Rural Memory:A Study Of The Elite Behavior In The Clan Revival

Since the end of last century,some clan activities such as the construction of ancestral hall,repair genealogy,and establish clan association dominated by the rural elites have emerged in some rural areas of China.The clan organizations and clan cultures that were suppressed in previous political movements before the reform and opening up have been successively rebuilt in various forms.The phenomenon of clan revival has aroused great concern in academic circles.Researchers have conducted in-depth investigations and researches,and proposed many valuable opinions.But,many researchers mainly studied clan revival from the functional perspective,they did not notice the function of the clan has been weakened.It is difficult to explain the important phenomenon of clan revive by simply using the functional perspective.In view of this,this article attempts to use the social memory theory and the related research methods,taking the rural areas of the X city of Hubei Province as an example,exploring the phenomenon of clan revival that widely existing in various areas of rural China since the reform and opening up.The research shows that,the leader of clan revival is the rural elite,and rural memory is the propeller and catalyst of clan revival.Many cases show that the clan revival related to the rural memory,and all forms of revival is the reengineering and reconstruction of the rural memory.In many forms of clan revival activities,rural collective memory and individual memory work simultaneously.Compared with collective memory,the elite's individual memory has more advantages,which can truly reflect the wishes of the elites and directly affect their actions.The rural elites,through their unique individual memory,activate and reconstruct the collective memory of the clansman,promote the related social groups and villagers to participate in the clan revival and clan activities,this is the internal logic and specific path for elite memory to promote clan revival.The research shows that,the function meaning of the memory field constructed by the clan revival have been greatly reduced,the material meaning and the symbolic meaning have been gradually strengthened.This article thinks that,the clan revival in contemporary China is conducive to the reconstruction of Chinese rural and contribute to the reconstruction of elite identity.In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics,in order to implement the strategy of Rural Revitalization,realize the sustainable development of the rural society.It must activate the rural memory,especially the individual memory of the rural elite,and give full play to the important role of rural elites in the development of rural economy and society.