6. “This is How the Chinese People Began Their Struggle” Humen and the Opium War as a Site of Memory

Abstract

To the historian, Humen is synonymous with Lin Zexu (1785-1850) and the Opium War (1839-42). The question pertaining to this chapter is whether Humen might be considered a lieu de memoire in the terms described by Pierre Nora. That is to say, as a site where spontaneous and self-actualizing memory has been undermined by the critical discourse of history, leaving unhinged traces open to appropriation and the proliferation of signification. Through the continuity of its relics and the creation of associated monuments, museums, texts, and films, Humen has acquired layers of signification that distinguish it, to use Jan Assmann's term, as objectified culture. While each generation may relate to the site differently, by appropriation, criticism, preservation, or transformation, the site nonetheless acts to preserve and deliver the cultural memory of resistance to disparate communities long removed in space and time from the event of the Opium War. Keywords:Chinese People; cultural memory; Humen; lieu de memoire ; Opium War