The Politics of Commemoration in China

• In Event: The Politics of Ritualization and the Ritualization of Hope

Abstract

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was established on the outskirts of Beijing as a burial ground for Revolutionary Martyrs in 1951. Since then, a surprising variety of people have been buried there including government cadres and military officers of various ranks, ordinary citizens who have been found to have made significant sacrifices for the Chinese revolutionary and national causes, and even some non-Chinese nationals deemed to have made such sacrifices. As the Communist government in China has repeatedly revised the official versions of its history it considers to be political correct, the relatively permanent commemoration of martyrs raises significant problems for the presentation of history. This paper examines how cemetery officials have managed this problem with an eye on questions of ritualization, politics and history. If ritualization is understood as a mode remaking social and power relations by granting certain hierarchies a sacred halo, then how can the relatively permanent halos constructed in the Revolution Cemetery contain enough ambiguity to survive the political revision of history? This paper will examine how the tension between permanence and flexibility is managed in a variety of Chinese contexts for the commemoration of death.

Author

• Andrew Kipnis, The Australian National University