Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line

ISBN-13: 9780521898133 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 330 str.

Michael Szonyi

Opis

During the height of the Cold War in the 1950s the small island of Quemoy in the Taiwan Strait was the front line in the military standoff between Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China and Mao Zedong's People's Republic. Local society and culture were dramatically transformed. Michael Szonyi uses oral history, official documents, and dissident writings to convey the history of the island during this period. In so doing, he sheds light on the social and cultural impact of the Cold War on those who lived through it, as well as on the relationship between China, the United States and the USSR at this critical moment. By analysing the effects of Quemoy's distinctive geopolitical situation on the economy, gender and the family, and citizenship and religion, the book provides a new perspective on the social history of Cold War relations, showing how geopolitics can affect individual lives and communities.

Recenzje

'Michael Szonyi … effectively uses the former to elucidate the latter in this first detailed account in English of Quemoy …Szonyi's book reminds us why the island mattered during the 1950s and 1960s, and offers a detailed description of the local impact of Cold War conflict.' The Journal of Asian Studies

Spis treści

1. Introduction: ordinary life in an extraordinary place; Part I. Geopoliticization Ascendant: 2. The battle of Guningtou; 3. Politics of the war zone, 1949–1960; 4. The 1954–55 artillery war; 5. Militarization and the Jinmen civilian self-defense forces, 1949-1960; 6. The 1958 artillery war; Part II. Militarization and Geopoliticization Change Course: 7. The 1960s: creating a Model County of the Three Principles of the People; 8. The 1970s: combat villages and underground Jinmen; Part III. Life in Cold War-Time: 9. Combat economy; 10. Women's lives: military brothels, parades and emblems of mobilized modernity; 11. Ghosts and Gods of the Cold War; Part IV. Demilitarization and Post-militarization: 12. Demilitarization and post-militarization; 13. Memory and politics; 14. Conclusion: redoubled marginality.