The Cold War stayed cold in Europe but it was hot in Asia. Its legacy lives on in the region. In none of the three dominant historiographical paradigms: orthodox, revisionist and post-revisionist, does Asia, or the rest of the Third World, figure with much significance. What happens to these narratives if we put them to the test in Asia? This volume argues that attention to what has been conventionally considered the periphery is essential to a full understanding of the global Cold War. Foregrounding Asia necessarily leads to a re-assessment of the dominant narratives. This volume also argues for a shift in focus from diplomacy and high politics alone towards research into the culture of the Cold War era and its public diplomacy.

Zheng Yangwen, Ph.D (2001) in History, University of Cambridge, teaches Chinese history at the University of Manchester. She is the author of The Social Life of Opium in China (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Hong Liu is Professor of East Asian Studies and the founding director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His most recent publication is China and the Shaping of Indonesia, 1949-1965 (National University of Singapore Press, forthcoming).

Michael Szonyi is Professor of Chinese history in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His most recent book is Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line (Cambridge, 2008).