MONUMENTS OF GRIEF: VILLAGE POLITICS AND MEMORY IN POST-SOCIALIST RURAL CHINA1

• Published in: Ethnology Vol. 46; no. 1; p. 41
• Main Author: Wu, Ka-ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh - Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education 01.01.2007
• Subjects: Bridges; Celibacy; Chinese; Corruption in government; Cultural identity; Memorials & monuments; Memory; Politics; Rural areas; China
• ISSN: 0014-1828

A small bridge project in rural China became a corruption scandal and burdened villagers with a huge debt. Seeking reason and justice from government officials, villagers encountered only obfuscation and frustration. At the same time, a void left during the Chinese Cultural Revolution by the destruction of an arch to chastity, a village monument, became a gathering place for mythical legends, stories of loyalty and betrayal, and speculations on the fate of the community. Forced to retain a pre-reform identity of rural residency, yet confronted with a market economy constrained by arbitrary state regulations, the bridge and the lost arch are spaces where villagers reconstruct their memory of Maoist governance, evaluate meanings of political relations, and project their image for fairness and a responsible state. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]