The upcoming workshop, “CHALLENGING THE ‘NORMAL’ IN COLD WAR SOUTH KOREA AND
JAPAN,” considers the intersections of postcolonial sentiment, Cold War capitalism, and cross-border travel in the wake of Japanese imperialism and US military occupation. By examining the circulation of bodies, goods, and ideas across national, regional, and other types of spatial boundaries, the three papers seek new ways of understanding the normative configurations of sexual practice, corporeal embodiment, and gender performance that helped sustain a superficially stable, yet deeply fractured, Cold War order in Northeast Asia.