Paper short abstract:

How can revolutionary graveyards, which produce martyrs for a national history, allow for the official rewriting of history? This paper wrestles with this question in the context of Beijing's Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.

Paper long abstract:

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was established on the outskirts of Beijing as a burial ground for Revolutionary Martyrs in 1951. Since then, a surprising variety of people have been buried there, including government cadres and military officers of various ranks, ordinary citizens who have been found to have made significant sacrifices for the Chinese revolutionary and national causes, and even some non-Chinese nationals deemed to have made such sacrifices. Elaborate rules about who may be buried where in the graveyard, the size of tombstones, and even the memorial hall where cinerary caskets are placed have evolved over the decades to reflect the hierarchical imaginary of the government of the time. As the Communist government in China has repeatedly revised the official versions of its history it considers to be political correct, the relatively permanent commemoration of martyrs raises significant problems for the presentation of history. This paper examines how cemetery officials have managed this problem with an eye on questions of ritualization, politics and history. If ritualization is understood as a mode remaking social and power relations by granting certain hierarchies a sacred halo, then how can the relatively permanent halos constructed in the Revolution Cemetery contain enough ambiguity to survive the political revision of history?