The Red Guard Movement’s Framing And Memory:the Case Of Nanjing

This thesis discusses the memory of the Cultural Revolution and the process by which this memory is constructed. Through analyzing the case of the city of Nanjing, the author uses Goffman’s framing theory and takes it one step further by hypothesizing that an individual’s main frame remains and is combined with the individual’s present frame in order to create memory and explain the past. As time goes by and hypothesizes that the frames of the past are preserved by the Lao San Jie (Red Guard) generation, which results in the creation of three different types of general memories. Under the assumption that memory is not static but it is in constant movement, through first hand experience and different mnemonic means, memory continues to change. The thesis begins by giving general background information about the political climate in which the Red Guard movement was born. Then it explains the different factors which can influence the shape of memory:official hegemonic narratives, fiction works and oral history. This thesis particularly pays attention to the emergence of websites and blogs that seek to preserve the memory of the Cultural Revolution in Nanjing. Through qualitative analysis acquired from interviews, the thesis addresses how the collective memory is developing and how the movement is understood by new generations.