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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 November 2009
At the Asian-African Conference at Bandung, Indonesia, in April 1955, the world's press concentrated its gaze on Premier Zhou Enlai of the People's Republic of China. Premier Zhou's every gesture, interaction and statement was scrutinized for evidence that his motivations at Bandung were antagonistic to Western interests. This preoccupation with the motivations of the Chinese was, however, no new phenomenon. By 1955, literary tropes of the ‘Yellow Peril’ had been firmly established in the Western imagination and, after 1949, almost seamlessly made their transition into fears of infiltrating communist Chinese ‘Reds’.
The first half of this paper explores the historical roots of the West's perceptions of the Chinese, through the literary works of Daniel Defoe to the pulp fiction of Sax Rohmer's Dr Fu Manchu series, which ran from 1917 to 1959. It then examines how this negative template was mobilised by the print media at the height of the Cold War to characterize Premier Zhou Enlai, not only as untrustworthy, but also as antagonistically anti-Western. This reading of representations of Premier Zhou at Bandung, as well as the literary tropes propagated in support of eighteenth and nineteenth-century imperial expansion, exposes a history of Western (mis)interpretations of China, and sheds light upon the media network's role in constructing a Chinese enemy in the mid-1950s.
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78 MacKinnon and Friesen, op. cit., p. 86.
79 Suyin, op. cit., p. 255.
80 Indeed, Zhou Enlai as Foreign Minister expressed his disapproval of this sort of power play when he met with Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev in 1956. Ibid., p. 260.
81 Tillman Durdin, ‘Chou Makes Plea for Coexistence with All Nations’, New York Times, 20 April 1955, p. 1.
82 Tillman Durdin, ‘Asia-Africa Unity Hailed as Parley Opens in Bandung’, New York Times, 18 April 1955, p. 1.
83 Ibid.
84 Robert Alden, ‘Nationalist Tide High at Bandung’, New York Times, 18 April 1955, p. 3.
85 Tillman Durdin, ‘Rebuff to Reds and Nehru Bring Bandung Discord’, New York Times, 19 April 1955.
86 Editorial, ‘Turnabout at Bandung’, New York Times, 20 April 1955, p. 32.
87 Staff Reporter, ‘Prelude to Bandung’, Time, 18 April 1955 (no page).
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89 The Chinese delegation was headed by the president of its Academy of Science, Kuo Mo-jo.
90 United Press, ‘Bandoeng—Half World Speaks While Other Half Listens’, The Argus, 18 April 1955, p. 2.
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92 The USA State Department is quoted in ‘Red “murder charge” refuted: British scout sabotage to Indian plane’, The Argus, 14 April 1955, p. 2.
93 ‘Chou Gags Critics in Bandoeng’, op. cit.
94 Peter Russo, ‘Pride Goeth before a Rise’, The Argus, 19 April 1955, p. 2.
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97 Ibid., p. 175.
98 Peter Russo, ‘Reds Will Pass’, The Argus, 22 April 1955, p. 2.
99 Zhou Enlai's name appeared 139 times across the 29 articles selected. Of the five nations who convened the Conference—Indonesia, Ceylon, Burma, Pakistan and India, who were known as the Colombo Five—the name of India's Prime Minister appeared most often (35 times); followed by Ceylon's Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala (26 times); Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Ali (19 times); Indonesia's Premier Ali Sastroamidjojo who chaired the Conference (14 times) and finally Burma's Premier U Nu (12 times). Combined, the Colombo Five nations were mentioned less frequently than Premier Zhou Enlai.
100 The name ‘China’ only ever appeared in either the context of a direct quote from one of the Bandung delegates or, if in the voice of the reporter, in relation to China's geographical location.
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102 Suyin, op. cit., p. 238.
103 Tillman Durdin, ‘Chou Asks for U.S. Talks on Easing Formosa Crisis: Washington Sets Terms’, New York Times, 24 April 1955, p. 1.
104 Robert Alden, ‘Chou Renews Insistence on Formosa ‘Liberation’’ New York Times, 25 April 1955, p. 1.
105 Tillman Durdin, ‘Chou Asks for U.S. Talks on Easing Formosa Crisis’, op. cit.
106 Peter Russo, ‘Clean Fight at Bandoeng: No Broken Rice Bowls’, The Argus, 27 April 1955, p. 2.
107 Hammond, op. cit., p. 116.
108 Spence, op. cit., p. 85.
109 Hammond, op. cit.
110 Spence, op. cit., p. 68.
111 Ibid. p. 94.
112 MacKinnon and Friesen, op. cit., p. xx.
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115 Mosher, op. cit.
116 Walker, op. cit., p. 229.
