Living across the Bamboo Curtain: From an Exilic Mentality to a Diasporic Consciousness

Qing Liu, University of Wiscosin-Madison

This paper examines the complex displacement of highly educated Chinese professionals who initially came to the United States as students in the 1940s. Following the 1949 Communist Revolution, they became indefinitely separated from China and ultimately settled in the United States. Challenging migration studies’ celebration of transnational “in-betweenness,”, I demonstrate how geopolitical constraints produced profound psychological dislocation among these intellectuals. Caught between the “Bamboo Curtain” and McCarthyism's suspicion, these scholars developed what I conceptualize as an “exilic mentality”—characterized by a profound sense of loss, uncertainty about return, and an ambivalent relationship to both homeland and host country. Drawing on archival materials from personal correspondence and Chinese-language publications, this paper traces how this mentality initially manifested as political withdrawal and the formation of insular professional communities. By 1961, however, this pattern began shifting. I analyze how the publication of a Chinese-language magazine--Haiwai Luntan [World Forum]--emerged as a critical site for identity renegotiation, encouraging these intellectuals to reimagine their responsibilities toward China and their place in American society. This publication facilitated the development of a diasporic consciousness that simultaneously maintained emotional connections to China while simultaneously articulating what it meant to be American.This identity evolution extended to how these intellectuals viewed their fellow Chinese immigrants. Moving away from criticizing cultural misrepresentation in Chinatowns, they began showing sympathy toward working-class co-ethnics and recognizing their assimilation efforts. This paper traces this transformation from political apathy to engagement, examining how these scholars negotiated multiple identities and developed connections to both homeland and host country despite the profound challenges of Cold War displacement.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 28. Diasporic Identities