UC Press Blog

By Charles Dawn-William Huxley

The spring issue of Pacific Historical Review takes readers to World War II, the Cold War, and beyond. New articles include women’s self-defense in wartime, the cultural diplomacy of author Jade Snow Wong, and the Indochinese Refugee Crisis during the Jimmy Carter administration. Check out previews of these new articles below.

A Cold War Ambassador: Jade Snow Wong’s 1953 Speaking Tour to Asia 

by Anna Wei Marshall

During the Cold War, the United States sought to spread a positive image of capitalism around the world—in Asia, this effort included working against perceptions of the United States as a racist society with limited opportunities for people of Asian descent. The solution? “Cultural ambassadors” who toured Asia to promote a better image of the United States. One such cultural ambassador, the successful author and ceramicist Jade Snow Wong, was especially important for her spot as the first American of Chinese descent to be sent on such a tour. The U.S. State Department believed that Wong would inspire audiences by showcasing how a Chinese American woman could be successful in the United States. 

Using records saved by Wong’s family, along with newspapers and government sources, historian Anna Wei Marshall takes readers along for Wong’s tour, revealing the complicated reactions from the audiences who came to hear her speak. Asian audiences saw Wong not as a symbol of American opportunity, but rather as an individual example of hard work and success. Put simply, they perceived her as succeeding despite American racism, not because of uniquely American opportunities. Furthermore, while Americans perceived Wong as primarily Chinese, her Asian audiences saw her as mainly American, distinctly different from themselves. 

“Girls Get Rough”: Women’s Self-Defense in the United States During World War II 

by Wendy Rouse

Women’s self-defense may seem a surprising addition to what we already know of the changes to gender roles during World War II. Historian Wendy Rouse reveals the fascinating story of how martial arts became part of the larger effort to mobilize women as active participants in the war. Like many changes to women’s roles in this period, self-defense training was justified in nationalistic and militaristic terms. While women’s self-defense was not new, the difference was its encouragement by the U.S. state and the positive narratives surrounding it. Of course, these positive depictions were not universal, and Rouse explains that critics had long worried that women’s self-defense would “emasculate men, invert traditional gender roles, and turn wives against their husbands.” At the war’s end, the government encouraged women to relinquish their new skills and return to the domestic sphere. These women who had “gotten rough” no longer seemed essential to American might. 

Humanitarian Legacy: Patricia M. Derian’s Involvement in the Indochinese Refugee Crisis 

by Zachary Tayler 

At the height of the Jimmy Carter presidency, the administration found itself challenged by the increasingly horrifying Indochinese refugee crisis. Although most Americans wanted to put the conflict of the Vietnam War and the U.S. presence in Asia behind them, the Carter administration found it impossible to turn its back. Historian Zachary Tayler argues that central to this mission for assisting refugees was the work of Patricia Murphy “Patt” Derian, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Until now, historians have largely left Derian’s role in this crisis as unexamined. Tayler’s exploration of Derian’s work not only centers her role in the Indochinese Refugee Crisis, but by enlarging the historical lens, it also contextualizes U.S. policymaking surrounding refugees, human rights, and humanitarianism. In particular, Tayler reveals how both Derian and the Carter administration as a whole balanced humanitarian commitments with the realities of foreign policy. 

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