Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line

by Michael Szonyi

• ISBN13: 9780521726405
• ISBN10: 0521726409
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations and tables	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xv
Maps	p. xvi
Introduction: ordinary life in an extraordinary place	p. 1
Geopoliticization ascendant	p. 13
The Battle of Guningtou	p. 15
Politics of the war zone, 1949-1960	p. 25
The 1954-5 Artillery War	p. 42
Militarization and the Jinmen Civilian Self-Defense Forces, 1949-1960	p. 50
The 1958 Artillery War	p. 64
Militarization and geopoliticization change course	p. 79
The 1960s: creating a Model County of the Three Principles of the People	p. 81
The 1970s: combat villages and underground Jinmen	p. 101
Life in Cold War-time	p. 119
Combat economy	p. 121
Women's lives: military brothels, parades, and emblems of mobilized modernity	p. 149
Ghosts and gods of the Cold War	p. 181
Demilitarization and postmilitarization	p. 199
Demilitarization and postmilitarization	p. 201
Memory and politics	p. 224
Conclusion: redoubled marginality	p. 241
Appendix	p. 257
Notes	p. 259
Bibliography	p. 291
Index	p. 303
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