Person: Szonyi, Michael
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Szonyi
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Michael
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Szonyi, Michael
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Publication Shifting Frontiers: Cross-Straits Relations in the Context of Local Society(Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 2013) Szonyi, MichaelPublication Zhanhuo Xia De Jiyi Zhengzhi: Jinmen, 1949-2008 [The Politics of Memory in a Geopolitical Flashpoint: Jinmen (Quemoy)](National Taiwan University, 2009) Szonyi, MichaelIn 1949, the small island of Kinmen (Quemoy) in the Taiwan Strait became the front line in the military standoff between Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China on Taiwan and Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic, a flashpoint of global geopolitical confrontation, and a powerful symbol of anti-Communist resolve for the Republic of China (ROC) and its allies As a result, Kinmen became one of the most highly militarized societies in history, a place where daily life was inexorably connected to international geopolitics. Though the soldiers are largely gone from Kinmen today, militarization and geopoliticization have left enduring legacies. This paper explores the politics of local memory in contemporary society. It argues that the experience of militarization and demilitarization is remembered through four distinct discourses: an official discourse of commemoration, and three social discourses: of heroic agency, of victimization, and of nostalgia. Each of these discourses is deployed in a variety of contemporary political struggles, within Kinmen, between Kinmen and Taiwan, and between Kinmen and the mainland. These ways of remembering are thus as much about Kinmen’s present and future as about its past. The paper argues that local actors make use of collective memory in entrepreneurial ways, but their ability to do so is constrained by the inertia of collective memory. Furthermore, popular memory is not always subversive of official memory. Because what constitutes official memory is shaped by the current political reality, so too is what constitutes subversive memory.Publication Secularization Theories and the Study of Chinese Religions(Sage Publications, 2009) Szonyi, MichaelThe author proposes a dialogue between recent literature on the history of Chinese popular religion and recent sociological debates about secularization theory, asking whether a better understanding of concepts, theories and evidence from one field may be productive in interpreting those of the other. The author suggests on the one hand that certain elements of secularization theory can be useful tools in understanding the modern history of religions in China and on the other that thinking about what secularization has meant in China is crucial to a comparative global history of religion and modernity. He also argues that attention to secularization both as a historical process and as a political ideology may help us to better understand the religious policies of the People’s Republic of China today.Publication Jinmen Zai Qianxian: 1949 Vilai Diyu Zhengzhi, Liang’an Guanxi He Difang Shehui [Jinmen on the Front Line: Geopolitics, Cross-Strait Relations and Local Society since 1949](Jinmen Xian Zhengfu, 2011) Szonyi, MichaelPublication Gunjika, Kioku, Jinmen Shakai - 1949-1992. [Militarization, Memory and Jinmen (Quemoy) Society, 1949-1992.](Japan Center for Area Studies, 2011) Szonyi, MichaelPublication Kokka, Chih? Shakai To Gend? Seisaku: Senchi Jinmen No Josei No Yakuwari Oyobi Im? Ji No Saigen [Nation-State, Memory and Gender Policy: The Reproduction of Female Roles and Representations in Militarized Jinmen](Japan Center for Area Studies Review, 2011) Szonyi, MichaelPublication Ming Fever: The Past in the Present in the People’s Republic of China at 60(Harvard University Asia Center, 2011) Szonyi, Michael