ID | 183240 |
Title Proper | Recalling Victory, Recounting Greatness |
Other Title Information | Second World War Remembrance in Xi Jinping's China |
Language | ENG |
Author | Vincent K. L. Chang ; Chang, Vincent K. L. |
Summary / Abstract (Note) | The recent surge in public remembrance of the Second World War in China has been substantially undergirded by a centrally planned and systematically implemented discursive shift which has remained overlooked in the literature. This study examines the revised official narrative by drawing on three cases from China's school curriculum, museums and formal diplomacy. It finds that the once dominant trope of “national victimization” no longer represents the main thrust in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) rhetoric on the Second World War. Under Xi Jinping, this has been replaced by a self-assertive and aspirational narrative of “national victory” and “national greatness,” designed to enhance Beijing's legitimacy and advance its domestic and foreign policy objectives. By emphasizing national unity and CCP–KMT cooperation, the new narrative offers an inclusive and unifying interpretation of China's war effort in which the victory in 1945 has come to rival the 1949 revolution as the critical turning point towards “national rejuvenation.” The increasingly Sino-centric and centrally controlled narrative holds implicit warnings to those challenging Beijing's claim to greatness.
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`In' analytical Note | China Quarterly , No.248; Dec 2021: p.1152 - 1173 |
Journal Source | China Quarterly No 248 |
Key Words | Patriotic Education ; National Rejuvenation ; Second World War ; History Textbooks ; China's War of Resistance against Japan ; official memory ; museum narratives |