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Oral history research on the collective war memory and community in rural Shanxi, China

I am an oral historian. I have been conducting oral history research in Yu-county, Shanxi China, an area that became one of the forefronts of the Sino-Japanese war. My main purpose of the research is to understand the “collective war memory” of Chinese people, which has been revived/recurred frequently and influenced individual, sometimes international, relationships in East Asia. I am also interested in the process of reviving rain-making rituals in the villages of Yu-county in 1980s, in which I am considering the resilience of traditional rural community. My research currently focuses on the role of a local folklore “Orphan of Zhao”—the story about an orphan who is now enshrined as the deity of rainmaking in this area, and its famous adaption by Voltaire titled “L’Orphelin de la Chine”, especially how this traditional story guided villagers to overcome both natural and political disasters such as drought, war, and the Cultural Revolution.

A scene from “Donggan Culture Day,” a festival held in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek by the Donggan (who call themselves the Hui people) of Central Asia
The statue of the “Great King”, the deity of rainmaking in Yu-county. All of the local religion were prohibited, and shrines were destroyed in China under the name of “eradication of superstitions”, but this statue has survived for 30 years in the mountain then reappeared in the 1980s for reviving rain-making ritual.

Principal areas of interest

• Collective war memory
• Chinese rural community and its resilience
• History of cultural communication between China and Europe with the focus on a Chinese folklore and play