Authoritarian Memory Politics: State Erasure, Manipulation, and Counter-Hegemonic Resistance

Forgetting and remembering are inherently linked to politics, and this relationship is even more pronounced in authoritarian regimes where autocrats can manipulate and control memory without institutional and societal constraints. This study analyzes the politics of memory within an authoritarian regime by theorizing about the interaction between authoritarian rule and the cultural-political ecosystem. It explores how the state-led erasure of memory and construction of a dominant memory discourse collaboratively produce and sustain cultural hegemony. Simultaneously, counter-hegemonic resistance challenges cultural hegemony. Memories of the COVID-19 pandemic in China are used as a case study to illustrate authoritarian memory politics. The empirical analysis employs rich materials, including interviews, government archives, and social media posts, to illustrate the politics of memory within an authoritarian context.