Research Catalog

Title

Utopian ruins : a memorial museum of the Mao era / Jie Li.

Author

Li, Jie, 1979-

Publication

• Durham : Duke University Press, 2020.
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 367 pages : illustrations; 23 cm.

Summary

"Utopian ruins imagines a memorial museum for the Mao era. Such a museum would need to capture both the utopian possibility and the often-catastrophic histories of the period, not an easy task since most accounts are organized around one point of view or the other. The museum would face additional challenges due to the limited forms of documentation and presentation that were allowed to exist and circulate during the Maoist period, which of those have survived, and which ones would be possible to display now. The book is organized around the different media that might compose the archive of such a museum: personal documents, photography, film, and collections of objects. Working with these primary documents and indexical traces, Jie Li assembles each chapter like a memorial exhibit, offering testimonies of the Mao era. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on written records of the Mao era in the form of the dossiers of two revolutionaries later labeled rightists. Chapter 1 explores Lin Zhao's prison writings and family letters and how she later became seen as a martyr. Chapter 2 focuses on the contrasting case of Nie Gannu and describes how the government relied on information supplied by citizens to construct dossiers, a pervasive surveillance technology that also left a record for future generations. Chapter 3 describes the contradictory role of photography during the Great Leap Forward, as it depicted utopian images while the citizens lived dystopian realities. In Chapter 4 Li discusses the response to the 1970s European documentaries about China by Michelangelo Antonioni and Joris Ivens. Chapter 5 looks at films focusing on Chinese workers, and Chapter 6 describes the existing museums for Mao's memorabilia and the memorial sites for death and loss"--

Series Statement

Sinotheory

Uniform Title

Sinotheory.

Subject

• Mao, Zedong, 1893-1976
• 1949-1976
• Civilization
• Politics and government
• China > History > 1949-1976
• China > Civilization > 1949-1976
• China > Politics and government > 1949-1976
• China

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [277]-349) and index.

Contents

Mediating Memories of the Mao Era -- Blood Testaments -- Surveillance Files -- Utopian Photographs -- Foreign Lenses -- Factory Rubble -- Museums and Memorials -- Notes for Future Curators.

Call Number

JFE 21-3175

ISBN

• 9781478010180
• 1478010185
• 9781478011231
• 1478011238

LCCN

2020008117

OCLC

1140780257

Author

Li, Jie, 1979- author.

Title

Utopian ruins : a memorial museum of the Mao era / Jie Li.

Publisher

Durham : Duke University Press, 2020.

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Sinotheory

Sinotheory.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [277]-349) and index.

Chronological Term

1949-1976

Other Form:

Online version: Li, Jie, 1979- Utopian ruins Durham : Duke University Press, 2020. 9781478012764 (DLC) 2020008118

Research Call Number

JFE 21-3175