Hong Kong Media and Asia’s Cold War Test Bank

A Unique Perspective on the Cultural Cold War

British Hong Kong was a historical anomaly in the Cold War, experiencing no ‘hot war’ or organized movement for independence. Yet, it was a key battlefield of Asia’s cultural Cold War, thanks to its unique location next to Mao’s China.

The Emigre Media Industry

The large influx of filmmakers, writers, and intellectuals from the mainland after 1948-1949 made the colony a hub of mass entertainment and popular publications in the region. This book sheds light on the contest between Communist China, Nationalist Taiwan, and the US to mobilize the colony’s cinema and print media.

A Crossroads in the Cold War

At the front and centre of this propaganda and psychological warfare was the emigre media industry. It was the ‘golden age’ of Mandarin cinema and popular culture. However, the emergence of a new, local-born generation challenged and reshaped the Cold War networks of émigré cultural production, leading to a gradual winding down of Hong Kong’s cultural Cold War.