The Socialist Transformation of Memory: Reversing Chinese History through Pernicious-Vestiges Media Discourse

Through discourse analysis and a historical comparison of Pernicious-Vestiges narratives in the news text of Peoples Daily, this book is devoted to revealing primary metaphors of Pernicious-Vestiges and political functions in China.

Pernicious-Vestiges (Yí Dú ) is one of the most frequently used words in contemporary Chinese historical narration, as well as a constantly changing rhetorical direction in New Chinas media discourse, whose function is to remold memory. Over the past 76 years, the Pernicious-Vestiges narrative continuously constructed by Peoples Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, have reflected the views of Chinas political elite and represented the ruling partys evaluation and reevaluation of historical events. The findings of this book challenge the myth that memory is naturally superior to forgetting, reflect on the ethics of memory in Pernicious-Vestiges narratives and the erasure of their own justice, and suggest that the critical space compressed by Pernicious-Vestiges narratives should be returned to restore the order of memory and historical reflection.

This book will be an excellent read for students and scholars of Chinese studies, media studies, and those who are interested in political communication and collective memory in general.