The Changing Face of Money: Forging Collective Memory with Chinese Banknote Designs

• In Event: 284 - Regular Session. Collective Memory 2: Symbolic Struggles

Abstract

In this paper we study the Chinese banknote designs since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. We first analyze the six editions (five issued and one unissued editions) of banknotes in the theoretical tradition for studying world society and its cultural shifts. The Chinese banknotes, however, are found to go against the general trend of moving from designs featuring traditional goals and state actors to postmaterialist goals and individual actors. To help explain this phenomenon, we apply a theoretical model built upon the literature on collective focus and social relational contexts (as informed by Weber) to the Chinese currency for a better understanding of the changes in Chinese banknote designs. The Chinese banknotes made the transition from having a multiple focus to showing a singular focus. We discuss banknote design as a collective memory project and the transition in collective focus as a way of managing such a project.

Authors

• Tim Futing Liao, University of Illinois

• Cuntong Wang, Central University of Finance and Economics