Narrative dissidence, spoof videos and alternative memory in China

Abstract

This article explores a special type of trickster discourse, networked spoof videos and the ‘narrative dissidence’ embedded in their construction of an alternative memory in China. I start with a review of the relationship between memory and power, and the changes that the internet as a mnemonic system has brought to their configuration, before turning to memory policy in contemporary China and the challenges posed to this policy by active users on the internet. I argue that the control of memory in China is realized through the monopoly of the media and the language system. I argue that this constructive process negates the official version of memory, strips bare all falsities and pretensions, and signals an emergent model for the construction of memory and truth in China.