Viral ultra-short dramas are challenging China’s memory politics
The rise of ultra-short war dramas creates tension with China’s official war narrative, inspiring regulatory backlash.
On 3 September 2025, Tiananmen Square hosted a grand military parade, the centrepiece of Beijing’s official campaign commemorating the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Yet the rise of viral ultra-short war dramas has turned wartime memory into a form of online entertainment, revealing Beijing’s larger struggle to keep the memory of the war both politically useful and firmly under its control.
The War of Resistance has long been the focal point of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) internal legitimacy and long-term war memory.
In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the CCP intensified its narrative strategy by launching a nationwide patriotic education campaign.
Beijing’s struggle to control wartime memory is reflected in the tension between official war narrative and online entertainment.
Author’s summary: China’s memory politics is challenged by viral ultra-short dramas.