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Mei-Hsiang Wang

Associate Professor Mei-Hsiang Wang

Mei-Hsiang Wang, Associate Professor

Personal Information

Research Interests: Sociology of Literature, Sociology of Art, East Asian Cultural Cold War Studies, Overseas Chinese Literature and Culture
E-mail：mei74055@mail.nsysu.edu.tw
/ Preferred Email: mei74055@gmail.com
Extension：5671
Office：SS 2014-3

Education

Ph.D. in Sociology, National Tsing Hua University

Current Position

  • Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University

Experience

  • Full-time Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University
  • Contract-based Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University

Research Statement

My academic research began with a question rooted in my own life experiences: "What is American power?"

Ching泉崗 (Ching泉崗 Air Base), once hailed as the largest air force base in the Far East, was located in my hometown where I grew up. The reveille from inside the base used to wake me up every single morning of my childhood. Little did my childhood self imagine that years later, this base would spark my research on American power, connecting me to much larger international power dynamics.

Since childhood, I used to hear my father talk about how the Americans (referred to colloquially as "A-tu-a") grabbed him and gave him a bottle of Coca-Cola and US dollars; or how an uncle or granduncle sneaked into the air force base to steal things and went to sell them at the "Thieves' Market" in Daya Township, Taichung County (now Daya District, Taichung City). They said, "If a tank could be dragged out, Taiwanese people would find a way to sell it too." At the time, they would wander over to Yonghe Road in Daya Township to look at those pigeon-cage-like rental rooms known as "ba-zai-jian." Alternatively, there was the time an auntie worked as a "nanny" in an American's home, giving her her first glimpse of what a "moving bed" was—a waterbed. All these rich and fascinating life experiences made me want to document them. Moreover, these stories were vastly different from what I learned in history textbooks. These grassroots people later became my interviewees, yet they always felt their "voices were humble and insignificant." However, why shouldn't the "history of the weak" become "history"? I always had an impulse inside, a vague sense of mission, wanting to write down all their stories so people could know that during the U.S. aid period in post-war Taiwan, how ordinary Taiwanese people experienced international and Cold War power, rather than just the "economic miracle" found in textbooks. Thus, from 2005 to 2015, I continuously conducted fieldwork and used these oral history materials to complete a fieldwork monograph, American Hegemony in Taiwan: "Power" Accused by Intellectuals, "Welfare" Cherished by Grassroots People (2008), and later directed a documentary film, Following the US Military in Taichung (2015).

To more profoundly answer the question "What is American power?", while conducting fieldwork, I also engaged in secondary literature reading. My doctoral dissertation primarily utilized archives from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The main research topic investigated how American power influenced the writings of local writers in Taiwan and Hong Kong through the U.S. aid literary apparatus, and what the underlying operating mechanisms were. I proposed the concept of "unattributed power" to explain the operation of American power in the literary fields of Taiwan and Hong Kong during the 1950s. Its intervention in the literary circles of Taiwan and Hong Kong was primarily carried out through "state-private networks" and "local interpersonal networks," producing literary works via methods such as literary translation, literary adaptation, and collaboration. This substantially influenced literary translation, literary creation, and literary education in Taiwan and Hong Kong, creating a Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Southeast Asian, and Free World anti-communist community, steering the literary fields of Taiwan and Hong Kong under the U.S. aid literary apparatus toward directions favorable to anti-communist literature and modernist literature favored by the U.S. side.

The cultural (especially literary) influence of American power in Taiwan has become my research focus, and I analyze this critical force shaping post-war Taiwanese culture from two dimensions: the U.S. aid literary apparatus and actor writings. From the perspective of research theory, I position my research in the "power studies" of "political sociology." Simultaneously, depending on the methodological approach, it can also be positioned in the "sociology of art," "sociology of literature," and "cultural sociology." From the standpoint of research materials, I primarily deal with American cultural propaganda in Taiwan and Hong Kong during the 1950s, involving regional studies and East Asian studies of the Cold War era.

Currently (as of 2020), I am still continuing my research on "American power," focusing on three main developments: First, the deepening of research theory by differentiating the internal heterogeneity of American power—for example, from the US President, the US Department of State, the US Information Agency (USIA) down to local United States Information Services (USIS), showing that power internally is full of conflicts and negotiations. Second, conducting comparative regional studies focusing on cases in Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan to explore the differences in the operational modes of American power across these countries, and reconceptualizing concepts used in Western cultural cold war studies, such as "state-private networks." Furthermore, addressing how Southeast Asian nations were simultaneously entangled in the powers of old and new colonialism post-war, I propose different inter-state negotiation models, such as the "British-American negotiation model" in Malaya. Third, continuing fieldwork to explore how the recipients of power themselves experience and perceive American power. My research on American power stems from actors; therefore, I hope to continue collecting oral histories about Americans in Taiwan, and re-examine what American power is through how actors view it. From power enforcers, power intermediaries, to power recipients, I hope to clarify the image of American power through these three dimensions.

