Cultural diplomacy, artistic network, and the politics of decolonization between Taiwan and the Philippines in the Cold War era

ABSTRACT During the Cold War, cultural engagements frequently occurred between Taiwan and the Philippines due to their military and geopolitical alliance in East Asia. This essay explores this cultural linkage at both the diplomatic and individual levels by examining the politics and aesthetics of the art exhibitions both countries participated in as well as the intellectual encounters among individual artists. The First Southeast Asia Art Conference and Competition, a postwar art event held in the Philippines, demonstrated Taiwan’s cultural diplomacy in the Free World; it also highlighted the different figurations of colonial modernities and the emerging national identities developed in East and Southeast Asia in the postcolonial era. While the cultural linkage between Taiwan and the Philippines was a product of the geo-military strategy in the Cold War era, the translocal friendships and the artistic networks were actively maintained by the individual artists in the late Cold War years, after the Taiwan–Philippines diplomatic relation ended. This intra-regional network created an alternative trajectory of knowledge circulation that allowed Philippine leftist nationalist writings to be published in Taiwan in the latter’s martial law era. Furthermore, it provides a comparative perspective on the political discourses and artistic practices of decolonial initiatives in Taiwan and the Philippines.