…we want to weigh in on the question of historical representation, exploring the relationship between “experience” and “history” and tackling the conundrum of why some people’s memories seem to be treated as more legitimate than others. (xvi)

What is at issue, we argue, is not so much as experience vs. history, which is in essence a false dichotomy. What is at issue is who – that is which social and political group – defines history, represents history, and, above all, decides whose experiences and whose memories count as history, whose do not, and for what reasons. (xxvi)

Four-fifths of the RE/VISIONIST staffers are in Priscilla Murolo’s Revolutionary Women class. This week we are reading and discussing Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era edited by Xueping Zhong, Wang Zheng, and Bai Di. The authors and editors complicate the dominant narratives of the Mao years by offering their own experiences through memoir. I found that the quotes above really resonated with some of our aims here at RE/VISIONIST.

— Kate Wadkins