The Research On Media Memory In The Report Of "Comfort Women" In China's Newspaper (1992-2016)

In the study of collective memory,the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs argues that the past is not preserved,but reconstructed on the basis of “now”.People will never be able to walk into the same river together.The past,in the entanglement with “now”,seems impossible to be preserved completely,which is restricted and influenced by present social factors and values,and finally rebuilt.Although the form of the past is changed,still there is something that cannot be changed in its intrinsic nature.These invariable elements are the original reservations for the past.This paper studies the news reports of“comfort women” in newspapers in China from 1992 to 2016 on the basis of reconstruction theory in the collective memory research by Habawah.Klochevsky,a famous Russian historian,who has ever said,"If we lose our memory of history,our hearts will be lost in the dark." This famous saying is actually to remind us of the point of memory,that is,to memorize history is intended to make advance faster.The collective memory of comfort women is quite meaningful for our nation,and this part of history is a vital national mark that reminds the Chinese people never to forget the national humiliation.In the process of forming the collective memory of "comfort women",the memory construction by the media plays a vital role.The media's description on historical events and historical clients,the media's report for current events,are all important mechanical buildings for national memory.Through the media framework,we can have a better understanding about how China and the world is seeing the “comfort women” event,get to know the appeals of “comfort women”,to notice the collective situation of the “comfort women” and the attitude towards this issue,so as to interpret how the media construction helps construct the collective memory of comfort women.As Mr.Xi Jinping points out,history is the best textbook and is sobriety as well.The Chinese people have an unforgettable memory of the sufferings of the aggressive war and have a tireless pursuit of peace.The collective memory of comfort women will be remembered forever,not only for historical records but also for the basic respect and protection of the comfort women.This study,through an analysis of different texts and related events by selecting the representative coverage for comfort women,in combination with presentation of the specific case content and discourse,has discussed about how to construct the comfort women collective memory from contents to forms.Through the review of the report,the author believesthat four aspects can be employed to summarize the research on media memory in the report of “comfort women” in China's newspaper.Part one presents the history change of media memory on the emergence of the comfort women report and the phased development.According to the time sequence,the forms and contents of the related reports on the "comfort women" vary in different historical stages,and the collective memory is hence constructed accordingly.Part two illustrates the main image of the media memory construction.This part mainly focuses on the description of the fate and tragic experience of "comfort women" inside the report,and reappears the personal fate of "comfort women".Part three centers around the basic topic of media memory construction about the issue of Japanese crime on comfort women.This paper,from three angles respectively,analyzes the establishment and implementation of the "comfort women" system by the Japanese army,the atrocity of human nature distortion in the "comfort women" system and the concealment of their own crimes.The fourth part offers the real refers of the media memory.The reality demonstrates the comfort women's activism and Japanese barriers,how to get the support in the process of protecting their rights and how the Japanese government set obstacles.The study has found that the newspapers in the construction of comfort women's collective memory,mostly standing within the framework of national discourse,pay particular attention to the depict of the collective consciousness of nationality,which keeps pace with the national consciousness.Reports of the comfort women in the personal experience describes the comfort women's inhuman treatment suffered by the collective,and these related events can be used as the evidence of Japanese imperialism in the Second World War crimes.At the same time,the reports,through the subsequent "comfort women" rights action,have established a strong image of brave fight and pursuit of justice of the "comfort women".The world's support for the rights of comfort women and the condemnation for Japan's historical crimes have also fully presented that the comfort women group is just upholding justice.In general,the whole process of construction,social public opinion in this development process,from hidden to reveal,from passivity to initiative,has been,as far as possible,the "past" of the "comfort women" collective in front of the world.Please let this part of history be remembered by the people of every historical period,and by the "present" in particular.