Content area
Full Text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postsocialist China . KIRK A. DENTON . Honolulu , University of Hawai'i Press , 2014. viii + 350 pp. $59.00. ISBN 978-0-8248-3687-0
Book Reviews
"The revolution will not be televised ... the revolution will be no re-run, brothers; the revolution will be live." So chanted the American Black Power advocate Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, when "permanent revolution" was in full swing in China and Maoism inspired radicals everywhere. But as Denton shows in this meticulous, erudite and sensitive work, China's revolution is now anything but "live." Mao's successors have eviscerated revolutionary socialism and consigned its carcass to the museum. In a post-socialist society animated by market forces, "the revolution has become sightseeing" (p. 238).
This study focuses mainly on the past quarter-century, characterized by the prioritization of urban development, and the rise of a new urban middle class. Demand from prosperous urbanites has driven rapid growth in domestic tourism, which governments at national and local levels have encouraged. While helping to "brand" particular localities for the tourist market, museums have also served as important vehicles for a programme of "patriotic education," refashioning historical narratives to bolster Party legitimacy. As this book's plentiful illustrations demonstrate, a vast outpouring of concrete has resulted.
Denton takes his readers on a thematically ordered tour of the museological landscape: from prehistory and "national origins," to modern and "revolutionary" history, the military, resistance against Japanese imperialism, exemplary leaders, martyrs, distinguished writers, ethnic minorities and, finally, visions of a utopian future. But this is far more than an armchair guide to heritage landmarks. Every chapter begins with an extended discussion of the historiography of its particular theme, peppered with illuminating references to film, literature and popular culture. The issues highlighted in these opening sections are then further explored through cases studies. The outcome is a volume that provides perhaps...