Book contents
- Modern Erasures
- Modern Erasures
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part I Seeing and Not Seeing
- Part II Revolutionary Memory in Republican China
- Part III Maoist Narratives in the Forties
- Part IV Politics of Oblivion in the People’s Republic
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2022
- Modern Erasures
- Modern Erasures
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part I Seeing and Not Seeing
- Part II Revolutionary Memory in Republican China
- Part III Maoist Narratives in the Forties
- Part IV Politics of Oblivion in the People’s Republic
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The introduction lays out the rationale behind Modern Erasures and the approach it takes to the study of cultural memory of China’s recent past. The book breaks down the latter into two types of memory generated by communities and the varied forces of national revolution, respectively – what the book terms communal and revolutionary memory. It also discusses challenges posed by the historical record on early republican China, and on rural areas in particular, and what the prism of disaster events and mutual aid offers researchers in the study of remote, rural communities. It then considers the study of Maoist culture and violence, followed by the implications that historiographic gaps in knowledge on early twentieth-century rural China have for the study and understanding of modernity and colonialism on a global scale. Finally, it explains the use of the terms deinscription and reinscription for the processes of cultural erasure examined throughout the book.
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- Information
- Modern ErasuresRevolution, the Civilizing Mission, and the Shaping of China's Past, pp. 1 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022