Interpreting Shared Pasts: Remembering Taiwanese Idol Dramas and Taiwan Tourism in a Rising China

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis develops an interpretive model of the past to contribute to studies of memory on the individual level by asking how the individual interprets the past in different ways. The thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining memory studies, British cultural studies (especially critical audience studies) and nationalism studies. It examines the connective and contingent features of individual remembering in social contexts, in terms of the ways in which various relevant memories are combined by individuals to make sense of the past. By asking whether entangled memories help to understand the other better, the thesis focuses on the role of shared past in facilitating or hindering mutual understanding between communities in conflict. Empirically, the thesis aspires to find ways to transcend the national frame and promote mutual understanding between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan from the bottom up; it does so pedagogically through an investigation into the potential of memory and imagination in peace-making and social harmony.

These theoretical and empirical issues are examined through an analysis of how mainland Chinese young people (de)nationalise themselves by remembering and imagining Taiwan through Taiwanese idol dramas and Taiwan tourism. Based on interviews and focus groups with mainland Chinese university students, the thesis investigates how they make sense of their Taiwan-related memories from childhood to adulthood, how they remember and imagine according to present contexts their childhood experiences of watching Taiwanese idol dramas and their adulthood experiences of travelling to Taiwan in-person, and how their mediated and embodied memories of Taiwan are articulated to construct their understanding of Taiwan in relation to the Chinese nation. Born and growing up in the post-Tiananmen era, younger Chinese generations were positioned at the historical conjuncture of state-initiated patriotic education campaigns and China’s involvement and ensuing dominance in the global system. This overarching context is coined in this thesis as ‘the rise of China’ in which Taiwan serves as an important ‘other’ (and, it is claimed, ‘us’) in remembering China’s national past and imagining a prosperous future of national unification in the global age.

Drawing upon theoretical discussions and empirical findings, the thesis identifies four modes of interpreting the past: mnemonic hegemony, mnemonic resistance, historical hegemony and historical resistance. The analysis shows that Chinese interpretations of Taiwan-related past do not depend on the forms and texts of memory but on the particular ways in which these forms and texts are articulated with each other through combining multiple modes of remembering. In this sense, entangled pasts between communities in conflict offer more possibilities of – while do not guarantee – mutual understanding. What is needed is to complicate our understanding of the past through consistent experiences of encountering the other and diversified versions of historical knowledge to allow multiple pasts to be articulated. These findings inform the scholarly discussion on individual memory by proposing a typology of how the past is interpreted by the individual in changing sociocultural contexts. They also speak to the ongoing debate on the individuality and collectivity of memory by demonstrating the relationship between the forms, texts and interpretations of remembering the past. That is, the interpretation of the past is neither determined nor free-floating but conditioned by an articulatory manner of determinacy and relatability without guaranteed closures.
Date of Award1 May 2024
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • King's College London
SupervisorAnna Reading (Supervisor) & Chris Berry (Supervisor)

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