The First Cold War Oral History Workshop "Reconceptualizing the Cold War"

The First Cold War Oral History Workshop "Reconceptualizing the Cold War"

"Reconceptualizing the Cold War: On-the-Ground-Experience in Asia" Workshop

20 May 2019 - 21 May 2019

National University of Singapore

The first Cold War Oral History Workshop “Reconceptualizing the Cold War: On-the-ground Experiences in Asia” was held at NUS Utown on 21-22 May 2019. Ten scholars from abroad (Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, France, the U.K., and the U.S.), seven scholars and researchers from local institutions (NUS, NTU, and Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce), and six graduate students from our Department participated in this workshop and had lively discussions.

Event Details

Opening Remark: Masuda Hajimu (Associate Professor, NUS)

21 May 2019

Associate Professor Masuda Hajimu will give his opening remarks before the start of the workshop.

Panel 1: Grassroots Experiences of the Malayan War

21 May 2019

Sim Chi Yin (Photographer & journalist/ King’s College, UK), “Tracing ‘bandits’: The Many Lives of the Leftist Foot Solders of the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960”

Teng Phee Tan (Chief Researcher, Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce), ” The ‘Worst Town’ in the Malayan Emergency: Grassroots Experiences and People’s Memories of Gunung Hijau New Village, Pusing, Perak”

Zardas Shuk Lee (Ph.D. Candidate, UNC Chapel Hill, USA), “Beyond Malaya: Ethnic Indians’ Experience of the Malayan War, 1948-60”

Discussant: Simon Richard Creak (Assistant Professor, NIE/NTU) and Fang-Tze Hsu (PhD Candidate, NUS)

Panel 2: Grassroots Experiences of the Naxalite Movement

21 May 2019

Mythri P. U. (Assistant Professor, University of Calicut, Kerala, India), “Reminiscence of Resistance: Social Experiences of Naxalite Movement in Kerala, India”

Muhammed Kunhi (Research Associate, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi), “Memories of the First Maoist/Naxalite Violence in Kerala, India: Assessing Local Experience of the Ideological Politics of the Cold War”

Discussant: Iqbal Singh Sevea (Associate Professor, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Panel 3: Ordinary Families’ and Women’s War Experiences

21 May 2019

Kao Dan-hua (Independent Researcher, Wuchiou, Taiwan), “Wuchiou Lighthouse: The Beacon of the Cold War and the Light-keeper Family”

Luong Thi Hong (Deputy Head, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam), “No Child, No Family: The Fate of Young Vietnamese Women Volunteers during the Vietnam War”

Discussant: SR Joey Long (Associate Professor, NUS) and Taomo Zhou (Assistant Professor, NTU)

Panel 4: Local Translation of Global Ideological Politics

22 May 2019

Yongming Chen (PhD candidate, Chinese Univ of Hong Kong) & Zhiyu Zhang (PhD candidate, Xiamen Univ), “Practicing the Cold War and the Frontline Urban-Rural Dual System: The Cross-Border Fishermen, Detectives, Party Members, and Defectors in Xiamen”