期刊論文

  • Ba, Q.-X., Wang, H.-Z., & Mei-Hsiang Wang. (2023). Agrobiodiversity, Social Institutions, and Indigenous Farming Practices: A Case Study of the Rukai in Wutai, Taiwan. Human Ecology, 51(6), 1127-1140.
  • 王梅香、王宏仁、巴清雄（2023）。「原味」的建構：國家治理、資本主義與臺灣愛玉的文化消費。《中國飲食文化》，19(1)，125-171。
  • 王梅香（2023）。打造冷戰兒童：香港友聯《兒童樂園》與自由亞洲協會的文化宣傳（1951-1954）。《中國現代文學》，43。
  • 王梅香（2022）。社群媒體、集體記憶與社群想像：以馬來西亞「《學生周報》之友會」為例（1969-2019）。《民主與治理》，9(2)，43-75。
  • 王梅香（2022）。冷戰時期跨國非共策略與美國文化宣傳：論泰國的亞洲基金會（1954－1963）。《歐美研究》，52(4)，567-611。
  • 王梅香（2020）。〈冷戰時期非政府組織的中介與介入：自由亞洲協會、亞洲基金會的東南亞文化宣傳（1950-1959）〉。《人文及社會科學集刊》，32(1)。
  • Mei-Hsiang Wang. (2020). Japanese Translations of Eileen Chang's The Rice-Sprout Song and The Naked Earth in the USIS-Tokyo Book Translation Program (1951-1959). EurAmerica: A Journal of European and American Studies.
  • Mei-Hsiang Wang. (2017). Images of a Free World Made in Hong Kong: The Case of the Four Seas Pictorial (1951-1956). Journal of Chinese Studies, 64, 255-285.
  • 王梅香（2017）。〈美援文艺体制与1950年代台港文学传播：以《「亚洲」短篇小说选》为观察对象〉。《现代中国文化与文学》，20，278-298。
  • 王梅香（2016）。〈美援文藝體制下的台、港、馬華文學場域──以譯書計畫《小說報》（Story Paper）為例〉。《台灣社會研究季刊》，102，1-40。
  • 王梅香（2015）。〈文學、權力與冷戰時期美國在台港的文學宣傳（1950-1962年）〉。《台灣社會學刊》，57，1-51。
  • 王梅香（2015）。〈不為人知的張愛玲──美國新聞處譯書計畫下的《秧歌》與《赤地之戀》〉。《歐美研究》，45(1)，73-137。
  • 王梅香（2014）。〈美援文藝體制下的《文學雜誌》與《現代文學》〉。《台灣文學學報》，25，69-100。
  • 王梅香（2014）。〈冷戰時代的台灣文學外譯──美國新聞處譯書計畫的運作（1952-1962）〉。《台灣文學研究學報》，19，223-254。
  • 王梅香（2014）。〈台灣文學作為作品社會學研究對象的發展與可能〉。《社會分析》，9，111-149。

專書論文

  • 王梅香（2025）。〈讓僧侶反共：冷戰時期美國譯書計畫在泰國的文化宣傳〉。收錄於**《越界而生：冷戰亞洲的移動與連結》。新北：聯經出版公司。
  • 王梅香（2025）。〈權力或福利：台灣冷戰記憶中省級、階級與地域的差異〉。收錄於《記憶的紐帶：台灣的歷程》。新北：聯經出版公司。
  • 王梅香（2025）。〈戰後「白色恐怖」的刑求與審訊技術—以1950年代為核心的微觀考察〉。收錄於《成為台灣的我們》。臺南：國立成功大學人文社會科學中心。
  • 王梅香（2023）。〈跨域流動的歲月：冷戰時期謝冰瑩的南洋經驗書寫（1957-1960）〉。收錄於**《她們在移動的世界中寫作：臺灣女性文學的跨域島航》。新北：聯經出版公司。
  • 王梅香（2023）。〈鮮為人知的「現代」記憶？戰後本省籍作家與美國現代主義〉。收錄於《文學群星會：從海明威到「今日世界」的現代主義》。台北：木馬文化。
  • 王梅香（2023）。〈現代人的藝術情感：臺灣的現代主義文學〉。收錄於《文學群星會：從海明威到「今日世界」的現代主義》。台北：木馬文化。
  • 王梅香（2023）。미국의 대만 문화 원조: 해양 도시 가오슝의 민중 문화에 대한 고찰 (1950-1969)。收錄於《韓國釜慶大學論文集》。
  • 王梅香（2022）。〈開拓「現代」的版圖：戰後台灣人文書籍出版與美國角色〉。收錄於《出版島讀：臺灣人文出版的百年江湖》。台北：時報出版。
  • 王梅香（2022）。〈自由世界的文化長城：馬來亞學友會的社群想像與認同形構（1955-1969）〉。收錄於《亞際南方：馬華文學與文化論集》。高雄：國立中山大學出版社。
  • 王梅香（2022）。〈香港友聯與馬華文化生產：以《蕉風》與《學生周報》為例（1955-1969）〉。收錄於《冷戰、本土化與現代性：蕉風研究論文集》。高雄：國立中山大學出版社。
  • Mei-Hsiang Wang. (2019). Power? Welfare? The Narrative Modes in Taiwan's Memory of the Cold War. In Taiwan, île de mémoire. Université d'Artois.
  • 王梅香（2019）。〈冷戰時代的台灣文學外譯：美國新聞處譯書計畫的運作（1952-1962）〉。收錄於賴慈芸（主編），《台灣翻譯史：殖民、國族與認同》（頁515-552）。台北：聯經。
  • 王梅香（2017）。〈越戰裡的玫瑰花：戰後台灣現代小說家的酒吧書寫〉。收錄於《聽說讀寫黃春明：黃春明及其文學國際學術研討會論文集》（頁372-405）。宜蘭：宜蘭大學。
  • 王梅香（2016）。〈麥加錫與美新處在台灣的文化冷戰〉。收錄於《媒介現代：冷戰中的台港文藝學術研討會論文集》**（頁111-158）。台南：成功大學台灣文學系。
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