Places of Memory in Modern China: History, Politics, and Identity

295 Pages·2011·7.392 MB·English

by  Marc Andre Matten

Places of Memory in Modern China
Leiden Series in
Comparative Historiography
Editors
Axel Schneider
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik
VOLUME 5
The titles published in this series are listed at www.brill.nl/LSCH
Places of Memory in Modern
China
History, Politics, and Identity
Edited by
Marc Andre Matten
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Places of memory in modern China : history, politics, and identity / edited by Marc Andre
Matten.
p. cm. — (Leiden series in comparative historiography, ISSN 1574–4493 ; v. 5)
ISBN 978-90-04-21901-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Historic sites—Social aspects—China.
2. Historic sites—Political aspects—China. 3. Collective memory—China. 4. Nationalism—
China. 5. National characteristics, Chinese. 6. Historic sites—Social aspects—Taiwan.
7. Historic sites—Political aspects—Taiwan. 8. Collective memory—Taiwan. 9. Nationalism—
Taiwan. 10. National characteristics, Taiwan. I. Matten, Marc Andre.
DS706.3.P53 2012
951—dc23
2011039145
ISSN 1574-4493
ISBN 9789004219014
ISBN 9789004220966 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
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Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... vii
List of Contributors .................................................................... ix
1. History, Memory, and Identity in Modern China ................ 1
Marc Andre Matten
LEADERS AND THEIR LEGACY
2. Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Warriors and Commemorating
the Cultural State .................................................................. 17
David J. Davies
3. The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei:
A Contested Place of Memory ............................................. 51
Marc Andre Matten
4. A Place Where Great Men Rest? The Chairman Mao
Memorial Hall ....................................................................... 91
Daniel Leese
THE UBIQUITOUS PAST—PRESENT AND LOST
5. A Rock, a Text, and a Tablet: Making the Song Emperor’s
Terrace a Lieu de Mémoire ....................................................... 133
Hon Tze-ki
6. “This is How the Chinese People Began Their Struggle”
Humen and the Opium War as a Site of Memory ............. 167
James Flath
7. The Ruins of Yuanmingyuan: Or, How to Enjoy a
National Wound ..................................................................... 193
Haiyan Lee
vi contents
8. Yan’an as a Site of Memory in Socialist and Postsocialist
China ...................................................................................... 233
Kirk A. Denton
Index ........................................................................................... 283
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea for this volume was conceived while writing my PhD disser-
tation on the creation of national identity in late imperial and early
Republican China. It has since then enjoyed the support of many
colleagues and friends, and I am especially indebted to Peter Zarrow
(Academia Sinica). During my stay as a postdoctoral student at the
Institute of Modern History, I discussed many issues with him, result-
ing in the idea to publish a volume that tries to construe China as a
memorial landscape by incorporating the various places of memory
that are significant for its contemporary identity.
I have further profited much from Axel Schneider (University of
Göttingen), whose critical and valuable comments were extremely
helpful when reviewing the manuscript. His insight in theoretical issues
is truly impressive. Further thanks go to my assistant, Lena Kuhn, for
her meticulous proofreading and her suggestions for improvement of
parts of the volume. She has been a great help in the final phase of
editing.
Finally, I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Uni-
versitätsbund Erlangen-Nürnberg e.V. that made professional copyedit-
ing of this volume possible, especially for those authors whose mother
tongue is not English. It goes without saying that all responsibility for
remaining errors lies with the individual authors and the editor.
Last but not least I want to thank my son Vincent Elias for his unfad-
ing patience and endurance of a father sometimes being more absent
than not. I dedicate this book to him.
Erlangen, July 2011

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
David J. Davies (Ph.D. 2002, University of Washington, Seattle) is
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of East Asian Studies
at Hamline University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, where he teaches
courses on the anthropology of development and globalization, as well
as museums and tourism. He has published on a wide range of top-
ics including social memory, sports, museums, and corporate culture.
His current research focuses on the emergence of Chinese “celebrity
entrepreneurs”, social discussions of “success”, and the art of being
successful in the Chinese economy.
Kirk A. Denton (Ph.D. 1988, University of Toronto) is a Professor
of Chinese Literature at The Ohio State University. He has published
on modern Chinese literature and is currently completing a book on
museums and historical memory in Greater China. Denton is editor
of the journal Modern Chinese Literature and Culture.
James Flath (Ph.D. 2000, University of British Columbia) is Associ-
ate Professor of History at the University of Western Ontario. In his
research, he focuses on modern cultural history, Chinese historical
commemoration and heritage conservation. His recent book The Cult
of Happiness: Nianhua, Art and History in Rural North China (UBC Press,
2004) received the 2005/06 Raymond Klibansky Prize.
Tze-Ki Hon (Ph.D. 1992, University of Chicago) is Professor of History
at State University of New York (Geneseo). He is the author of The Yijing
and Chinese Politics (SUNY Press, 2005), and a co-editor of The Politics of
Historical Production in Late Qing and Republican China (Brill, 2007).
Haiyan Lee (Ph.D. 2002, Cornell University) is Assistant Professor of
Chinese Literature at Stanford University. She is the author of Revolution
of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900–1950 (2007), which won
the 2009 Joseph Levenson Prize of the Association for Asian Studies
for the best book on post-1900 China.
x list of contributors
Daniel Leese (Ph.D. 2007, International University Bremen, Germany)
is Assistant Professor of Sinology at Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Munich. He is the author of Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in the Cultural
Revolution (Cambridge 2011) and the editor of Brill’s Encyclopedia of China
(Leiden 2009).
Marc Andre Matten (Ph.D. 2007, University of Bonn, Germany)
is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Chinese History at Friedrich-
Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He has published
extensively on the issues of Chinese nationalism and national identity,
including his dissertation The Borders of Being Chinese—On the Creation
of National Identity in 20th century China (German, Harrassowitz, 2009),
which won the 2009 Martin-Behaim-Prize of the Society of Overseas
History (Gesellschaft für Überseegeschichte e.V.).