Making memory work: The SARS memory and China’s war on COVID-19

Abstract

In the global fight against COVID-19, a “pandemic memory thesis” emerges. This thesis argues that nations with memories of past pandemics, such as East Asian countries with SARS memories, can better control the COVID-19 pandemic today. Yet, if this thesis holds, why hadn’t the SARS memory helped China prevent the outbreak of COVID-19? Why, however, can China swiftly contain the pandemic in its later stages by exploiting the SARS memory? To address this contradiction, I treat the pandemic as an ontological crisis and put forward a theory centering on the construction of ontological consensus by the state and society. By studying symbolic events in China’s war on COVID-19, particularly the Li Wenliang and Zhong Nanshan cases, I argue that the state’s acknowledgment of the crisis, society’s awareness and cultural preparedness, and the re-fusion of state-society relations are crucial for memory to work in the fight against a new pandemic.