Remembering the Nanjing Massacre in China: From Representation to Organization

The memory of the Nanjing Massacre has been debated around the ‘nationalism vs cosmopolitanism’, ‘victimhood vs victory’, and ‘state ideology vs local agency’ theses. Which theses stand out today? What mechanisms translate broader political agendas into concrete, sometimes diverse, mnemonic discourses? What factors, alongside politics, shape Chinese historical memory? By studying a state memorial and a civilian museum, this article argues that 1) the rising ‘victory’ discourse has not undermined the ‘nationalism-victimhood’ nexus, 2) the state memorial is more cosmopolitan, 3) the civilian museum shows less agency than expected, and 4) all the above can be explained by the organizational mechanisms of ‘legitimacy appropriation’ and ‘resource acquisition’. This article contributes to Chinese memory studies by conceptualizing memory as both representation and a product of organizations.