Love Song of the Foreign Liberator: Teaching Tibetan History to American Students in the PRC

Abstract

This article takes as its point of departure Love Song of Kangding (康定情歌), a romantic film from fall 2010 which propagandizes the positive consequences of the liberation of Tibetan cultural areas by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1950-51. The article describes how the film fit into a semester-long course on contemporary Tibet taught to American students in Chengdu, Sichuan, and the particular sensitivities and difficulties relating to learning about Tibetan history in China.

Keywords

• Tibet
• movie
• Kangding
• propaganda
• serf