The controversial flag dress: Collective memory, cyberspace and civil society in a rising China

A 2001 magazine photo in China turned into a political drama on the Internet: Zhao Wei, one of the country’s best-known actresses, posed in a dress imprinted with a Japanese navy flag. The image caused a furor among Chinese netizens, forcing Zhao to make a public apology. By analysing Zhao’s online responses and the public discourse surrounding her lack of historical sensitivity, this article investigates the relations between state-sanctioned education and individual responses, the expanding Internet as a new way for people to hear different voices and form opinions, and the state’s behind-the-scenes manipulation. Furthermore, an investigation of the dynamic relationship between civic engagement and the manipulative state explains how nationalism is represented and perceived in the context of China’s rise.