Minghe Ma

Project Title

Explore the Culture Disruption and Reconstruction in Post-Industrial City: Capturing People's Memories, Forgetting and Expectations in Jingdezhen, China 

Project Description

The paper questions the emergence of cultural identity problems in cities under social change, focusing on the forgetting of urban 'memory' under the transformation of post-industrial cities, the research explores the memory bias of post-industrial heritage, traditional manufacturing heritage, and local cultural heritage at different levels of the contemporary consumer culture industry, using Jingdezhen, China, as a representative post-industrial city in the scope of the study. The research methodology considers the inherent plasticity of the concept of memory and the fruitful collaboration between anthropology, oral history, and sociology of memory, using a multidisciplinary approach that facilitates the investigation of multidimensional memories, occupational perceptions, intra-group solidarity, and expectations of both previous and new generations of practitioners. The paper aims to summarise pathways for cultural continuity, based on the position of traditional manufacturing practitioners.