Performing History in China: Cultural Memory in the Present

Abstract

Performing history has become immensely popular in China since the dawn of the twenty-first century. What is exactly the cultural impulse behind the massive craze for performing history in China? Premised on history being one of many modes of representation of the past, and performance being one of them, this article argues that performing history through reenactment, an expression of cultural memory mediated and remediated in the present, is a new form of public history in China. The democratic impulse enacted by such a performance can nurture serious discussions on historical issues, cultivate a shared interpretive authority, and shape historical consciousness of the ordinary Chinese.