Re-Imaging an Ancient,Emergent Superpower: 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,Public Memory,and National Identity |
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| Authors: | Jie Gong |
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| Institution: | 1. jie.gong@asu.edu. |
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| Abstract: | On August 8, 2008, Beijing orchestrated a grand opening ceremony for the Twenty-Ninth Olympic Games. Amid the People's Republic of China's inexorable emergence as a superpower in the world, the ceremony provided a valuable glimpse into contemporary Chinese political and social circumstances. Employing public memory as the conceptual framework to unravel this momentous spectacle, this essay argues that the Chinese government erected a new national identity, through historico-cultural invocations and reconfigurations of Chinese and global memories. Yet such rhetorical exploits also betrayed the Chinese government's intense pursuit of politico-ideological legitimacy in the globalizing world, which has increasingly been challenged by Chinese and global publics. |
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| Keywords: | Beijing Olympics Public Memory National Identity Rhetorical Criticism China Rise |
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