Exemplifying National Unity and Victory in Local State Museums: Chongqing and the New Paradigm of World War II Memory in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT The literature on World War II memory in China is skewed toward the history of the occupation and victimization of the eastern provinces. This study shifts the focus to the southwestern city of Chongqing, which served as China’s temporary wartime capital and the seat of the CCP–GMD united front. Comparing distinctive thematic narratives of four state museums, this research shows that Chongqing is not an outlier in China’s memory scape, as is often presumed. Rather, it finds that these narratives draw selectively and purposefully from local experiences to instantiate and reaffirm the evolving central line. Chongqing’s story of unified resistance and joint triumph exemplifies the more inclusive and empowering new norm of war remembrance under Xi Jinping, which stresses national unity as the key to Chinese ‘greatness’.