“A More Personal Look at Her Life”: Family Narrative, Gender, and Transnational Memories in The Girl and the Picture

Abstract

Abstract Recent decades have witnessed a booming film industry portraying the Nanjing Massacre, both within and outside Mainland China, which is closely related to contemporary Chinese political, socioeconomic, and cultural transformations. This article examines the USC Shoah Foundation's 2018 documentary film The Girl and the Picture, featuring the well-known Nanjing Massacre female survivor Xia Shuqin. It argues that the cinematic rendition of Xia's family stories serves as a piercing incision into Nanjing Massacre historical memories and weaves together the personal with the national, and transgenerational with transnational memories. The Girl and the Picture radicalizes cinematic discourses on the Nanjing Massacre from multiple angles and not only sheds light on the emerging field of Nanjing Massacre studies but also contributes to our understanding of the ongoing memory boom of the Nanjing Massacre in the context of globalization. By delivering the stories of Xia along both family and transnational lines, The Girl and the Picture points out a new way to cope with the memory crisis of the Nanjing Massacre, and to take responsibility for transmitting the memories across generational, national, gender, and ethnic boundaries.