I brainstormed and researched about what kind of audience should the project faces to in this week.
So, what kind of people or perceptions should be changed ？
After starting this project, I spoke to many people about their impressions of Nanjing and the responses fell into two broad categories.
- Nanjing is the capital of the Republic of China
As I stated in my previous research for this project, some of the popular stems of Nanjing in popular culture in recent years have been Republic of China related themes and elements. So this phenomenon gives birth to a new question, why not modern Nanjing? - A sad memory in the midst of the Second World War
As the capital of the Republic of China, Nanjing seems to epitomise the sad memories of the Second World War in the minds of contemporary Chinese. When one mentions “I am from Nanjing”, the most common question asked in return is about the history of the Second World War. During the Second World War, Nanjing was the scene of a tragedy that shocked the world – the Nanjing Massacre. And popular news and events related to Nanjing in recent years have also revolved around such legacies, such as the Nanjing Jiuhua Mountain Xuanzang Temple incident earlier this year. Worse still, in subsequent communications, a significant number of people have refused to visit Nanjing because of such tragic memories. And it is surprising that such arguments are hardly ever refuted. People remain silent about it. Such an attitude is also indifferent and discriminatory towards the people of Nanjing.
In addition to this, I also researched on the major search engines and when I typed in “Nanjing”, the most frequent association was still the Nanjing incident.
Based on this research, I gained a deeper understanding of the topic of this project. The research questions and audience were then updated.
The audience for this project is identified as non-Nanjing citizens who have a flat impression of Nanjing.
The research question is that
How can cultural heritages enrich Nanjing’s city identity？