The next speaker in this session at the 2026 International Communication Association conference in Cape Town is Xinyu Zhang, whose interest is in how commemorative practices on China’s national holidays shape popular attitudes towards war.
China marked the 80th anniversary of its victory against Japan in 2025, and this resulted both in expressions of national pride and more solemn reflections on the sacrifices of the past. What do such comments reflect, though: a benign sense of national identity and belonging, or a more aggressive sense of nationalism and negativity towards other countries?
This study explored people’s willingness to fight for their country through two survey waves, and examined whether such willingness was driven by feelings of national pride or outright nationalism. Attitudes turned out to be affected by national commemorations: respondents reported higher levels of national identity, nationalist attitudes, and willingness to fight for their country. The level of involvement in commemorative practices was not significantly higher than before, however.
Overall, national identity did not play a significant mediating role relating to willingness to fight before the commemorations; feelings of outright nationalism tended were the major influence instead. After the commemorations, that pattern persisted: commemorative practices therefore appear to influence attitudes towards war mainly through nationalism. Commemorative practices matter, therefore, and serve as amplifiers of nationalism rather than national identity. Media coverage further amplify such effects, especially for people who consume more mainstream and social media news.
Commemoration is not just about remembering the past, then, but also about shaping the future.
