Commemorating and burying dead comrades:  Revolutionary martyrs’ cemeteries in China and North Korea

Gwendolyn Leick

doi:10.6092/issn.2036-1602/6085

Commemorating and burying dead comrades: Revolutionary martyrs’ cemeteries in China and North Korea

Authors

Gwendolyn Leick Chelsea College of Art and Design
Born in Austria, studied Assyriology at the Karl-Franz University of Graz. Moved to England in 1975 and taught at various British universities; the last twenty years at the department of Interior and Spatial Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design as senior lecture in History and Theory. Recent publications: The Babylonians) Tombs of the Great Leaders. A Contemporary Guide. Reaktion 2013

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-1602/6085

Keywords:

China, War cemeteries, Revolution, Ideology, Landscape

Abstract

The paper examines the state sponsored, often vast cemeteries built to bury or commemorate the fallen ‘martyrs’ during revolutionary or civil wars in two Communist countries, China and North Korea. The legitimization of governments has always been an important issue with such burial sites and recent renovations of existing, as well as new constructions, in both countries show the continuing relevance of the policy. Of interest is also the way in which architectural, sculptural and landscape symbolization were employed to construct imagery that sometimes defies intended ideological messages.

References

Mao Zedong, “Lun lianhe zhengfu” [On the Coalition Government], in Mao Zedong junshi wenxuan [Selected Works of Mao Zedong’s Military Thought],1961

Chang-tai Hung, “The Cult of the Red Martyrs: Politics of Commemoration in China”, in Journal of Contemporary History, n. 43, February 2008

Jeffrey W. Cody, Building in China. Henry K. Murphy’s “Adaptive Architecture” 1914-1935, Chinese University Press, University of Washington Press, Seattle 2001

Brian deMare, Mao’s Cultural Army. Drama Troupes in China’s Cultural Revolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015

Yasheng Huang, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008

Adrian Buzo, The Making of Modern Korea Routledge, London/New York 2002

James Hoare, Historical Dictionary of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Scarecrow Press, Lanham/Oxford 2012

Justin Corfield, Historical Dictionary of Pyongyang, Anthem Press, London/New York/Paris 2014

Heonik Kwon, Byung-Ho Chung, North Korea: beyond charismatic politics, Rowman and Littlefield, Plymouth 2012

Gwendolyn Leick, Tombs of the Great Leaders. A contemporary Guide, Reaktion Books, London 2013

Mao Zedong, ‘Problems of War and Strategy’ (November 6, 1938), Selected Works

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Published

2015-12-29

How to Cite

Leick, G. (2015). Commemorating and burying dead comrades: Revolutionary martyrs’ cemeteries in China and North Korea. IN_BO. Ricerche E Progetti Per Il Territorio, La Città E l’architettura, 6(8), 166–178. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-1602/6085

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Issue

Vol. 6 No. 8 (2015): CITY OF THE DEAD / CITY OF THE LIVING

Section

Architecture, city and society

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