Post-cinematic memory ecology and the remediation of Chinese Red Cinema

The transition from mnemonic aura to memory bytes has mobilized technical experts, archivists, scholars, and cinephiles to preserve film copies, record eyewitness accounts, reconstruct viewing conditions, and recreate audience sensations. The ensuing network of agents, technologies, and discourses may be described as an intersection of new media and memory ecosystems. This post-celluloid, post-theatrical environment, which I call the post-cinematic memory ecology, engages new modes of production, storage, promotion, consumption, and recall. This essay highlights the main characteristics post-cinematic memory ecology and outlines the synergy between the emerging technologies, media industry models, patterns of viewer involvement, and practices of commemoration. The essay examines post-cinematic memory ecology through Film Legends ( Dianying chuanqi ), a made-for-TV mega-series that first aired in China in 2004.