Forbidden Memory, Unwritten History: The Difficulty of Structuring an Opposition Movement in the PRC  

Abstract

This paper suggests how control over transmission of memory by the Party, applying China’s own dynastic tradition of reinterpreting history, and borrowing the Soviet practice of erasing people and events from records, has hindered the structuring of an opposition movement. Every resistance movement since 1949 has had to start from scratch as their actors, isolated from the past, see themselves as innovators. The paper analyses the 1957 Anti-Rightist Movement and the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations to illustrate the thesis.