Pre-field Research on Mao Zedong’s Monuments in His Birthplace, Shaoshan, China

For my project, I will conduct a field survey on the monuments dedicated to Mao Zedong in his birthplace, Shaoshan, China. I will spend two days in Shaoshan doing an observational study of how people use and interpret Mao's monuments. I will also take two days in Changsha to collect related documents in the Provincial Library and Archive. I will visit the socialist memorial sites in Beijing and Shanghai to obtain a comparative framework for the analysis of Mao's monuments. This project is an integral part of my doctoral work that focuses on the memorial practices in and beyond Shaoshan. It provides me materials to prepare my dissertation proposal and another, major field research in 2018.