scholarly journals Tragedy of Errors at Warp Speed: The 2019 Unrest

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Ho
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
Western Imagination ◽  
Self Objectification

The 2019 unrest in Hong Kong was the result of complex factors simmering over the years, culminating in a tragedy of errors unreeling at warp speed. This paper examines a few of the factors from the personal perspective of a Hong Kong-born Chinese American. Since the 1997 Retrocession, Hong Kong had been engaged in a unique version of post-colonial condition, “one country, two systems” (OCTS), meaning that it must contend with not only ways of a new beginning and ways of the former days but also ways for a future beginning—that of future China when OCTS expires. Hong Kong had also been conditioned to look at itself through the Western gaze and its future through Western imagination, resulting in self-objectification. Many of its people were consumed by misguided idealism that compelled citizens toward a profound mistrust of China while turning a blind eye to the country’s unique accomplishment. A powerful media dedicated to promoting the Western agenda further fanned the fire, turning the former colony into an unwitting proxy of the new Cold War waged by the United States on China. Such was a tragedy of errors that a movement launched against a worrisome rule, resulting in the passing of a law even more worrisome.

scholarly journals Co-opting the International Writing Program during the Cold War

Prism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-103
Author(s):  
James Shea
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Writing Program ◽  
Grassroots Activism ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Demonstrations

Abstract This article examines the Hong Kong writer Gu Cangwu 古蒼梧 (1945–) and his grassroots activism during the Cold War, namely, his appropriation of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program (IWP). At the IWP from 1970 to 1971, Gu grew critical of US foreign policy, coedited a newsletter produced in the IWP offices, participated in political demonstrations, and published correspondence in Hong Kong in support of the Baodiao movement. The author argues that Gu's activities co-opted a Cold War institution to promote collective political action among the Chinese diaspora and, importantly, among audiences back in Hong Kong, amplified political resistance against both the United States and the United Kingdom. An examination of Gu's writings, including his correspondence, poems, and 2012 faux memoir Jiu jian 舊箋 (Old Letters), in relation to Kuan-hsing Chen's model of “Asia as method” and minjian society, establishes how Gu's political awakening in the United States and the overall student-led Baodiao movement enlarges Chen's conceptual framework. Rather than arising out of indigenous practices, the transpacific movement began overseas among the Chinese diaspora and, in the eyes of Gu, led to genuine political change in Hong Kong.

Trust, but Verify

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

This book uses trust—with its emotional and predictive aspects—to explore international relations in the second half of the Cold War, beginning with the late 1960s. The détente of the 1970s led to the development of some limited trust between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lessened international tensions and enabled advances in areas such as arms control. However, it also created uncertainty in other areas, especially on the part of smaller states that depended on their alliance leaders for protection. The chapters in this volume look at how the “emotional” side of the conflict affected the dynamics of various Cold War relations: between the superpowers, within the two ideological blocs, and inside individual countries on the margins of the East–West confrontation.

Enemy Number One

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rósa Magnúsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Inferiority Complex ◽  
Available Information

Enemy Number One tells the story of Soviet propaganda and ideology toward the United States during the early Cold War. From Stalin’s anti-American campaign to Khrushchev’s peaceful coexistence, this book covers Soviet efforts to control available information about the United States and to influence the development of Soviet-American cultural relations until official cultural exchanges were realized between the two countries. The Soviet and American veterans of the legendary 1945 meeting on the Elbe and their subsequent reunions represent the changes in the superpower relationship: during the late Stalin era, the memory of the wartime alliance was fully silenced, but under Khrushchev it was purposefully revived and celebrated as a part of the propaganda about peaceful coexistence. The author brings to life the propaganda warriors and ideological chiefs of the early Cold War period in the Soviet Union, revealing their confusion and insecurities as they tried to navigate the uncertain world of the late Stalin and early Khrushchev cultural bureaucracy. She also shows how concerned Soviet authorities were with their people’s presumed interest in the United States of America, resorting to monitoring and even repression, thereby exposing the inferiority complex of the Soviet project as it related to the outside world.

Ballet in the Cold War

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Searcy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Performing Artists ◽  
Exchange Programs ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

During the Cold War, the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union developed cultural exchange programs, in which they sent performing artists abroad in order to generate goodwill for their countries. Ballet companies were frequently called on to serve in these programs, particularly in the direct Soviet-American exchange. This book analyzes four of the early ballet exchange tours, demonstrating how this series of encounters changed both geopolitical relations and the history of dance. The ballet tours were enormously popular. Performances functioned as an important symbolic meeting point for Soviet and American officials, creating goodwill and normalizing relations between the two countries in an era when nuclear conflict was a real threat. At the same time, Soviet and American audiences did not understand ballet in the same way. As American companies toured in the Soviet Union and vice versa, audiences saw the performances through the lens of their own local aesthetics. Ballet in the Cold War introduces the concept of transliteration to understand this process, showing how much power viewers wielded in the exchange and explaining how the dynamics of the Cold War continue to shape ballet today.

Integration to Inclusion in Hong Kong: Not an Easy Progression

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Peter Westwood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Academic Standards ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Large Class Size ◽  
Inclusive Schooling ◽  
Education In Hong Kong

Abstract This article describes the evolution of inclusive education in Hong Kong, moving from segregation via integration to inclusion. The outside influence of education policies and trends from Britain, Australia, and the United States are identified, and the current situation is described. In particular, obstacles that are encountered on the route to inclusion are compared with those found in other countries. These obstacles include large class size, teachers’ often negative attitudes, parents’ expectations, teachers’ lack of expertise for adapting the curriculum and for providing differentiated teaching, and ongoing conflicts between the notion of ‘inclusive schooling for all’ and the ‘academic standards agenda’.

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