Research Report. Revolutionary History in Stone: The Making of a Chinese National Monument

Abstract

The Monument to the People's Heroes (Renmin yingxiong jinianbei) in Beijing's Tiananmen Square was one of the most important new political symbols created in the early days of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The huge granite obelisk, situated along Beijing's most sacred central north-south axis, commands the vast and austere square – the ritual centre of China's capital – not only by its imposing presence but also by its centrality. On the surface, the monument was constructed to commemorate those who had sacrificed their lives for the building of a new communist state, echoing what Philippe Ariès once argued: “Without a monument to the dead, the victory could not be celebrated.”Philippe Ariès, Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present, trans. Patricia M. Ranum (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974), p. 75.