From the perspective of Wikipedia as "globital memory field"(Reading A 2011,241-252), this research aimed to make a systematic analysis of the editing practices and central issues of the Chinese entry of the "COVID-19 pandemic" since its creation in 2019, in an effort to reveal how the digital mnemonic communities have discursive/cognitive contested and collaborated in the online collective memory writing, and how Wikipedia, as the most influential online encyclopedia with a scientific objective neutrality stance, promoted the communicative memory transform into cultural and functional memory which reversed the classic monologic and highly ideological interpretive framework on memory construction.

The study applies both quantitative and qualitative text analysis on the entry and history pages on Wikipedia from 2019 to December 2021, especially focused on the process in which editors finally reached a consensus through debates and compromises on the discussion page. In addition, this study includes a three-month online ethnography in “Wiki-zh”, a cross-platform Chinese Wikipedia editor community to delve into the dynamic generation of the collaborative communities and relationships of different mnemonic groups.

This paper mainly sets out with several conclusions as follows:

Chronologically, collective memory is in a dynamic state of continuous construction and negotiation. Collaborative memory writing not only develops an extension of individual subjectivity but also shape a new concept of social responsibility and identity, in this case namely: Chinese Wikier;

The past and the present are intertwined in collective memory. On the one hand, similar events in the past, such as SARS, are constantly referred to as non-commemorative narrative resources. On the other hand, the increase in the number of edits for anniversaries also reflects commemorative memory, another mode of linking the past and the present. Wikipedia provides space for "spontaneous commemorations" is crucial to this mnemonic practice;

The discussion page as a medium realizes the transition from individual to the collective, from trivial life experiences to encyclopedic historical statements, from communicative memory to functional memory;

The debate on neutrality directly triggered the editorial war. Neutrality is related to the editor’s emotional involvement, nation-state identity, and is mainly reflected in three aspects of the discussion: the overall narrative position, the source of the cited references, and the title of the entry;

In Wikipedia, while collective memory practices still have a very strong identity boundary for nation-states, its contents also demonstrate a strong sense of global intertextuality.