Beijing from Below: Stories of Marginal Lives at the Capital's Center by Harriet Evans (review)

Abstract

memory work as part of writing her life narrative in the context of imperial networks and Australia as part of an ongoing settler colonial nation. In different ways, the case studies highlight the active role of researchers, while posing questions and possibilities about how scholars might create and sustain research projects that have the potential for significant community impact and engagement. In collecting life stories for research, Andrew Jakubowicz reflects on the novel technologies he has utilized throughout his career and how these technologies can facilitate connections with audiences and be used by people who are sharing their life stories. In particular, Jakubowicz highlights the impacts of having recordings of people’s speech publicly available on a dedicated website where listeners can hear “the tonal and intonal components” of people’s narratives and “the stresses the narrators placed on words and phrases.” Jakubowicz notes that through these recordings listeners can hear “how hindsight has helped shape their accounts” (190). In the context of Melbourne’s Immigration Museum, Moya McFadzean explains how “new technologies” have enabled “more sophisticated memory enactments,” which pose challenges for curators in preserving “the authenticity of memories of migrations,” but also have the potential to “transform the world view of visitors” (256). While these are only two examples, what is evident throughout this collection is the place of technologies in creating new opportunities, which are not without constraints, for collecting, understanding, preserving, and sharing life stories. Remembering Migration provides those researching and writing about life narratives many case studies that cross time, place, and generations to engage with scholarship that centers the lives and legacies of individuals. Collectively, the works critically assess the power of disciplinary discourses, institutions, and organizations, considering how they function to represent and remember people’s lives. The book provides exciting examples of how scholars might engage with communities and work towards expanding the life stories featured in the public realm, and it showcases innovative ways for stories to be shared and understood.