Borderland Memories
Searching for Historical Identity in Post-Mao China

An innovative study of ideology formation and political mobilization, post-Cultural Revolution reconciliation, and the recovery of borderland identities in early post-Mao China.

Martin T. Fromm (Author)

9781108469289, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 October 2022

307 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.46 kg

'This book provides in-depth and sophisticated analyzes of the mobilization, production, publication, and circulation of a series of published memoirs on northeastern China. Its innovative use of sources leads to a narrative that is both informative and inspiring. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in the People's Republic of China, borderland, or oral histories, as well as collective memory, identity and identification, and the legacy of colonization.' Shao Dan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

In the 1980s, as China transitioned to the post-Mao era, a state-sponsored oral history project led to the publication of local, regional, and national histories. They took the form of written and transcribed personal testimonies of events that preceded the turmoil of both the Cultural Revolution and, in many cases, the Communist victory in 1949. Known as wenshi ziliao, these publications represent an intense process of historical memory production that has received little scholarly attention. Hitherto unexamined archival materials and oral histories reveal unresolved tensions in post-Cultural Revolution reconciliation and mobilization, informing negotiations between local elites and the state, and between Party and non-Party organizations. Taking the northeast Russia–Manchuria borderlands as a case study, Martin T. Fromm examines the creation of post-Mao identities, political mobilization, and knowledge production in China.

Introduction
1. Reconfiguring cultural production in the post-Mao transition
2. Borderland ambiguities in narratives of modernization and liberation
3. Relocating the nation outside the nation: forging a borderland-centered nationalist discourse
4. The 'historical science' of Wenshi Ziliao
5. Affective community and historical rehabilitation: 'widely making friends' to re-secure political loyalty
6. Mobilizing a 'patriotic united front'
7. Local, regional, and national dynamics of Wenshi Ziliao production
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Oral history [HBTD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF], Regional & national history [HBJ], Memoirs [BM]