# Chunmei Du, "Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/exchanges-a-cambridge-up-podcast-5610159/chunmei-du-everyday-occupation-american-soldiers-and-chinese-civilians-in-the-aftermath-of-world-war-ii-cambridge-up-2025
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/exchanges-a-cambridge-up-podcast-5610159/chunmei-du-everyday-occupation-american-soldiers-and-chinese-civilians-in-the-aftermath-of-world-war-ii-cambridge-up-2025.md
Podcast: [Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/exchanges-a-cambridge-up-podcast-5610159)
Published: 2026-05-28T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1875071434.mp3
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1875071434.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/exchanges-a-cambridge-up-podcast-5610159/episodes/chunmei-du-everyday-occupation-american-soldiers-and-chinese-civilians-in-the-aftermath-of-world-war-ii-cambridge-up-2025
Duration seconds: 3304

## Resource

Chunmei Du is an Associate Professor of History at Lingnan University. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of modern China, specifically looking at cross-cultural encounters and the lived experiences of ordinary individuals during periods of profound political transition. In this New Books Network episode, we chat with Du about her latest book, Everyday Occupation: American Soldiers and Chinese Civilians in the Aftermath of World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2025). While many Anglophone histories about the “loss of China” focus on high-level diplomacy and grand strategy, Everyday Occupation zooms in the street-level micropolitics of a brief period between 1945–1949 when American troops were stationed in post-WWII China. The book explores the daily friction between American soldiers and Chinese civilians—from traffic accidents involving jeeps to the sensory shocks from urban odors—and their impact on Chinese sentiments towards the US. Du reveals how these everyday encounters helped pave the way for the communist takeover of China, and continue to cast a shadow over modern US-China relations. Anthony Kao is a writer who intersects international affairs and cultural criticism. He founded/edits Cinema Escapist—a publication exploring the sociopolitical context behind global film and television—and also writes for outlets like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, and Eater.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/exchanges-a-cambridge-up-podcast-5610159/episodes/chunmei-du-everyday-occupation-american-soldiers-and-chinese-civilians-in-the-aftermath-of-world-war-ii-cambridge-up-2025/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/exchanges-a-cambridge-up-podcast-5610159/chunmei-du-everyday-occupation-american-soldiers-and-chinese-civilians-in-the-aftermath-of-world-war-ii-cambridge-up-2025.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.