Editor: Wen-Chin Chang and Lin Shu-fe
Publisher: Linking Publishing
Abstract
Centred on East and Southeast Asia, Born of Crossing Borders brings together ten essays spanning history, political science, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. The collection re-examines how the Cold War shaped migration, intelligence operations, knowledge production and cultural flows both within and beyond the region. From the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Vietnam and the China–Myanmar border to Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the authors focus on individuals and communities drawn into geopolitical currents who nevertheless sought pathways of survival and agency in the margins.
The book not only explores how policies and institutions structured experiences of displacement, but also highlights the agency and everyday strategies of those on the move—from the negotiations and mobilisation of the Dachen migrants between state resettlement and transnational relocation, and the adaptive practices of overseas Kinmen communities, to the turbulent life of an Indonesian leftist woman politician. Departing from the familiar binary narrative of the Cold War, the volume presents a more complex, diverse and localised picture of Cold War Asia.
Through the theme of “mobility and connection,” we see how the Cold War deeply shaped lives, beliefs and identities, prompting us to reconsider the traces it has left in contemporary societies and the possibilities it continues to open.