ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang, 1920-1995)’s aesthetic engagement and strategies across the Cold War division to probe how writers and artists alike maneuvered between the boundaries of antithetical ideological camps, art and politics, as well as high art and popular culture. It explores the intertextual relationship between Zhang’s novel The Rice Sprout Song and two 1950 socialist films, Wu Yonggang’s 吳永剛 (1907-1982) A Remote Village (遼遠的鄉村) and Sang Hu’s Peaceful Spring (太平春), in order to map out divergences and intersections between the apparently opposing policies implemented by the PRC and by the United States in the Asia-Pacific. By tracing the networked spaces and places including Shanghai, Northeast China, Hong Kong, and New York involved in the conception, writing, and publication of The Rice Sprout Song, the chapter not only opens up a new perspective to Zhang Ailing studies but also entails a type of spatial literacy to chart the cultural topography of Cold War global Asia.
