Nostalgic narratives- true or false?

In writing my Chinese Politics essay on the famine that occurred between 1989 and 1963 during the Maoist period, investigating different approaches and narratives to what occurred has tended to be indicative of people’s political leanings more than their own experience or their reaction to archival or empirical evidence. One recent publication of a book called “Someone Must Finally Speak the Truth” by Yang Songlin argues that “at most four million “abnormal fatalities” occurred during the famine.” This contrasts heavily with the estimation of other scholars whom believe it to be closer to 45 million. Yang Songlin as well as current party leader Xi Jingping are both particularly concerned with protecting Mao and the party’s revolutionary legacy, despite the latter’s own family suffering tragically under circumstances. Yang Jisheng wrote a book reflecting on multiple experiences of the disaster and the harrowing reality that was previously largely unknown. ““To defend the ruling status of the Communist Party, they must deny that tens of millions died of starvation,” Mr. Yang said. “There’s a sense of social crisis in the party leadership, and protecting its status has become more urgent, and so it’s become even more necessary to avoid confronting the truth about the past.””
Edward Friedman, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was an editor of the English version of Mr. Yang’s book “Tombstone.” Said “They need their great leader to be pure, they need to have a vision of the past that’s worth being nostalgic about.”
     I found this really interesting because it relates heavily to the notions we’ve discussed as a group of nostalgia being about curating a specific narrative that isn’t necessarily realistic and is to some degree, whether it’s due to poor memory or conscious political alignment, a lie. We will be exploring the contrasts between what we reminisce on, and speak so fondly of, and the often harsh reality of what this actually entails now and throughout history in our final video. 

Liz