China and the Postcolonial: appropriation and cultivation of colonial pasts in Shanghai and Nanjing

Contemporary China can be described as postcolonial, and not simply because of the historical encroachment of Western and Japanese colonial projects, but chiefly because of the continued importance of these expe- riences in shaping modern Chinese identity. In the discussion that follows, I try to relocate China’s management of collective memories of conflict within a postcolonial framework, focusing on the politics of colonial heritage and war memories.