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FOCUS ON
The Heritage of Commemoration, Part IIThis issue continues with a focus on commemoration. During 2009, in the media and within academic circles, both Chinese and international, there has already been widespread discussion of moments of historical significance in modern Chinese history. Much of the discussion has touched on the continuing reverberations of events and dates that have acquired an iconic significance. The remembrance of key moments in the past is important, as is the question of how these moments are variously turned into history, ossified and sculpted for practical and abstract exigencies. In this issue, our attention is on the living heritage of commemoration. That is, how the powerful historical periods, incidents and dates of the past live on in the present, in real lives and real situations. In particular we focus on 1919, 1949, 1959 and 1989. In this context, we are delighted that the intellectual historian Vera Schwarcz has written about her encounters in the Chinese capital during the May Fourth commemorations of 2009. We also feature a number of oral history interviews by Sang Ye related to 1949, 1959 and 1979 accompanied by visual and, in the case of 1959, audio-visual material. Qiang Zhai's translation of the Party elder Bo Yibo's account of how Mao Zedong responded to US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles strategy to encourage 'peaceful evolution' in the socialist bloc provides an important perspective on a policy stance that continues to have profound ramifications in China, and internationally, today. Excerpts from a hard-to-access documentary film forms the basis for the Feature '1969: April Fools' Day', while in considering the momentous events of twenty years ago and the long shadow they cast over the present we pick up on a discussion about 'totalitarian nostalgia' and the Chinese heritage of denunciation. We also carry the Long Bow Appeal that recalls the tragic events of 1989 and the persistent threats to free speech and independent academic inquiry, both outside and inside China. In Articles we introduce the work of the Beijing essayist Xu Zhiyuan and the young scholar Stephen McDowall, while in New Scholarship we report on the Wujing Project, offer an insightful review of a new biography of Confucius and, through translation, trace the remains of a number of China's great private libraries. I am grateful to Nora Chang of the Long Bow Group for providing crucial audio-visual material from the Long Bow Archive in Boston, to Oanh Collins for scanning visual materials, as well as to Janos Batten who proof-read much of text of the issue in draft form. I am as ever grateful to Jude Shanahan for her good humour and resilience when preparing this issue. Remaining errors and infelicities are my responsibility. Issue 19 of China Heritage Quarterly (September 2009) will take as its focus the heritage of 'T'ien-hsia', a term sometimes translated as 'All Under Heaven'. A number of further articles related to the commemorations of 2009 will also be carried in that issue. |
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