ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

‘Beyond Bandung: Histories of Scientific, Technological and Medical Assistance between Decolonising Nations during the Cold War’ 2

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

The 1955 Bandung Conference has long been regarded as both the symbol and the origin of postcolonial solidarity between African and Asian countries, retroactively credited with paving the way for the 'South-South collaboration' that continues to carry significant weight in contemporary international cooperation programmes. However, this singular focus often obscures the complex geopolitical entanglements that shaped scientific, medical, and technological assistance across postcolonial polities during the Cold War. This panel invites papers that move beyond Bandung to examine how scientific, technological, and medical collaborations among newly independent countries unfolded within — and sometimes against — the ideological frameworks of superpower rivalry, socialist internationalism, and developmentalist aspirations.

This symposium consists of two organized sessions, each including three papers that trace the circulation of expertise, technologies, and health programs across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, including the training of medical professionals, transfer of healthcare technologies, agricultural demonstrations, and industrial know-how. Such circulations reveal a world in which 'assistance' embodied competing visions of modernity, sovereignty, and moral authority. By analysing how states and experts in non-aligned, peripheral or majority countries positioned themselves amid overlapping empires, Cold War blocs and postcolonial institutions, seven presenters will shed light on the uneven landscapes of knowledge creation and diplomacy that conventional North–South or East–West binaries fail to capture.

Rather than treating Bandung as a fixed point of origin, the panel emphasises the vicissitudes of shifting alliances, disillusionment, and experiments in cooperation that transcended formal political boundaries. Consequently, these histories redefine Cold War science, technology, and medicine as multi-centred, deeply geopolitical projects forged not only through competition among superpowers but also through the aspirations and ambiguities of individuals seeking solidarity within nascent transregional networks.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Harry Yi-Jui Wu, National Cheng Kung University

Commentator

• Aya Homei, The University of Manchester

Individual Presentations

• The Technological Transfer and Collaborative Implications of the Sino-Saudi Medical Mission - Harry Yi-Jui Wu, National Cheng Kung University; Lai Hsinyen, University of St. Andrews

• Acupuncture Diplomacies with Southeast Asia and Latin America in Cold War Taiwan: Wu Wei-Ping and Cheng Yeu-Ping. - Po-Hsun Chen, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

• “Travel” Beyond the Cold War: Tourists, Travel Medicine, and the Emergence of a Biomedical Landscape in Nepal, 1950s-1960s - Alex Yu, University of Toronto

Session Organizer

• Yi-Tang Lin