Cold War Laugh Lines: Comic Communication in Authoritarian Taiwan and South Korea

Taiwan in the World Lecture Series

January 1, 1947, Tonga Ilbo. "The 38th Parallel Blues." Image Credit: The Cold War Comic: Power and Laughter in Taiwan and South Korea (1948-1979) by Evelyn Ming Whai Shih

Evelyn Shih (University of Minnesota) will give a lecture based on her first book manuscript, which takes a comparative approach to Taiwanese and South Korean contexts and explores the comic forms that flourish under heavy censorship and ideological control.

Thursday, January 15, 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Pacific Time)

Bunche Hall, Rm 10383 & Online

The UCLA Taiwan in the World lecture series aims to promote Taiwan studies and disseminate knowledge about Taiwan in a global context and shed light on Taiwan's political economy, international relations, and US-Taiwan-China relations, as well as Taiwan's society, political system, social structure, and institutions.

Note: This lecture will be presented in a hybrid format. See registration links below to attend virtually or in-person.

About the Speaker

Evelyn Shih is Korea Foundation Assistant Professor at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies with a joint appointment in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. She teaches courses on film and media, as well as Korean culture and literature within a comparative and transnational framework. She studies colonial, Cold War, and contemporary East Asia.

Her first book manuscript, Cold War Laugh Lines: Comic Communication in Authoritarian Taiwan and South Korea, explores the comic forms that flourish under heavy censorship and ideological control. She dives into the archives of the anti-Communist sphere in Cold War East Asia to argue for the transnational circulation of a regional style of comic expression. Her work interweaves methodologies from affect and phenomenology, media historiography, environmental humanities, aesthetics and critical theory. Her second book will trace the origins of modern comic expression into the Japanese colonial period, looking into new concepts such as "nonsense" and "neurasthenia" that were introduced to Taiwan and Korea during that time.