The 2005-2015 People's Daily's Report On The War Of Resistance

The Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (1937-1945) is a very important historical period for Chinese nation. In the war, Chinese people formed anti-Japanese national united front, struggling bravely and they obtained the first victory against foreign aggression greatly since modern times,realizing national independence. As a critical turning point from failure to thriving for Chinese nation, constructing a collective memory of Anti-Japanese War has important significance for maintaining power legitimacy and shaping national identity. In contemporary society, media is a crucial communication tool for collective memory construction. This research targets on what kind of Anti-Japanese War history the mass media has presented, and how the mass media has constructed the history.Choosing 1763 reports on the subject of Anti-Japanese War in People Daily from January 1,2005 to December 31, 2015 as the study text, the research adopts content and text analyzing methods to study the construction of Anti-Japanese War' collective memory in People Daily from the perspective of collective memorizing theory.The research has found that People Daily has reported Anti-Japanese War history extensively during the ten years. The commemoration report has an obvious characteristic of focusing on "the whole ten" anniversaries. In the presentation of multiple Anti-Japanese War issues, there are different narrative patterns for the Communist party and the Kuomintang in the anti-Japanese national united front. Reviving a multidimensional memory of suffering, humiliating, struggling and victory.As the social environment changes, compared with 2005, the coverage of the 70th anniversary of the war victory, focuses on turning an individual suffering into a national disaster. It criticizes Japanese deeds of denying the aggression history with spectacular historical materials,emphasizing that China can't be insulted. Besides,national commemorative activities have been shown in international arena through the coverage.To a certain extent, People Daily promotes the historical inheriting and intergenerational understanding of Anti-Japanese War by publicizing position, reporting massively, repeating history moderately and other strategies. However,repressing the sound of folk in news sources, weakening the autonomous expression of victims,and marginalizing the memories of Kuomintang's merits in Anti-Japanese War are not conducive to the continuation of Anti-Japanese War memory. As a bridge between the past and present, media should reflect on their roles in the memory constructing process. In addition, calls for a wider range of Anti-Japanese War issues and people's narrative subjectivity reoccurring should get more attention in future media historical coverage.