2026/04/01 by Fangyuan Huang · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics #Chinese history and philosophy #Communism, Protests, Social Movements
paper · doi:10.1080/17508061.2026.2640754
openalex publication_date 2026/04/01 · openalex created_date 2026/04/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
In the early years of the People’s Republic of China, following the retreat of the Nationalist Government to Taiwan and the outbreak of the Korean War, a vigorous campaign against spies and internal saboteurs gained momentum, prompting the production of films known as fante pian (counter-espionage films) between 1949 and 1965. In this article, I challenge conventional interpretations of these films as bound by the generic codifications of spy films. Drawing on a diverse corpus of primary sources, including historical archives, newspaper reports, and film magazines, I unveil the rigorous and critical energies embedded within counter-espionage cinematic experiences of that era. I contend that counter-espionage films not only reflected the impact of political campaigns, as other critics have suggested, but also functioned as a highly-publicized national defense campaign in their own right. To do so, I show how the production, exhibition, and reception of counter-espionage films in socialist China built an embodied network of mass surveillance that monitored and disrupted the secret network of spies. In particular, the multimedia practices—including pre-screening exhibitions, interstitial commentaries, and post-screening forums—fostered a mode of participatory spectatorship, thereby re-enacting the unmasking of hidden enemy bodies and the mobilization of socialist subjects both on and off the screen. This paper aims to enrich our understanding the interplay between socialist subject bodies, media practices, and political movements. It reveals how media practices seamlessly blended every day experiences with the nation’s warfare against spies, thereby contributing to the actualization of these campaigns.