Presentation Title
“China Closed Off?”: China Travel Service and the Regional Travel Network in the Early 1950s
Location
RCC Small Ballroom
Start Date
12-10-2013 3:45 PM
End Date
12-10-2013 5:15 PM
Abstract
In 1954, the China Travel Service (CTS), the first and largest travel agency in the Republican period was closed in mainland China. Established in 1923, the CTS was closed at a time when the socialist state regarded travel agencies as bastions of capitalist practices. However, it was not the whole story. This paper traces the CTS’s last five years of existence in mainland China. While the birth of a communist regime in 1949 sharply changed the practice of travel and tourism in China and the whole region, the CTS continued to play a key role in keeping China open to the outside world. Under the new socialist regime, the CTS worked for refugee repatriation and helped a group of Chinese students and scholars abroad return to red China. Moreover, the Hong Kong branch of the CTS re-registered in Hong Kong in 1953. A seemingly independent company, CTS Hong Kong was directly controlled by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in Beijing. Taking advantage of Hong Kong’s colonial status, CTS Hong Kong served overseas Chinese, enabling Chinese residents in Hong Kong, Macau, and foreign countries to visit families and participate in official tours on the Chinese mainland. Complicating the notion that China was “closed” after the establishment of a socialist regime, this paper argues that even as the regional travel network in modern East Asia was shut down in the early days of the Cold War, new forms of region-making supplanted it.
“China Closed Off?”: China Travel Service and the Regional Travel Network in the Early 1950s
RCC Small Ballroom
In 1954, the China Travel Service (CTS), the first and largest travel agency in the Republican period was closed in mainland China. Established in 1923, the CTS was closed at a time when the socialist state regarded travel agencies as bastions of capitalist practices. However, it was not the whole story. This paper traces the CTS’s last five years of existence in mainland China. While the birth of a communist regime in 1949 sharply changed the practice of travel and tourism in China and the whole region, the CTS continued to play a key role in keeping China open to the outside world. Under the new socialist regime, the CTS worked for refugee repatriation and helped a group of Chinese students and scholars abroad return to red China. Moreover, the Hong Kong branch of the CTS re-registered in Hong Kong in 1953. A seemingly independent company, CTS Hong Kong was directly controlled by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in Beijing. Taking advantage of Hong Kong’s colonial status, CTS Hong Kong served overseas Chinese, enabling Chinese residents in Hong Kong, Macau, and foreign countries to visit families and participate in official tours on the Chinese mainland. Complicating the notion that China was “closed” after the establishment of a socialist regime, this paper argues that even as the regional travel network in modern East Asia was shut down in the early days of the Cold War, new forms of region-making supplanted it.
Comments
Presentation is included in Panel 21: Rethinking International Relations in Modern China and the Cold War Period