ABSTRACT
Based on a case study of a bilingual photographic exhibition on nineteenth-century China, this chapter explores how collective memory is constructed and translated in museums. Three pillars of collective memory are reviewed and adopted as the theoretical framework: a body of knowledge, an attribute, and a process. Framing is also brought into the discussion for analyzing translation shifts. The chapter draws on a range of data, including photos, the photographer’s writings, academic research, and English and Chinese labels, as well as other exhibition paratexts such as catalogues, interviews, and exhibition websites.
The findings illustrate a process of narration and re-narration of the photos, which reflects the wishes, ambitions, and expectations of the memory stakeholders at different times and space as well as from different cultures. Although photos are often regarded as tangible proof of the past, they only capture a glimpse of a selective moment. How that moment is extended to the present is largely framed by the accompanied verbal interpretations. This chapter concludes that the past is selected and constructed in the space between the visual and the verbal, which results in an institutional narrative of collective memory.
