
44. For example, see Jianjie, pp. 1, 3, 6.
45. Ibid. p. 16.
46. Zhang Chengjun, "Fulfilling," p. 197.
47. Ibid. p. 198.
48. Ibid. p. 198.
49. Jianjie, p. 1.
50. Waldron, "China's new remembering," p. 976.
51. Private conversations, Beijing, September 1997.
52. Arjun Appadurai and Carol A. Breckenridge, "Museums are good to think: heritage on view in India," in Ivan Karp, Christine Müllen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine (eds.), Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture, p. 46.
53. Ibid. p. 45.
54. Yu Yanjun, "Chongfen liyong bowuguan shehui jiaoyu youshi peiyang aiguozhuyi jingshen, zengqiang gongzhong minzu yishi" ("Making full use of social education at the museum effectively to nurture a patriotic spirit and strengthen public national consciousness"), in Zliongguo renmin kang-Ri diandiengjinianguan: wencong (The Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japan: Essays), Vol. 5 (1994), p. 379.
55. Ibid. p. 378.
56. Ibid. p. 378.
57. Yu Yanjun, "Jianhao qidi, bozhong weilai: kangzhanguan qingshaonian jiaoyu jidi gongzuo qingkuang huibao" ("Build up the base, sow the seeds of the future: a report on the groundwork on basic youth education at the Memorial Museum of the War of Resistance"), in Zliongguo renmin kang-Ri zlianzJieng jinianguan: wencong (The Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance to Japan: Essays), Vol. 4 (1993), pp. 329-330.
58. Yu Yanjun, "Making full use," pp. 379-380.
59. Ibid. p. 380.
60. Ibid. p. 381.