The curator, the investor, and the dupe: Consumer desire and Chinese Cultural Revolution memorabilia

Abstract

This article examines the discourse surrounding the collection of Cultural Revolution memorabilia in the contemporary People’s Republic of China. The author focuses on the emergence of three key discursive figures: the collector/curator, the collector/investor, and the collector as dupe. At issue in the construction of each of these figures is the unsettling force of consumer desire, its ethics and negotiation. In the case of the curator and investor, the author considers the mechanisms through which consumer desire is decentered in the name of historical responsibility and exchange value, respectively. These mechanisms of deferral are contrasted to the often nostalgic desire embodied by the dupe, but this figure and his or her consumer desire are in fact crucial to the discourse of collection as a whole. Indeed, despite claims to the contrary, the dupe bespeaks an enduring quest for a mode of interaction between person and thing outside the bounds of commodity exchange.