This is a collection of essays marking the 30th anniversary of the historic Cold War’s formal conclusion in 1991. It enriches Cold War studies―a field dominated by Political Science, International Relations, and History―with insights from Sociology, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, and Film and Media Studies. Through critical analysis of newspaper and magazine articles, films, novels, art exhibits, museums, and other commemorative sites that engage with the themes of conflict, violence, trauma, displacement, marginalization, ecology, and identity, the book provides rich and diverse perspectives on the complex relationship between the historic Cold War and its legacies on the one hand and, on the other, their impact on Asia, its plural histories and peoples, and their shifting identities, ideological beliefs, and lived experiences.
Today, we often speak of an ‘Asian century’ and witness intensifying concerns over ‘new cold wars’ or ‘Cold War 2.0’. A United States in decline and a China on the rise create conditions for a new superpower rivalry, with a trade war already being fought between the two competitors. Russia continues to flex its geopolitical muscles, launching a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022, as its strongman leadership yearns nostalgically for the good old days of the USSR. As grand narratives and strategies of the Cold War jostle to make sense of high-level geopolitical events, this book descends to the level of lived experience, zooming in on ordinary and marginalized peoples, whose lives and livelihoods have been affected over the decades by the Cold War and its legacies.
Author(s): Kenneth Paul Tan
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 245
City: Singapore
Preface
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Images
List of Tables
1 Interpreting the Cold War and the New Cold War in Asia
Cold-War Histories
Cold-War Conflicts in Asia
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
The Chinese Civil War
The Malayan Emergency
China in the Cold War and the New Cold War
Cold-War Ideological Struggle
Cold-War Narratives
Museums and Monuments
Films and Television Serials
Novels and Non-Fiction Books
News
Cold-War Lived Experience
References
2 Curating Memory: Cold-War Narratives in Museums and Memorials in Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, and Cambodia
Kinmen, Taiwan: The Island as an Open-Air Museum (December 2015)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Amusement Grounds and Propaganda (January 2016)
Seoul, South Korea: A Monument to Gratitude? (April 2016)
Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Narrating Victimhood, Complicity, and Guilt (July–August 2016)
New York, United States of America (Winter 2019–Summer 2022)
References
3 Ecology as a Cold-War Scale: Lau Kek Huat’s Absent Without Leave and Ha Jin’s War Trash
Bodies and the Jungle in Absent Without Leave
Bodies and Territoriality in War Trash
Conclusion
References
4 Where Is My Homeland? Mainland Chinese Refugees and Hong Kong Tenement Films During the Cold-War Era
British Hong Kong, Mainland Chinese Refugees, and the Battle for Hearts and Minds
Pro-communist “Patriotic” Cinema
Home, Sweet Home (1950)
The Show Must Go On (1952)
The Dividing Wall (1952)
U.S.-Backed Pro-nationalist “Free” Cinema
Halfway Down (1955)
The Mandarin’s Bowls (1956)
Coda
References
5 Grand Strategies and Everyday Struggles Under the New Cold War and COVID-19: A Sociological Political Economy
Geopolitics, COVID-19, and the New Cold War
Critical Sociologies and Current Issues in the New Cold War
Mobilities and Everyday Struggles Under the New Cold War and COVID-19
Mini Case 1: People with HIV Infections in Wuhan, China
Mini Case 2: Service and Factory Workers in Hong Kong
Mini Case 3: Factory Workers in Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry
Conclusion
References
6 The Cold-War Structure of Feeling: Revisiting the Discourse of “Dalumei” (Mainland Little Sister) in Taiwan
The Cold-War Structure of Mainland-Taiwan Relations: “Liberating Taiwan” and “Reconquering the Mainland”
The Entanglement of the Cold War and the Sex Wars
Dalumei in Popular Discourse: Mistresses and Sex Workers
Dalumei Are “Like Pan Jinlian”
Dalumei and “His” American Dream
Dalumei as a Haunting Effect in Taiwan
The Politics of Redistribution: Sisterhood at the Tea Table
Yuanyuan: The Respectable Mainland Hostess
Gold Digging and Gold Redistribution
Conclusion: From Feminist Impasse to Sisterhood at the Tea Table
References
7 China’s Health Diplomacy in the “New-Cold-War” Era: Contrasting the Battle of Narratives in Europe and the Middle East and North Africa
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework: Role Theory and Trust in Foreign Policy Analysis
China’s Role as a Global Public Health Leader for the Developing World
Trust in International Relations
China–M.E.N.A. Relations
Prior to the Pandemic
China’s Role Performance and Strategic Trust: Delivering Vaccines
Mena States’ Reactions to China’s Health Diplomacy
China–Europe Relations
Europe’s Reactions Towards China’s Health Diplomacy and Management of Covid-19
From Epidemic Relief Aid...
... to a COVID-19 Info War
Negative Views of China
Sinophobia
Conclusion
References
8 Hungary and the New-Cold-War Narrative on China
Hungary and the East vs. West Dichotomy
Another Dichotomy: Rural vs. Urban
Hungarian Attitudes Towards China
The Fudan Hungary Plan
The Discourse Around Fudan Hungary
Lessons Learnt... and Questions to Ask
Conclusion
References
9 Haunted History: Exorcising the Cold War
Trauma and Ritual
Home and Away
Marginalized Migrant Populations
China’s Rise
Exorcizing the Cold War
Index
