Tonal intelligence, the aesthetics of Asian inscrutability during the long Cold War, Sunny Xiang
Type
Label
Tonal intelligence, the aesthetics of Asian inscrutability during the long Cold War, Sunny Xiang
Language
eng
Index
no index present
Literary Form
non fiction
Main title
Tonal intelligence
Nature of contents
dictionaries
Responsibility statement
Sunny Xiang
Series statement
Literature Now
Sub title
the aesthetics of Asian inscrutability during the long Cold War
Summary
Why were U.S. intelligence organizations so preoccupied with demystifying East and Southeast Asia during the mid-twentieth century? Sunny Xiang offers a new way of understanding the American cold war in Asia by tracing aesthetic manifestations of "Oriental inscrutability" across a wide range of texts. She examines how cold war regimes of suspicious thinking produced an ambiguity between "Oriental" enemies and Asian allies, contributing to the conflict's status as both a "real war" and a "long peace." Xiang puts interrogation reports, policy memos, and field notes into conversation with novels, poems, documentaries, and mixed media work by artists such as Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ha Jin, and Trinh T. Minh-ha. She engages her archive through a reading practice centered on tone, juxtaposing Asian diasporans who appear similar in profile yet who differ in tone. Tonal Intelligence considers how the meaning of race, war, and empire came under pressure during two interlinked periods of geopolitical transition: American "nation-building" in East and Southeast Asia during the mid-twentieth century and Asian economic modernization during the late twentieth century. By reading both state records and aesthetic texts from these periods for their tone rather than their content, Xiang shows how bygone threats of Asian communism and emergent regimes of Asian capitalism have elicited distinct yet related anxieties about racial intelligibility. Featuring bold methods, unlikely archives, and acute close readings, Tonal Intelligence rethinks the marking and making of race during the long cold war
Target audience
adult
resource.variantTitle
Temperament, temporality, and the American Cold War in Asia
Classification
Creator
Genre
Subject
- Orientalism -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Propaganda, American -- Asia -- History -- 20th century
- Asian Americans + Race identity
- Asians in motion pictures
- Electronic books
- United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989
- Propaganda, American -- Pacific Area -- History -- 20th century
- Pacific Area -- Foreign public opinion, American
- Cold War + Secret service
- Asia -- Foreign public opinion, American
- Asians in literature
Content
Author
Is Derivative Of
Incoming Resources
- Has instance1
Outgoing Resources
- Classification1
- Creator1
- Genre1
- Subject11
- Orientalism -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Propaganda, American -- Asia -- History -- 20th century
- Asian Americans + Race identity
- Asians in motion pictures
- Electronic books
- United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989
- Propaganda, American -- Pacific Area -- History -- 20th century
- Pacific Area -- Foreign public opinion, American
- Cold War + Secret service
- Asia -- Foreign public opinion, American
- Asians in literature
- Content1
- Author1
- Is Derivative Of1