Interpretation Memorial Hall:Visitors' Memory Acceptance And Meaning Interpretation

At present,both the study of memory and the sites of memory have neglected the attention to the subj ect of memory.Therefore,this study focuses on individual memory.Space is regarded as a medium and memorial hall as a memory space is regarded as a medium.This study takes the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders as a case study,takes Hall's three modes of interpretation as the analytical framework,adopts participatory observation,semi-structured interviews and text analysis,and attempts to explore from the perspective of audience research:how do visitors remember the contents of the memorial and how do they understand the significance of the memorial?Through the research,it is found that:Firstly,through the construction layout,material,film and television materials,the memorial hall constructs the contrast between"live"and "death",and arouses the patriotic enthusiasm of visitors by creating an atmosphere of depression and indignation.Through expansion,the memorial hall links the Nanjing Massacre with the War of Resistance Against Japan and the World War against Fascism,with a more profound intention.The symbolic meaning of the whole memorial is transferred to the words of"cherishing peace"on the basis of remembering history.Secondly,there are three ways for visitors to interpret the memorial:preferential interpretation,deliberative interpretation and resistance interpretation.Even deliberative interpretation and resistance interpretation are carried out within the framework of national discourse.There is no clear demarcation between the three interpretations,in other words,there is not a specific way of interpretation in a certain kind of person or a specific way of interpretation in certain scenarios.Finally,the reason for this interpretation is mainly influenced by external conditions and internal experience.External conditions include micro and macro aspects.At the micro level,the layout design of the memorial hall has a guiding and shaping effect on visitors'interpretation,and the interaction within the visitors'groups also promotes and restricts the interpretation.At the macro level,the social and cultural traditions of visitors have an impact on visitors' interpretation.From the internal experience,visitors'past experience comes from intergenerational transmission,school education and mass media,mainly the latter two.School education and mass media reinforce visitors' memories of the Nanjing massacre through continuous information dissemination.Visitorsl'own experience is connected with the macro social and cultural context in an intrinsic form.With the help of Mark Freeman's concept of "narrative unconsciousness",the author believes that the present study presents a kind of "interactive unconsciousness"-all the past shapes "the present me".In the face of memorial halls or other new images,the past memory experience is internalized in an unconscious form in the individual heart.The result of such interpretation is not only the result of the single influence of the memorial hall or other new images.It's the result of a combination of accumulated experience and current presentations.The experience of visiting the memorial hall will interact in future activities related to the Nanjing Massacre,which is unconscious---I didn't realize it,but it---everything that has happened in the past---all the time.