We are pleased to welcome Vivien Markert, Frederik Schmitz and Dr. Maximilian Mayer to present and discuss their book “The Digitalisation of Memory Practices in China: Contesting the Curating State.” (2025).
Building on their pioneering volume, this session delves into how rapidly evolving digital technologies are reshaping the politics of memory in contemporary China. Building on the book’s concept of the “curating state,” the discussion examines how digitalisation empowers non-state actors to preserve alternative narratives and challenge official histories while simultaneously equipping the Party-state with new tools to reinforce and control memory discourses. The discussion reflects on this paradoxical terrain and examines technology, power, and memory curation in China’s evolving sociotechnical landscape, where the past is reimagined, contested and censored.