on the real intention of the organizers. But a look at the table of contents of the collection of papers delivered during the symposium at the end of 2005, revised or edited by the authors in this book, gives an indication of its purpose. Speakers were partly directly invited, partly welcome after a call-for-papers. Many spoke about China; one third or so proposed an analysis of other countries, or of methodological matters. About one third of the speakers were Chinese, other non-Chinese scholars in the Chinese study field, and many from different countries, cultures, and interests.

The hope of the MRI was to bring people together to enrich each other through exchanges of views, with special attention given to discussions going on in China. This makes the book rather difficult reading from cover to cover; some readers may not be interested in certain chapters, but it offers a very rich collection of reflections, concrete examples and well documented support for the theoretical and practical importance of the relations between history and memory in the shaping of cultures.

Some articles, very technical, will probably only gain the attention of specialists, such as “Ancestral Memory, Homestead Symbols and Clan History: Analysis of the Shanxi Hongdong Big Locust Tree Legend”, by Zhao Shiyu. Others are also very technical but with another meaning of the word; for example “The Future of Free information”, by Lawrence M. Sanger. In between, Ding Dong, for instance, explains the idea behind the launching of the collections of “Old Photos” and narrates the making of the issues. From a very different perspective Haviva Peled-Carmeli shows how personal objects are significant for remembering the past and shaping the future, a central task she pursues at Yad Vashem Museum.

More theoretical reflections, like those of Marie-Claire Lafabre in her paper “Can we influence Memory?”, were concretely reflected in the in-depth analysis of “The French Resistance: Between Memory and History” by Oli-vier Vieworka and in the memory and forgetting of the Nanjing massacre, by Rana Mitter. Sylvie Rollet added a special touch with her presentation of the film on Cambodia by Rithy Panh entitled S 21. And these are only a few of the presentations heard during this really international symposium.

As announced in the schedule, time allowed to each speaker was strictly limited; general exchanges of view were encouraged. Indeed debates were sometimes quite lively, as noted in a footnote of one paper. The book, understandably, does not reproduce the discussions. But this was the real intention of the organizers: to learn from each other, at a highly academic level, to better understand a fact that influences everybody’s life, namely how the memory of our history, or the history of our memory, functions. After all this is one of the raison d’être of the MRI as it presents itself: focus on China, within a larger context of cultural encounter.

Books of this kind often rest half-forgotten on shelves in libraries. Curious readers or patient searchers may per chance open them and find some pages attractive, or discover in them just what they are looking for. How could the rich collection of papers assembled in this book be available to more people, be more “exploited”? Of course, many ideas expressed there and founded in careful analysis may well have been published elsewhere in some form or another. Nevertheless the collection here presented is impressive in its own right. Could some electronic means make it more easily available to more readers?

It may be unfair to mention this or that paper and not the others. Of course not all of them are of the same calibre and we have just picked examples to show the variety of questions addressed. To finish, we could recommend the passionate key-note presentation of Tu Weiming: “Historical Consciousness and Cultural Identity”, a title challenging enough to underline the importance of historical memory in China.

Others can also be recommended! Conzuelo Varela, from Spain, in the first paper of the symposium, reminds in simple, but forceful words, the task of historians. “Is it possible to bring together the fidelity of remembrance and the critical distancing of historical epistemology?” asks C. Varela. Yes, is her answer… with the caveat “that it is difficult to achieve.” A few lines before, she wrote that historians must avoid pronouncing judgments on historical events, but cannot refrain from moral judgment… as this becomes clear in any refection of forgiving and reconciliation (pp.40-41). In this task, historians may join efforts with, among others, museum curators, film-makers, school teachers and information technicians, as illustrated in many different ways in this book.