Table of Contents

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.

Promotional Information

A discussion of the history of the island of Quemoy during the Cold War.

About the Author

Michael Szonyi is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His publications include Practicing Kinship: Lineage and Descent in Late Imperial China (2002).

Reviews

'...a thought-provoking antidote to all the literature that focuses on the 'high politics' of the Cold War, while ignoring its impact on local communities. Informative, well-written, and entertaining, it approaches the Cold War through local eyes, thus making a significant contribution to our understanding of the impact of this conflict around the globe.' Beth A. Fischer, University of Toronto 'Michael Szonyi has found a whole new way to write the history of the Cold War, combining detailed local history with world politics. With immense skill, he links the stories of the islanders to a wider narrative of the conflict between east and west. This is one of the most powerful books yet written on Cold War culture in Asia.' Rana Mitter, Oxford University 'Impeccably researched and elegantly written, Szonyi's Cold War Island breaks new - and fertile -ground in the social history of the Cold War in East Asia, and at the same time delivers a sobering meditation on the consequences of militarization for all of us.' David Ownby, Universite de Montreal 'Szonyi offers an extraordinary retelling of the history of the Cold War in Asia. This is the Cold War as few will recognize it - seen not from the intoxicating heights of state power, but from down in the villages of a few off-shore islands in the Taiwan Strait. The result is one of the most surprising and entertaining new books on 20th-century China.' Timothy Brook, University of British Columbia