Zeyu Du

Project: A Sentimental History of Chinese Exiled Intellectuals During the Cold War, 1949-1989

The year 1949 witnessed the largest wave of intellectuals choosing exile in modern Chinese history following the establishment of the communist regime. This project undertakes a sentimental history of this diasporic group. Despite their dispersion across Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States, this study investigates how they formed a cohesive “emotional community,” forged through transnational networks of correspondence, shared periodicals, and the circulation of key individuals. The central aim is to analyze this community’s “structure of feelings,” exploring how sentiments such as nostalgia, patriotic worry, grief, and hope were shaped by their experiences of displacement, historical trauma, and the geopolitical order of the Cold War. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from the history of emotions (Rosenwein), cultural studies (Williams), and modern Chinese literary studies (Wang, Lee), this study positions sentimentality as its core analytical dimension, responding to a tendency in previous scholarship on Chinese exiles to prioritize political or philosophical thought while neglecting this critical aspect. Employing a focused case-study approach on three key intellectual circles, this research traces the shared sentiments that animated their transnational network. By doing so, it aims to uncover new dimensions for understanding the Chinese exiles and to contribute a new perspective to the intersection of Chinese studies, diaspora studies, and sentimental studies.