https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2194-1371
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ABSTRACT
This paper analyses how the evolution of the railway sector and the changes brought by the railways are perceived and represented in the People’s Republic of China. In doing so, we focus on four railway collections (three of them belonging to the same museum) and three temporary exhibitions, among other materials. That lets us build an interpretation giving prominence to material culture and to the symbolic use of objects and images, allowing us to pursue the meanings of railway heritage and history in China. Furthermore, this analysis compares the information available in Chinese and English in the museums, exhibitions, and some media (in this last case we include Spanish too). In terms of methodology, we combine tools from archaeology, museums studies, applied linguistics and cross-cultural communication. We think this approach is innovative and also appropriate to perceive the messages created by the Chinese museum sector and sent both to national and to international audiences – ie, how China uses railway heritage and history to represent itself domestically and to the rest of the world.
Supplemental data
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.
Acknowledgments
This article presents some of the results obtained in the research project ‘Chinese railways from an international angle: archaeology, heritage and image’, which is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-TP-18-065A1), P.R. China. The authors would like to show their gratitude to B. Kang, W. Qian, Y. Gou, R. Fan, Y. Ma, S. Feng and B. Tan, as well as to the staff of the museums and institutions mentioned in the paper. The authors are fully responsible for the opinions, hypothesis, conclusions and suggestions expressed in this paper, which do not necessarily reflect those of the colleagues and institutions here mentioned.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.
Geolocation information (UTM)
Zhengyangmen Exhibition Hall: 448201 – 4416658
Eastern Suburb Exhibition Hall: 458147 – 4427495
Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall: 415139 – 4467870
Shanghai Railway Museum: 354470 – 3458523
Notes
1. Wang and Wang, “China’s High-speed Rail.”
2. For example, from January 2018 to January 2019, the Chinese 人民日报 (People’s Daily) published 181 railway news, while 307 appeared in the English version of the China Daily. News about railways are also very common in other international editions, such as the Spanish Xinhua Español. See Supplemental Material 1.
3. Morriss, Archaeology of Railways; Emery and Haslam, “Archaeological Investigation”; and Cano Sanchiz, “Railways and Mining”, Cano Sanchiz, “The Morphology of a Working Place”, and Cano Sanchiz, “Energy and Railway Workshops”.
4. Davies, “Cleaning Up”; Hopkin, “Internationality of Railways”; Divall and Scott, Making Histories; and Méndez and Cuéllar, “Railway Museums.”
5. Halliday, Introduction to functional grammar.
6. “Railway Museums.”
7. Davies, “Cleaning Up.”
8. See note 6 above.
9. Oliveira and Delvizio, “Workspaces and Railway Production.”
10. Stover, American Railroads.
11. Cuéllar, Oliveira and Corrêa, “An Approach.”
12. EB, “History of China’s Railways”; and Ma, Chinese Railways Building Chronicles.
13. Ling, “China Railway Museum Overview.”
14. http://www.zhantianyou.org (Accessed October 2019).
15. Ling, “China Railway Museum Overview”; and Fang, Lei and Luo, “Early Chinese Steel Rails.”
16. Ling, “China Railway Museum overview,: 42.
17. Zhang, “Protection of the Original Part …,” 188.
18. Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, xix.
19. OWG, Memory on the Track; and Kang, Ji and Bai Early Days.
20. Ling, “China Railway Museum overview,” 42.
21. Ling, “China Railway Museum overview,” 42; and Gao, Historical Dictionary, 425–6.
22. Tang, “Shanghai Railway Museum.”
23. see Hopkin, “Internationality of Railways,” 338–9.
24. Crush, Woosung Road.
25. GOC, “Do Not Forget.”
26. Ibid.
27. Jiguang, Dhanalakshmi and Xu, “A Study on the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative.”
28. Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 157; and Jian and Maaleky, “Theory and Practice,” 44.
29. Oliveira, “Electrification,” 192.
30. Wei, “Earliest Diesel locomotive,” 41–2; and Zhang, History of Chinese … Locomotives, 279–80.
31. Walford and Harrison, A Detailed History, 273.
32. Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 159.
33. Chen and Haynes Chinese Railways; Zhai and Wang, Railway Development; Wang and Wang, “China’s High-speed Rail”; Jian and Maaleky, “Theory and Practice”; and Xinhua, “Chinese High-Speed Trains.”
34. Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 158.
35. Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, 2.
36. Hsu, “Foreign Interests,” 89–90; and Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, 2.
37. Hsu, “Foreign Interests,” 88; Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 155; and Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, 2.
38. Hsu, “Foreign Interests,” 91–102; and Crush Woosung Road, 20.
39. Science, “Railways in China,” 375–7.
40. Science, “Railways in China,” 376; and Fang, Lei and Luo, “Early Chinese Steel Rails,” 44.
41. Hsu, “Foreign Interests,” 3.
42. Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, 2; and Hsu, “Foreign Interests.”
43. Hsu, “Foreign Interests,” 212; and Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 155.
44. see Tjia, “Explaining Railway Reform,” 52–3; Hsu, “Foreign Interests”; and Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 155–7.
45. Xue, Schmid and Smith, “An Introduction,” 157–8; Xu, “Reflections of Industrial Heritage,” 112–4; Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, 3; and Gillete, “China’s Industrial Heritage,” 22.
46. Bollo and Zhang, “Policy and Impact.”
47. “Internationality of Railways,” 329.
48. “Internationality of Railways,” 329–34.
49. Hopkin, “Internationality of Railways,” 333.
50. see Tjia, “Explaining Railway Reform,” 53.
51. see Cano Sanchiz, “Cobre, Colonialismo Económico y Globalización”, and Cano Sanchiz, “The Morphology of a Working Place”.
52. see Bollo and Zhang, “Policy and Impact.”
53. Su, “Chinese Museums,” 120; and Sophia and Bueno, “Possible Readings,” 35.
54. Su, “Chinese Museums,” 121–2.
55. Chen and Haynes, Chinese Railways, 1.
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Funding
Notes on contributors
Juan Manuel Cano Sanchiz
Juan Manuel Cano Sanchiz is associate professor in archaeology and cultural heritage. He is doctor in archaeology; master in archaeology and heritage; and bachelor in art history. His speciality is the archaeology and heritage of industrialisation. He has developed his work on these topics in a number of countries, including Spain, the U.K., Germany, Brazil and China, mostly trying to define industrialisation as a globalisation process.
Ruijie Zhang
Ruijie Zhang is a lecturer in linguistics, translation and English study. Doctor in linguistics; master and bachelor in translation. Her personal interests include applied linguistics and functional linguistics, especially multidisciplinary works that can be enriched by linguistic analysis. She is currently working on the representation of ecological perceptions within discourses.
Lifang Lei
Lifang Lei is a postdoctoral fellow in mining engineering. She is doctor in history of science and technology and bachelor in mechanical engineering. Her speciality is the history of science and technology. More specifically, her research has focused on mining, metallurgy, machinery and railways, among other sectors, aiming to discuss how modern China embarked on industrialisation.