Cold War Media and Politics of Desire: Cross-Border Movements and Intimacy of Mainland Beauty Queens in Taiwan

Principle Investigator：Chen, Iting

Yiting Chen's research interests include cross-strait migration, sex work, Taiwan's teahouse culture, and the emotional politics of the Cold War. Her academic articles have been published and accepted in international journals such as "Cultural Studies" and "Inter-Asia Cultural Studies." Her doctoral dissertation, titled "Cold War Intimacy Beyond the Taiwan Strait: Sexual Labour and Chinese Modernities in the Teahouse," reexamines the interplay between geopolitical dynamics, sex work and gender equality discourse, and national identity from a critical perspective of inter-Asian cultures. Through fieldwork conducted in teahouses in Taipei, the dissertation explores how the entanglement of these factors influences the work experiences and living conditions of Chinese mainland immigrant women in Taiwan's teahouses. Her doctoral dissertation and subsequent journal articles delve into the intricate connections between gender/sexuality, nationality, media representations, cultural imaginaries, and the intertwined histories of colonization and the Cold War across the Pacific. Currently, she works as a lecturer at HKU SPACE CC (The School of Professional and Continuing Education, the University of Hong Kong), where her ongoing research projects include writing a Chinese-language book focusing on teahouse field observations and transforming her doctoral dissertation into an English-language academic monograph.