Welcome Message
Our project, "Reconceptualizing the Cold War: On-the-ground Experiences in Asia," aims to build an online archive of oral history collections concerning the Cold War and decolonization in Asia, with a particular focus on East, Southeast, and South Asia. Based on oral history interviews and archival research across Asia, we aim to capture the emotions, enthusiasms, and fears of the era, and explores experiences and memories of ordinary people who witnessed various kinds of real and imagined wars.
Featured Collections
View the collection of transcripts about the 1965-66 Indonesian Massacres
This collection introduces personal experiences of leftist activism in northern Thailand in the 1970s. It explores topics such as student movement, teachers' association, and political violence, reexamining what leftist activism meant for them.
This collection introduces recollections by Chinese fishermen who frequently sailed across the Taiwan Strait at the height of the Cold War. Their experiences offer a microscopic view of how ordinary people maneuvered rivalries between the two Chinas as a way to safeguard their livelihoods.
This collection offers insight on how indigenous tribespeople on Taiwan experienced both Japanese and Chinese Kuomintang rule across the 20th century.
View the collection of transcripts about the Khmer Rouge and Its Legacies
View the collection of transcripts about the Malaysian Left and Labor in the 1960s-1970s.
These transcripts include interviews with former Naxalite members and leaders, as well as other leftist activists. Many of their stories touch on historically deep-rooted conflicts between the Jenmis (landed aristocracy) and lower-caste Adivasi (indigenous tribal) communities.
View the collection of transcripts about Singapore and the Cold War.
View the collection of transcripts about Vietnamese Culture and Nationalism
The collection introduces interviewees' early lives in Japan, return to North Korea, and defection to South Korea. They discuss how they grew up in Japan, how they went back to North Korea, and what they faced and how they were viewed there.
Recently Added
Browse Archives

Learn about the Cold War through our oral archives.
Workshops

Learn about our past and forthcoming workshops.
Project Members

Learn about present and past members of our project.