Politics at the Local–Global Intersection: Meanings of Bentuhua and Transnational Feminism in China

This article examines contemporary Chinese feminism’s processes of “connecting with the international tracks” as well as bentuhua (indigenisation), arguing that these processes are inseparable from both domestic and international power relations and thus asserting the need for a critical perspective on bentuhua. An “institutional-discursive” focus on both political and cultural contexts reveals that the usage of bentuhua can be literally and metaphorically spatial in quality, as well as regarded as a resource that is part of the grammar of social transformation in China. Neoliberal globalisation promotes a “project”-oriented approach to feminist activism that has benefits and costs. Transnationalism can be a source of resistance to the continued authoritarian party-state, as well as to homogenising effects of nationalist tendencies. Thus, from a theoretical standpoint it is useful to comprehend contemporary Chinese feminist thought from the understanding that the local and the global are inextricably interconnected.     

Canadian and American Treatment of the Nikkei, 1890–1949: A Comparison

For many Japanese people, the 49th parallel was only a line on a map, yet there were differences for the Japanese residents in the United States and Canada. The two nations had different concepts of citizenship and constitutions but, in what has been called “hemispheric orientalism,” prejudice knew no border. Both countries severely restricted immigration from Japan. In the United States, immigrants, the Issei, were aliens ineligible for citizenship. Thus, states could deny their access to commercial fishing and the right to own or lease land. Because the American constitution bestows full citizenship on the native-born, their American-born children, the Nisei, could vote and acquire land, but experienced discrimination especially in employment. On paper, the Canadian Issei had more civil rights since they could become naturalized but this provided few advantages apart from the rights to own land and to fish commercially. The Canadian Nisei had no more rights than their parents. In British Columbia, where 95 percent of the Japanese lived, they could not vote and provincial laws and customs denied their access to many occupations. During the Second World War, both nations required all the Nikkei to leave the Pacific Coast, incarcerated some, severely restricted the mobility of others, and proposed to “repatriate” many of them to Japan. Drawing mainly on the previous scholarship which has examined specific themes, time periods, or comparisons, this article offers an overview of how between the 1890s and the 1940s the effects of prejudice varied more in detail and timing than in principle even though formal consultation between the two nations was sporadic.     

Transnational solidarities and the politics of the left, 1890–1990 – introduction

The ten articles in this special issue of the European Review of History—Revue européenne d'histoire explore the operation of transnational solidarity movements from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. This introduction highlights the endurance of methods and strategies across this period, even while the contexts for transnational activism changed. It points to the opportunities presented by expressions of transnational solidarity, but also their inherent limitations.     

Rethinking the Rise and Fall of the Malayan Security Service, 1946–48

An item of conventional wisdom in our understanding of the Malayan First Emergency is that the original security organisation, the Malayan Security Service (MSS), was a comprehensive failure, prompting its dissolution and replacement with the Malayan Special Branch. This article challenges that orthodoxy, arguing first that MSS actually produced accurate assessments of Malayan Communist capabilities and intentions prior to 1948 although the actual outbreak of violence did come as a tactical surprise. Second, recently released documents show that the abolition of the MSS arose instead from a protracted turf war over the control of intelligence in Malaya with the Security Service (MI5), particularly in the person of the latter's director general, Sir Percy Sillitoe . An outsider to the intelligence and defence communities, Sillitoe was disinclined to manage inter-agency disputes in the joint fashion that had developed during the Second World War, and instead marshalled opposition to the MSS in Whitehall that resulted it being dismantled. This in turn led to a breakdown in security intelligence activity, at the very start of the Emergency, that would not be fully resolved until the Malayan Special Branch became fully operational nearly four years later.     

‘Why Disgrace the Commonwealth?’ Ceylonese Communalism,the Search for Global Influence and the Politics of a Transnational Organisation, 1948–65

This article examines the progress of the commonwealth as a forum for political action by Ceylonese in the first two decades after the nation’s independence by focusing on the debate over Tamil political rights. Significantly, this domestic conflict intensified during a crucial phase in the commonwealth’s transition, from being essentially a members’ club consisting of Britain and the settler dominions to a multilateral organisation led by newly independent African and Asian states. In this ambivalent geopolitical landscape, an emerging small state such as Ceylon sought to use the commonwealth in such a way as to project itself on the world stage, while at the same time some of its citizens adopted the organisation as a focus for liberal causes against the state. In this way, it is argued, the ‘new commonwealth’ was being shaped by postcolonial British legacies of global influence and liberal politics.     

Ghana,India, and the Transnational Dynamics of the Congo Crisis at the United Nations, 1960–1

This article examines the role of Ghana and India at the United Nations during the Congo crisis from July 1960 to February 1961. The role of non-aligned countries both in the UN peacekeeping force, Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC), and in the negotiation of Congo policy was fundamental to the evolution of events. The article shows how Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana used the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Afro-Asian bloc to alter UN Congo policy. In leveraging their influence with in the General Assembly, the NAM was able to sustain the UN effort in the Congo and preserve the prestige of the organisation. In the process, NAM members realised the benefits and the limitations of non-aligned politics in the context of a violent, anti-colonial war. The crisis had the effect of rupturing the status quo at the UN and in the eight months under study here, it is argued that the actions of the NAM within the UN helped to activate the agency of the organisation in pursuit of neutralist principles. The Congo crisis served as the turning point in the decolonisation drama and NAM's influence over UN Congo policy represented a dynamic form of anti-colonial internationalism.