{"id":1284,"date":"2015-05-05T00:44:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T23:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/?p=1284"},"modified":"2015-04-27T10:37:37","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T09:37:37","slug":"what-should-we-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/?p=1284","title":{"rendered":"What should we remember?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interesting question was posed in a report by Austrian researchers<\/a> into commemoration.<\/p>\n

But what should we remember if existence and memory are no longer part of what we remember?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a great little sound-bite, but\u00a0what does it mean? Ultimately, if we do not remember existence or memory, then what can\u00a0<\/em>we remember? Reflecting on the question, the initial reaction may be to think that it’s all a bit\u00a0too clever, and if it manages anything, it is only\u00a0to\u00a0close down debate, to force a preferred narrative upon the reader. Maybe.\u00a0But there\u00a0is an alternative. Perhaps the question is not that vacuous or circular.<\/p>\n

In certain contexts the question has an emphatic grip on the reality of the situation, and constitutes a call to action. \u00a0The story of the Chinese Labour Corps is a good example. Until recently (certainly for the majority of the last century) the story of the Chinese Labour Corps was not so much hidden as lost. \u00a0Lost through neglect, indifference and maybe a touch of indignation (following China’s refusal to sign the Treaty of Versailles).\u00a0Fete conspired to ensure their story remained lost when bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War destroyed the British records on the Chinese \u00a0Labour Corps. Fragments of it’s narratives scattered,\u00a0buried in files seldom opened let alone read, in government departments or in archives in far-off lands. \u00a0If we think of these things, and ask ourselves,<\/p>\n

But what should we remember about the Chinese Labour Corps if existence and memory are no longer part of what we remember?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The answer\u00a0must surely be in defiance of the question, and is simple. It is stated on countless memorials, churches and across so much literature on the first world war: \u00a0we will remember them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting question was posed in a report by Austrian researchers into commemoration. But what should we remember if existence and memory are no longer part of what we remember? It’s a great little sound-bite, but\u00a0what does it mean? Ultimately, if we do not remember existence or memory, then what can\u00a0we remember? Reflecting on the … <\/p>\n

Read more <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-context","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensuringweremember.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}