Fighting on the Cultural Front

U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War

Hongshan Li

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English

Columbia University Press
16 April 2024

History; The Cold War; International relations

Series: A Nancy Bernkopf Tucker and Warren I. Cohen Book on American–East Asian Relations

The Cold War conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China did not only encompass political, military, diplomatic, and economic clashes. The two powers also confronted each other on the cultural front. Despite a long history of extensive and mostly constructive cultural interactions, the two nations cut off existing ties in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and established new relationships aimed at attacking and isolating each other. Even after Beijing and Washington permitted cultural exchange as part of their effort to normalize diplomatic relations in the 1970s, the weaponization of cultural interactions continued.

Hongshan Li provides a groundbreaking account of the confrontation between the United States and the People's Republic of China on the Cold War's cultural front. He investigates the origins, evolution, and significance of the role of cultural interactions in the shifting relations between the United States and the PRC from the late 1940s through the late 1970s. Li demonstrates that the drastic transformation of U.S.-China cultural interactions not only altered the course of Sino-American cultural relations but also shaped the Cold War experience of the two peoples. Fighting on the Cultural Front examines topics such as competition and conflicts over Chinese students and scholars stranded in the United States, maneuvers on the authorization of journalistic exchanges, the establishment of Taiwan as a cultural bastion, and Beijing's promotion of its revolutionary ideology through individual U.S. citizens, particularly African Americans. This important book offers a new lens on the history of U.S.-China relations and the cultural side of the global Cold War.

By: Hongshan Li
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780231207058
ISBN 10: 0231207050
Series: A Nancy Bernkopf Tucker and Warren I. Cohen Book on American–East Asian Relations
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 16 April 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Abbreviations Introduction: Beating Plowshares into Swords 1. Drawing the Sword 2. Cutting All Ties 3. Fighting Over the Stranded 4. Building a Cultural Bastion 5. Faking the Exchange 6. Setting a New Pattern 7. Forging the Black Blade 8. Lowering the Sword Epilogue: Beyond Rattling Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Hongshan Li is professor of history at Kent State University. He is the author of U.S.-China Educational Exchange: State, Society, and Intercultural Relations, 1905–1950 (2008) and a coeditor of Image, Perception, and the Making of U.S.-China Relations (1998) and China and the United States: A New Cold War History (1997).

Reviews for Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War

Beautifully rich with details and prodigiously sourced, Fighting on the Cultural Front tells the complex history of Cold War cultural interactions between Maoist China and the United States, moving seamlessly from the machinations of leaders and politicians to the personal interactions of travelers and activists. A very important and much-needed contribution to our understanding of Cold War politics and culture. -- Fabio Lanza, author, <i>The End of Concern: Maoist China, Activism, and Asian Studies</i> Instead of a clash of civilizations, the key to understanding Sino-American relations is through cultural differences and confrontations. Through careful examinations of the extraordinary history of cultural battles between China and the United States during the Cold War era, this book tells us why cultures matter so much in the diplomatic front between the Chinese and Americans. Everyone who cares about the history and future of Sino-American relations should read this book. -- Xu Guoqi, author, <i>Chinese and Americans: A Shared History</i>