I grew up in Qionglai, Sichuan Province, which is a small town located in the humid and warm Southwestern China and I came to the University of Minnesota as a PhD student in the fall of 2019. My first year as a graduate student has been happy but full of challenges: graduate classes have much higher requirements to the students than those of the undergraduates’. It is wonderful to remain on campus with a group of individuals who often encourage me to think and inspire me to begin my research. I am grateful for the CHF Fellowship during my first year here. It has helped me to concentrate on reading, writing and thinking independently as a graduate student.

I am currently interested in the historiography of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) concerning the late Imperial and early Republic years. In particular, I am studying PRC historians’ articles of that period and looking for what has changed in the past fifty years of historical writings. Associations between academia and society or politics, or how they were connected and unconnected, can possibly reveal a better understanding of what contributes to shaping people’s memory on historical events and history there. Besides my coursework I am also preparing a family memoir on the history of my parents and siblings. I consider it a necessary path for me to understand the local culture and family history of my little hometown. I am very grateful for this CHF Fellowship because not only has it given me confidence in my writings and coursework, it has also made it financially possible for me to continue my research and education.

2023-2025 — “My dissertation, “Living Under Different Sun Flags”, examines how the memories about Taiwanese who fought for Japan during World War II were selectively suppressed and produced in post-war Taiwan.  Challenging the notion that these memories were entirely silenced before the late 1980s, I argue that they were shpaed to fit official narratives emphasizing Chinese resistance and suffering.  Using interdisciplinary sources – including memoirs, films, textbooks, and oral histories – I trace how these servicemen were initially seen as “traitors” or “pitiful compatriots” but were later reframed as anti-Japanese heroes.  I introduce the concept of “unintentional collaboration” to describe how diverse groups, often unintentionally, influenced memory production.  Even after democratization, lawsuits against Japan in the late 20th century complicated identity narratives, perpetuating marginalization.

I hope that my dissertation, in providing a conceptual tool to understanding the mechanism of memory production and suppression, will offer paths toward reconciliation of the current conflicts resulting from contradictory memories about the war.