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China Information
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Destroying the Remembered and Recovering the Forgotten in Chai

Between Traditionalism and Modernity in Beijing

Zhao Xudong

Department of Sociology, College of Humanities and Development (COHD), China Agricultural University, People's Republic of China.

Duran Bell

University of California, Irvine, USA.

Beijing is currently undergoing a host of dramatic changes, as reflected in the popular symbol chai (see pdf for characters). Chai means destruction; but it also refers to antiquated things or ideas that should be destroyed. By presenting chai, one is able to arouse into memory certain forgotten things that previously rested in the background. However, the reconstructed forgotten memories that one actually remembers differ from the actually forgotten. In this way prevailing Chinese conceptions of contemporary social transformations can be configured into recollections of constructed images of the past; and the past can be lost while being remembered. In this article, this process of creative remembering and forgetting will be illustrated by reference to changes in customs and residential ownership. We shall argue that traditionalism and modernity in contemporary China should be seen as circular transformations between remembering and forgetting.

Key Words: modernity • tradition • mental representation

China Information, Vol. 19, No. 3, 489-503 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0920203X05058507
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