Modern Women or Parasitic Whores: The Jeep Girls Debate in Post-World War II China

Description

Between 1945 and 1949, up to 113,000 American soldiers were stationed in China for various missions, ranging from repatriating Japanese soldiers to maintaining peace in the resuming Civil War. These large-scale interactions between Chinese and American individuals were unprecedented in Sino-U.S. history. This talk will examine the Chinese debate over "Jeep girls" (吉普郎), a term coined to describe Chinese females who socialized, sometimes intimately, with American GIs during and after World War II. I will focus on how conservatives, liberals, feminists, leftists, and Jeep girls themselves participated in a vibrant intellectual discussion. Overall, this research hopes to shed light on Chinese nationalism and the American empire in the early phase of the Cold War.

Period	28 Sept 2020
Held at	FACULTY OF ARTS