Activate And Reshape: Collective Labor Memory And Identity Construction In Labor Casts The China Dream

Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee put forward the concept of ‘The China Dream’ on November 29, 2012. ‘The China Dream’ is a dream of national rejuvenat ion and people’s happiness. The implementation of ‘the China Dream’ can not be separated from the hard work of people from all nationalit ies. Labor casts a better life. Labor casts the future of our nationality. During the May Day in 2015, the hit documentary Labor casts the China dream raised a tide for renewed focus on labor, the Chinese national spir it among the general audience. This article is based on the techniques of Labor casts the China dream, giving an analysis on how labor activates and reshapes the collective labor memory of Chinese. And on this basis, the article gives an interpretation of the important cultural functions of this documentary. The functions include strengthening the national identity and nat ional ident if ication. This article can be divided into the following parts:In the first chapter, the article proceed from ‘the amnesia age’, based on the current social background of China, put forward the necessity and significance of paying attention to the collective m emory. And then it gives a further exposition on the concept, feature and functions, and value of collective memory. The second chapter introduces the overview about Labor casts the China dream, including the introduction, features and audience rating, especially the narrative features and expression features. In addition, it presents the specific collective memory in the documentary. In chapter 3 and chapter 4, the signification of ‘activation’ and ‘reshaping’ has been defined and it also categorizes the way of how documentary activating and reshaping the collective memory. On this basis, select representative figures and examples in the documentary to give a further analysis on the pathway that how Labor casts the China dream activates and reshapes the collective memory from the perspective of narratology and iconography. The chapter 5 analyses the mechanism of how documentary constructs racial ident ification, emphasizing on the cultural functions of Labor casts the China dream.