Publication

This paper examines how veterans of the People's Liberation Army in China were treated in their communities and workplaces after their demobilization in the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that evidence of widespread discrimination against veterans, who were lauded by the state for their heroism and sacrifice, challenges one of the more common "tropes" of contemporary Chinese politics--that patriotism and nationalism are rising among wide swathes of the population. Using new archival sources, the paper focuses on the challenges veterans faced in the post-war era, among them poverty, job discrimination, and marriage difficulties, as well as how they responded to them.