Defectors from the PRC to Taiwan, 1960-1989

Defections from the People's Republic of China (PRC) were an important part of the narrative of Republican China in Taiwan (RoC). Morris looks at what the defectors knew about the RoC before they arrived, and how they dealt with the reality.

Autorentext

Andrew D. Morris is Professor of History at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and studies the modern histories of Taiwan and China. He is the author of Colonial Project, National Game: A History of Baseball in Taiwan (University of California Press, 2010) and Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China (University of California Press, 2004). He edited the volume Japanese Taiwan: Colonial Rule and Its Contested Legacy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), and co-edited the volume The Minor Arts of Daily Life: Popular Culture in Taiwan (University of Hawai'i Press, 2004, with David K. Jordan and Marc L. Moskowitz).

Klappentext

Defections from the People's Republic of China (PRC) were an important part of the narrative of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan during the Cold War, but their stories have previously barely been told, less still examined, in English. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the ROC government paid much special attention to these anti-communist heroes (fangong yishi). Their choices to leave behind the turmoil of the PRC were a propaganda coup for the Nationalist one-party state in Taiwan, proving the superiority of the "Free China" that they had created there. Morris looks at the stories behind these headlines, what the defectors understood about the ROC before they arrived, and how they dealt with the reality of their post-defection lives in Taiwan. He also looks at how these dramatic individual histories of migration were understood to prove essential differences between the two regimes, while at the same time showing important continuities between the two Chinese states. A valuable resource for students and scholars of 20th century China and Taiwan, and of the Cold War and its impact in Asia.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Historiography, 1950s Cold War Background in Taiwan 2. Just Waiting for the Chance: PRC Defectors to Taiwan, 1960-1962 3. Chiang's Last Defectors, 1965-1966 4. PLA Air Force Commander Fan Yuanyan's 1977 Defection to Taiwan and the End of the Nationalist China Dream 5. Seize the Opportunity: Pilots and Pop Stars, 1982-83 6. "Hijacking Anti-Communism, 1983-1991: Righteous No More" 7. Conclusion and Epilogue: Free China and the Anti-Communist Righteous Warriors in History