Seminar Series: Abstract

Thesis Proposal Review seminar: Han Suyin and the glamour of revolution
Daniel Sanderson - PAH

Over her long career, the Chinese-Belgian writer Han Suyin has inhabited, often unwillingly, an array of conflicting personas: novelist, teacher, journalist, lobbyist, propagandist, pornographer, physician, philanthropist, spy and femme fatale. Most controversially, and despite her own frequent claims of political neutrality, Han was one of the few significant public voices during the Cold War to advocate internationally for the Chinese Communist worldview. Many observers have criticised her for political opportunism and a cavalier attitude to the truth. For others, she is a heroic figure – a liberated woman, a warrior against injustice and a passionate campaigner for Asia’s rightful place in the world.

Concentrating on the years 1965-1980 – the period of Han’s greatest celebrity and the highpoint of Cold War political radicalism – my research will use a combination of contemporary media reports, memoirs, personal papers, official records and interviews to investigate the range of responses to Han Suyin across the various political and social contexts in which she was active. In doing so, I hope to provide at least partial answers to a number of larger, inter-related questions which emerge, including: the influence of the Third World on post-Bandung popular and intellectual culture; the gendered nature of Western understandings of China in the 20th century; the notion of authenticity; and the function of glamour in the propagation of revolutionary movements.