Cultural Memory and Symbol Construction: A Study on the Decoding of ‘Dead to Right’ by Young Audience

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_94How to use a DOI?

Keywords

cultural memory; symbol construction; youth audience; ‘Dead to Right’; decoding; Nanjing Massacre

Abstract

Based on Jan Assman’s cultural memory theory as the core framework, combined with Hall’s coding / decoding theory, this paper explores how the film ‘Dead to Right’ constructs the cultural memory of the Nanjing Massacre through symbolic narrative and ritualized communication in the ‘ post-memory ‘ era, and how young audiences decode and identify with this memory construction. The study found that the film successfully constructed a “ cohesive structure” through the creative and ritualized communication strategy of core symbols such as “ photo studio” and “ photo”; the decoding of the young audience presents a pluralistic situation of dominant, consultative and confrontational coexistence. By creating a dual narrative framework of ‘ civilian perspective’ and ‘ historical witness’, the film effectively realizes the intergenerational transmission of historical memory and the strengthening of national identity, which provides a useful reference for the new mainstream cultural film.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhiwei Xue
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - Cultural Memory and Symbol Construction: A Study on the Decoding of ‘Dead to Right’ by Young Audience
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 933
EP  - 940
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_94
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_94
ID  - Xue2026
ER  -