Doctoral Dissertation Research: Changing Cultural Landscape of Commemoration in China: The Case of Revolutionary Memorials in Jiangxi

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation research on the revolutionary memorials in China will extend China Studies scholarship on the political and cultural implications of economic development and reform since the late 1970s, and Cultural Geography scholarship on interpretations of memorial landscapes. It will examine the effects of economic development (including fiscal decentralization) on the cultural landscapes of commemoration - evolutionary memorials and shrines - as an indicator of broader ideological shifts associated with market reforms in China. It is structured on a provincial scale with three specific revolutionary memorial sites in Jiangxi: Jinggangshan, Nanchang, and Lushan. The field research will primarily involve secondary data collection of on-site archival research and primary data collection based on interviews with managerial staff, random visitors, and visitors with deeper personal involvement. Secondary data will serve as the baseline for comparison, indicating whether the sites are commercialized due to economic reform. Primary data analysis will be based on the reduced data (transcribed and coded file) for drawing inferences as to how people interpret the transformation, and how cultural landscapes of commemoration in China reveal the dynamic nature of Chinese cultural, social, and political values over time. By examining development in relation to the changing cultural landscape of commemoration in China in the case of Jiangxi, the fieldwork will help to investigate what transformation is occurring with the revolutionary memorials in China and what ideological shift is revealed in this transformation. The research will shed light on the impacts of economic development on political and cultural phenomena in China, revealing new insights into the rapidly changing economy and social structures of China. It will help interpret the relationship between ideology, development, and landscape in a country where such studies have been rare. It will address the gap between the geography of regional development and the cultural geography of China's regions, bridging the study of cultural landscapes of commemoration in the West and similar landscapes in China since studies on the cultural landscape of monuments tend to concentrate more on regions such as Europe and North America. The research will also introduce to the discipline of geography a rich cross-cultural resource for discerning contested ideologies as a result of economic development in the changing cultural landscape in China, providing the China Studies field with a cultural and political perspective in addressing the greater issue of how Chinese identity adjusts according to the effects of regional development in the reform era. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.