With the advancement of globalization and the development of digital technology, memory now circulates across nations, cultures, and social groups with increasing frequency. In this context, transcultural memory has become a defining sociocultural phenomenon of the digital age.

Transcultural turn in memory studies

In the 1980s, disciplines such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, literature, and journalism and communication witnessed a surge of interest in memory studies, elevating memory to a major topic of scholarly inquiry. Entering the 21st century, the rapid expansion of the internet and digital media ushered in an era in which digital memory has become a dominant form. Collective memory theory, a key theory in memory research, focuses on how memory forms and circulates within particular boundaries or social groups. Through canonical texts, festive rituals, commemorative spaces, and other cultural sites or mechanisms, societies generate, sustain, revise, and enrich memory. German scholars Jan Assmann and Aleida Assmann conceptualized these processes as “cultural memory”—a way of remembering through culture. As a key system through which collective memory is produced and transmitted, cultural memory plays a vital role in human civilization and individual development.

Research on collective and cultural memory has long been dominated by a nation- or state-centered perspective. It concentrated primarily on memory issues closely related to nationhood, ethnicity, or locality, while paying insufficient attention to the transcultural circulation of memory. To address this gap, a transcultural turn has emerged in memory studies. German scholar Astrid Erll introduced the metaphor of “traveling memory” to describe the constant movement of people, media, memory forms, content, and practices in the production process of cultural memory. Tracing these movements entails establishing a global framework for memory studies from a transcultural perspective, which can inspire new practices and new ways of imagining how memory circulates across cultural boundaries—a key topic in the study of transcultural communication.

Transcultural memory in digital age

Transcultural memory is not confined to fixed regions, localities, or geographically defined nations or groups. In the digital age, an expanding volume of transcultural memory takes shape in digital space, where global issues become part of local experience and diverse, transcultural communities engage with one another on the basis of shared memory.

Today, transcultural memory tends to take four primary forms: memory produced through transcultural experience, most often expressed and disseminated digitally; digital memory emerging from the transcultural circulation of identical or similar memory content; transcultural memory created within online communities; and transcultural memory generated through “digital visits.” In addition, global public events represent typical arenas in which transcultural memory forms and circulates.

The flourishing of transcultural memory practices in the digital era has opened new opportunities for connection and created dense memory networks, while also raising issues that require careful attention. For instance, the producers of transcultural memory are no longer limited to mass media or other traditional social institutions, posing challenges to the authority of memory. Competition—and even conflict—among diverse memory agents, including “non-human actors” such as intelligent robots, further complicates collective memory construction. Digital forms lead to massive, expansive, and accelerating memories, while fragmented and individualized memories challenge the certainty of understanding and the stability of identity. False memories, such as mockumentaries and fabricated “counter-memories,” further threaten the pursuit of truth.

Transcultural memory represents a vital mechanism for fostering shared human memory. In digital form, it can transcend traditional spatial and cultural boundaries and contribute to reconstructing global publicness. By moving beyond single pathways for cultural memory and more effectively connecting global and local memories—including memories of the self and of the Other—transcultural memory fosters the emergence of common, shared memory and contributes to building a community with a shared future for humanity.

For international audiences, memory plays an essential role in understanding and identifying with Chinese culture. Their existing cultural memory constitutes the starting point for learning about Chinese culture, while the memory they develop throughout the process serves as an entry point for potential identification. Therefore, constructing transcultural memory is also a key aspect of the international communication of Chinese culture. In the digital age, the connections between cultural production, cultural consumption, cultural identity, and the communication of cultural memory should be considered holistically rather than in isolation. The memory resources embedded within Chinese culture should be fully explored.

Wu Shiwen is a professor and dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Wuhan University.