Defectors from the PRC to Taiwan, 1960-1989

Defections from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were an important part of the narrative of Republican China in Taiwan (RoC). Morris looks at what the defectors knew about the RoC before they arrived, and how they dealt with the reality.

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Defections from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were an important part of the narrative of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan during the Cold War, but their stories have previously barely been told, less still examined, in English.

During the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the ROC government paid much special attention to these anti-communist heroes (fangong yishi). Their choices to leave behind the turmoil of the PRC were a propaganda coup for the Nationalist one-party state in Taiwan, proving the superiority of the "Free China" that they had created there. Morris looks at the stories behind these headlines, what the defectors understood about the ROC before they arrived, and how they dealt with the reality of their post-defection lives in Taiwan. He also looks at how these dramatic individual histories of migration were understood to prove essential differences between the two regimes, while at the same time showing important continuities between the two Chinese states.

A valuable resource for students and scholars of 20th century China and Taiwan, and of the Cold War and its impact in Asia.