As Wenchuan still trembled in May of last year, compilations of photojournalism,
wreckage from the disaster site and artwork began to be assembled for display in
earthquake exhibitions across China. Though some of these memorials spontaneously
grew out of popular contributions, the bulk of them, housed in temples of PRC militarism,
multiculturalism, and learning, reflect state efforts to propagate a nation in ethnic,
economic, gendered and cultural harmony. This paper explores the state?s identity
construction projects of visual representations of Chinese citizens on site in the aftermath
of the earthquake. I use iconic images from official and unofficial media to expose
attempts to conceal nationalist tensions within the normative PRC pictorial order in a
moment of intense global scrutiny leading up to the Beijing Olympics.
