I found the reading about Qiu Jin SUPER interesting. I had NO idea who she was before I started reading it but I couldn't stop reading it was so intriguing.
I really enjoyed the analysis in this article because it can be applied in any culture. I kept thinking about the debate here in America about Civil War era statues and arguments for “cultural heritage”. Having grown up in the South, I’ve seen and heard people make that argument before…but as a historian and a history teacher I make sure to talk to students about the motives behind immortalizing someone. I think the romanticism that grew in the early to mid 20th century with the American civil war is similar some of the symbolic use of Qiu Jin later in Chinese history. It isn’t necessarily her or what she did but her as a symbol. We see that sort of thing all over history. Oliver Cromwell for instance is a hero in English history as the Protector of the Republic….but in Irish history he is known for genocide. Because of that idea, I liked the author’s approach to analyzing Qiu Jin’s “afterlife” and how she was used by different sides at different times as a symbol.
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