Asia Pacific Center hosts “Rethinking Cold War Culture and History in Taiwan” conference

The UCLA Asia Pacific Center (APC) presented its latest UCLA-NTNU Taiwan Studies Conference, “Rethinking Cold War Culture and History in Taiwan,” on Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, 2024. The event was organized by Shu-mei Shih (Irving and Jean Stone Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Comparative Literature, Asian Languages and Cultures, and Asian American Studies, UCLA) and Faye Qiyu Lu (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA). This conference examined ways of rethinking Cold War culture and history in Taiwan, as well as the implications of the global Cold War for Taiwan studies from interdisciplinary and transhistorical perspectives. Seventeen scholars, including three from NTNU, presented their work in six panels convened over the two days, with additional scholars participating as moderators or opening speakers.

Day 1 of the conference, hosted by the Charles E. Young Research Library, began with opening remarks from the organizers, APC Director Min Zhou, and Associate Vice Provost David Kim. The first panel focused on “Taiwan in the Global Cold War,” introducing a variety of theoretical perspectives for conceptualizing Taiwan within a Cold War framework while centering its unique experiences. James Lin (University of Washington) presented on recent books by scholars seeking to localize global Cold War history and considered the applicability of these models to Taiwan. Wendy Cheng (Scripps College) traced the history of Taiwanese American communities in the 1960s through 1980s as “global Sinophone political praxis.” Ming-Feng Liu (National Quemoy University) compared overseas Chinese policies of Taiwan and the PRC and their transformations as the PRC replaced the ROC in the United Nations and established diplomatic relations with the U.S.

The second panel of the day turned to specific “Chinese” cultural texts and their meanings in Cold War Taiwan. William Ng (NTNU) analyzed Legein Monthly, a journal promoting Chinese culture, focusing on its historical context and rhetoric differentiating Cold War political camps. Faye Qiyu Lu (UCLA) presented on Mandarin-language cinema in Cold War Taiwan, considering films such as “Beautiful Ducklings” (1965) and its portrayal of “Chinese” identity, agricultural products, and labor. Tsang-Long Liu (NTNU) explored the link between tradition and modernity in Taiwan through the theoretical frameworks of ancient Chinese Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi and modern Western political thinker Hannah Arendt. Panel 3, “Cultural and Historical Memories of Cold War Taiwan,” highlighted additional historical examples illustrating the conference’s broad themes. Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang (University of Missouri, Columbia) contrasted three hegemonic narratives that have dominated Cold War Taiwan: anti-communist “Free China,” a “diplomacy” framework emphasizing international politics, and a “Taiwan-centered” historical lens that focuses on local perspectives. Janet Y. Chen (Princeton University) analyzed the medium of radio and TV broadcasting with particular attention to language policy. Finally, Nicholas Kaldis (SUNY Binghamton) presented on Wang Wen-hsing’s serialized novel Family Catastrophe and its distinctive mix of traditional Chinese notions of filial piety with Western concepts such as the Oedipal conflict.

Conference co-organizer Shu-mei Shih delivers opening remarks.

Day 2 of the conference was held in the Royce Hall Humanities Conference Room. Panel 4 featured three presentations on Taiwanese cinema. Michael Berry (UCLA) introduced several portrayals of the U.S. in Taiwanese film and traced changes in images of America over time. Fang-mei Lin (NTNU) considered Taiwanese-language cinema with particular focus on director Xin Qi and gender representation within this genre. Raymond Kun Xian Shen (UCLA) explored an unusual Taiwan-U.S. conflict over film piracy and its meaning in the context of Cold War power dynamics. Panel 5 turned attention to Taiwanese America. Andy Chih-ming Wang (Academia Sinica) studied three recent films about return by Taiwanese American artists, with attention to the intersection of sentimentality and a Cold War political framework. Christopher Fan (UC Irvine) considered Taiwanese American novels and two affective structures—revanchism and ressentiment—that mark the genre.

Following lunch, the final panel of the two-day conference was titled, “Critical Interventions in Cold War Studies.” Erin Y. Huang (University of Toronto) focused on Taiwanese French artist Shake’s work on militarized oceans. Irmy Schweiger (Stockholm University) considered Taiwanese activist, artist, and scholar Kao Jun-honn’s work on an indigenous Atayal community and its interactions with Japanese colonialism, neoliberal capitalism, and Cold War political systems. Finally, Lin-Chin Tsai (National Cheng Kung University) presented on Taiwanese writer Pan Jen-mu’s stories about Xinjiang, focusing on the manifestation of the concepts of ethnic minority narrative, frontier studies, and Han settler consciousness in this work.

The organizers moderated a concluding discussion to close this sixth UCLA-NTNU Taiwan Studies Conference. This annual event is a cornerstone of APC’s vibrant Taiwan Studies Program and demonstrates the strong relationship between UCLA and NTNU, whose formal partnership on this initiative began in 2017.

APC Director Min Zhou moderates a Q&A following the final panel of the conference.