The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108478120)

Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang examines one of the least understood migrations in modern East Asia - the human exodus from China to Taiwan when Chiang Kai-shek's regime collapsed in 1949. Peeling back layers of Cold War ideological constructs, he tells a very different story from the conventional Chinese civil war historiography that focuses on debating the reasons for Communist success and Nationalist failure. Yang lays bare the traumatic aftermath of the Chinese Communist Revolution for the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who were forcibly displaced from their homes across the sea. Underscoring the displaced population's trauma of living in exile and their poignant 'homecomings' four decades later, he presents a multi-event trajectory of repeated traumatization with recurring searches for home, belonging, and identity. This thought-provoking study challenges established notions of trauma, memory, diaspora, and reconciliation.

Author: Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang
ISBN-10: 1108478123
ISBN-13: 9781108478120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/24/2020
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2021