Presenting the Past

Abstract

In China, successive political upheavals have impacted directly on the attitudes and identities of citizens. This paper explores how residents of a small agricultural community in the prosperous eastern province of Zhejiang have constructed and discussed their own narratives of history—in relation to the actions and power of the Chinese state—over the course of the twentieth century. For the three generations concerned—grandparents, parents and their adult children—distinct events divide their experiences into clearly-defined local categories of ‘before’ and ‘after’. Respectively, these were: (1) land reforms following the Communist victory and establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949; (2) the adoption of the socialist market economy by the administration of Deng Xiaoping; (3) the increasing opportunities, mobility and consumerism of the last decade. A consideration of generational differences is shown to be crucial to understanding social memory as people and societies forget, remember and forge their identities. Keywords: censorship, China, intergenerational transmission, nation state, social memory