Fighting on the Cultural Front

Reviews / Votes

Beautifully rich with details and prodigiously sourced, Fighting on the Cultural Front tells the complex history of Cold War cultural relations 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 of <i>The End of Concern: Maoist China, Activism, and Asian Studies</i> 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 on 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 of <i>Chinese and Americans: A Shared History</i> Meticulously researched and based in large part on heretofore rarely explored archival materials, Fighting on the Cultural Front fills a major gap in our understanding of US-China relations. It focuses on cultural, people-to-people, and nonofficial relations, and in so doing provides a powerful and comprehensive analysis relevant not only for the Cold War era but for today as well. A must-read for anyone attentive to the world's most consequential bilateral relationship. -- Hanchao Lu, Georgia Institute of Technology A groundbreaking study of the cultural front of the Cold War between the United States and China from the late 1940s to the late 1970s. Hongshan Li has provided an engaging and extensive account on this very important but long-neglected subject. This superb book offers new insights about the significant role of the cultural Cold War in shaping Sino-American cultural relations and its lingering effects today. -- Shuhua Fan, author of <i>The Harvard-Yenching Institute and Cultural Engineering: Remaking the Humanities in China, 1924-1951</i> This is a meticulously researched and beautifully written monograph on US-China cultural relations during the Cold War, with a particular emphasis on people-to-people interactions. * H-War * Meticulously researched, with primary and secondary Chinese sources that have never been used before. Li discusses a wide range of themes and events with countless fascinating details, providing fresh insights into many of them. * Asian Studies Review * A deeply researched work that uses an impressive array of US and Chinese sources. Its analysis is a well-balanced narrative with neither side dominating nor left simply responding to the initiatives of the other. * Diplomatic History * The narrative of the book is successful in smoothly merging specific details with international events and the diplomatic development of US-China relations, which is always in the background. * H-Diplo * An important contribution to recent scholarship on U.S.-China relations, as well as a persuasive case for attention to culture as an arena of superpower contestation. * PRC History Review *