Will I love Migration in the Time of Revolution?

Migration in the Time of Revolution pushes the international history of the 20th century into a new and exciting direction. Using the Chinese diaspora in Indonesia as a lens, Taomo Zhou elevates citizens to agents in international relations. On the basis of Chinese archival research and oral history, she explores how Indonesians of Chinese descent lastingly influenced the diplomatic relations between their home country and divided China during the Cold War.

My fifth choice, last but not least, is Taomo Zhou’s Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia, and the Cold War, which I would characterize as a novel attempt at unlearning Cold War narratives to which we have been accustomed for a long time. 

The book’s clearest contribution, first and foremost, involves careful examination of Sino-Indonesian relations in the post-WWII era, particularly concerning what happened during the failed coup in Jakarta on September 30, 1965. This coup, in which six anti-communist Indonesian generals were murdered, was a crucial event in Indonesian history because it triggered General Suharto’s swift… show more.