The Significance and Potential Development of De-centering the Cultural Cold War: The United States and Asia

My paper will discuss the significance of a new publication The-Centering the Cultural Cold War, which have been published in three Asian languages (Japanese, Korean, and Chinese), and explore the potentialities for further development in this academic field.  It will show how the research project started from a small group of American Studies and Asian Studies scholars in Japan and developed into an international collaboration of U.S., Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese scholars.  By doing so, it will present one model of effective international collaboration that is so important in analyzing multiple dimensions of a global-scale phenomenon such as the Cold War.  It will also illuminate the importance of local factors and local actors involved in the seemingly binary competition between two superpowers.

Each chapter of the book deals with different locations and different actors of the Cultural Cold War.  Chapter 1 deals with private industries’ participation in Overseas Information Campaign targeting the Asia-Pacific region.  Chapter 2 explores mutual cooperation between the Hollywood film industry and the U.S. government.  Chapter 3 examines the U.S. government-made films’ depiction of Asian Americans.  Chapter 4 deals with the motion picture industry in Taiwan during the 1950s.  Chapter 5 deals with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Aid Programs for Taiwan.  Chapter 6 examines the U.S. aid for Taiwanese radio industry.  Chapter 7 explores the transition of Korean films from the Japanese colonial era to the Cold War year.  Chapter 8 focuses on the U.S. education in the Korean War POW camps.  Chapter 9 compares the government-led development programs versus community-based development programs in the Philippines.  Chapter 10 focuses on the Hmong minority in Laos during the Vietnam War.  My presentation will discuss the significance of each chapter.