Collective Memory Writing Of Contemporary Youth In The Interactive Ritual Space

On the night of the opening ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics,many young netizens gathered on the Bilibili website to relive the grandeur of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and actively participate in collective memory writing.As a key force in social development and national construction,the collective memory writing practice of contemporary youth is crucial for national identity construction.This study employs the Interactive Ritual Chains theory and uses the collective memory writing practice of contemporary youth on Bilibili regarding the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as the research object.The study uses a combination of text analysis,online ethnography,and in-depth interviews to explore the collective memory writing process of contemporary youth.Following the initiation,development,deepening,and reflection of the ritual,the study first explores how collective memory writing is initiated by examining the constituent elements of the ritual.Secondly,using frequency analysis,sentiment analysis,and LDA topic modeling,the study analyzes the content characteristics of collective memory writing.Thirdly,starting from the results produced by the ritual,the study analyzes how national identity is achieved through collective memory writing.Finally,the study re-examines the phenomenon,discusses its hidden concerns and proposes countermeasures,in order to guide the positive development of collective memory writing in the future.The study shows that under the influence of four key factors,namely embodied experience in virtual space,multiple barriers in the community,focus flow of the opening ceremony,and shared emotions,collectivememory writing was initiated.As the ritual unfolded,contemporary youth created a unique collective memory of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.The collective memory exhibited three basic characteristics: spatiotemporal specificity,exclusivity,and collectivity.The overall emotional tendency was positive and included self-praise and criticism of others.The memory themes covered the surface-level carnival ritual,individual nostalgia,and deep-level national imagination.With the help of the ritual,contemporary youth produced national symbols,confirmed their national identity,deepened their national identity,and actively maintained the national image.Based on these findings,the study proposes several measures to guide the positive development of collective memory writing,including promoting multi-user collaborative writing,optimizing content publishing and review mechanisms,and strengthening patriotic education for young people.