"People's Daily" Research On The Construction Of "comfort Women" Collective Memory (1992-2018)

President Xi Jinping once said that forgetting history means betrayal.The "comfort women" were special victims of the Second World War.Due to various reasons after the war,the issue became a legacy issue and a human rights issue.China and Japan have formed a very different understanding of the issue of "comfort women".In the context of the difficulty in reaching a consensus on the "comfort women" public memory,it is necessary for the public to accept the correct "comfort women" collective memory.The media played an important role in the construction of the collective memory of "comfort women".As the most authoritative media platform in China,People's Daily has built a collective memory of "comfort women" not only to pass on history,but also to guide the people to form a correct view of history.From the perspective of the combination of journalism communication and collective memory,this paper selects the literature research method and content analysis as the research methods.This paper uses the "comfort women" as the key word and selects the People's Daily reports from 1992 to 2018(26 years in total)as a sample,with the help of the online database "People's Daily Graphic Data Full-text Retrieval System" and cultural trauma theory,this paper analyzes how the People's Daily has constructed a collective memory of "comfort women" since 1992.People's Daily's collective memory of "comfort women" has undergone a process of change.In the 1990s,Sino-Japanese relations entered a sensitive period,and the number of reports by the People's Daily on "comfort women" reached a peak.However,the national level faced the lack of awareness of "comfort women" and regarded it more as a diplomatic issue.During the period from 2000 to 2004,Sino-Japanese relations were cold,and the Japanese "textbook incident" triggered serious protests from the Chinese people.The Daily has promoted the process of construction through the restoration of historical context,but at this time the folk discourse is more active than the official discourse;From 2005 to 2010,there were more discourses at the national level.The reporting time of People's Daily was closely related to the international and domestic situations,and gradually took the initiative in discourse;From 2011 to 2018,the state actively constructed the "comfort women" related events,through the commemorative way to emphasize the historical value of "comfort women."The study found that the media construction methods adopted by People's Daily include commemorative reports,historical analogies,and historical contexts.In addition,they also carry collective memories of "comfort women" in public spaces."Comfort women" is the eternal pain in the depths of the collective memory of the Chinese nation.Therefore,this article links "comfort women" with cultural trauma.The study found that in the process of traumatic narrative,People's Daily relied mainly on the recall narratives of victims,injurers and witnesses to construct collective memory and increase collective identity.In addition,in the process of constructing People's Daily,this paper explores the historical picture of the collective memory of "comfort women" from the symbolization of "comfort women",the institutional solidification of official texts,and the dialectical point of remembering and forgetting.