Centenarian Memoirs and Vernacular History

Zheng, Y; Hemelryk Donald, S

Centenarian Memoirs and Vernacular History

Zheng, Y Hemelryk Donald, S

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Publisher:: SAGE Publications
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Zheng, Y
dc.contributor.author	Hemelryk Donald, S
dc.date.accessioned	2023-10-29T21:26:29Z
dc.date.available	2023-10-29T21:26:29Z
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
dc.identifier.issn	1868-1026
dc.identifier.issn	1868-4874
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172890
dc.description.abstract	<jats:p> This article examines centenarian memoirs as a popular cultural phenomenon and through it the promises of post-reform vernacular history. The argument posits that these memoirs are a genre that has been commercially successful through their transformation of self and historical narratives in the People’s Republic of China, in particular, the transformation of these memoirs from vestiges of state-cultivated intellectual confessions to vernacular cultural memories in the popular print market. Focusing on celebrated centenary memoir writers centring on Yang Jiang, the study develops Chen Sihe's conception of the vernacular, emphasising its shifting intersection with the political–institutional and the intellectual elite. The popular historiography emerging from these trans-generational memory “fevers” reveals vanishing modern Chinese intellectual values percolating through the vernacular ethos in the cultural industries of the early twenty-first century. The vernacular has been the post-reform locus for contesting and retaining critical intellectual traditions. </jats:p>
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	SAGE Publications
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/18681026231206408
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	1605 Policy and Administration, 1606 Political Science
dc.subject.classification	4407 Policy and administration
dc.subject.classification	4408 Political science
dc.title	Centenarian Memoirs and Vernacular History
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	1605 Policy and Administration
utslib.for	1606 Political Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/School of Communication
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2023-10-29T21:26:26Z
pubs.publication-status	Published online

Abstract:

This article examines centenarian memoirs as a popular cultural phenomenon and through it the promises of post-reform vernacular history. The argument posits that these memoirs are a genre that has been commercially successful through their transformation of self and historical narratives in the People’s Republic of China, in particular, the transformation of these memoirs from vestiges of state-cultivated intellectual confessions to vernacular cultural memories in the popular print market. Focusing on celebrated centenary memoir writers centring on Yang Jiang, the study develops Chen Sihe's conception of the vernacular, emphasising its shifting intersection with the political–institutional and the intellectual elite. The popular historiography emerging from these trans-generational memory “fevers” reveals vanishing modern Chinese intellectual values percolating through the vernacular ethos in the cultural industries of the early twenty-first century. The vernacular has been the post-reform locus for contesting and retaining critical intellectual traditions.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172890