Redai dili (Aug 2023)
The Process of Constructing the Geographical Imagination of the Sacredness of Memorial Landscape of Fear under the Media Discourse: A Case Study of the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders
Abstract
The memorial landscape of fear is a precious heritage of human memory. However, the sense of spatiotemporal distance and non-experience of disastrous events may cause a negative geographical imagination of the commemorative landscape of the site, making its social meaning face a forgotten predicament continually. By applying the grounded theory, this research aims to explore the process and mechanism of constructing a geographical imagination of the sacredness of memorial landscapes of fear under media discourse. Taking the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre as a case study, the results indicate that: (1) online media have expanded the memory of the Nanjing Massacre into a broader spatial and temporal context. In space, the memory of the Nanjing Massacre gradually rises from place memory to the national memory, and eventually to global memory. In time, the memory of the Nanjing Massacre has evolved from a "national shame" in the framework of contemporary historical narratives to a textbook of suffering in the history of human development. In addition, while the media narrated the macroscopic memories of the Nanjing Massacre, they focused on the awakening and transmission of individual memories at the microscopic level, evolving from narrating macroscopic history to interpreting the meaning of microscopic life. (2) Through naming norms, legal exaltation, symbolic construction, and ritual interaction, the state and the media have constructed the Nanjing Memorial Hall entirely as a sacred memorial site for peace and a communication position for the national image in the new era, achieving the transformation from a landscape of fear that triggers negative geographical imagination to a secular sacred space. (3) The memorial ceremony played a significant role in linking subject, memory, and space in the process of constructing the sacredness of the Nanjing Memorial Hall. By participating in memorial rituals, the public connects themselves to memory and collective identity, generating a strong sense of mission and meaning. The contributions of this study are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: First, it deepens the study of the landscape of fear, a special cultural landscape that carries negative emotions of people and places and helps solve the dilemma that the memorial landscape of fear and its social meaning is constantly facing forgetfulness. Second, this study explores the media's and the public's (i.e., "author") construction of the geographical imagination of the sacredness of the memorial landscape of fear and the public's (i.e., "reader") deconstruction of imagination, expanding the scope of geographical imagination research from a micro perspective. Finally, this study explores the role of national memorial ceremonies in constructing the sacredness of memorial landscapes of fear, thus expanding the study of sacred spaces, mostly focusing on religious rituals. These findings are important for the transmission of collective memory and the construction of national identity.
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