Fifty years after the Chinese Cultural Revolution, scholars, survivors and witnesses have created different versions of that part of history.
This paper focuses on documentaries produced in Hong Kong, Japan and the United States to explore how they intervene in popular memory of the Cultural Revolution. In particular, it analyzes these documentaries' overall engagement with ethical issues such as the causes and responsible parties of the historical trauma.
It questions: What group(s) and memories are excluded/discredited in this process? How do they represent trauma without paying tribune to the fascist aesthetics? How do they explore the issue of ethical responsibilities and serve the theme of never more? How do they represent what Michael Rothberg termed "implicated subject?"
