The War That Never Was

In the video The War That Never Was, Chang interviews his mother, who was born in 1938 in a poor region of Taiwan, asking her questions about her life as a wife, a mother and a worker. With her life dedicated to survival, deprived of any proper education, global affairs have little meaning to her. She had little understanding of the imposition of the Taiwan Martial Law (1949 – 1987) and she never heard of the Cold War (1947 – 1991), yet, she remembers the dates of every important family event. 1961 was a critical year in the World; John F. Kennedy became the U.S. President, the Bay of Pig was invaded, the Berlin Wall was built… His mother, however, has no grasp of any of these far-reaching historical events. Still, 1961 was an important year in her life because her first child (the artist) was born. Now at the age of 79, Chang’s mother still rides her scooter for grocery shopping. The film starts with her riding through the old village recalling her life and family events and juxtaposing them with critical events of the Cold War. The soundscape of the film is realistic and evocative, and it even includes a portion of George Orwell’s essay “You and the Atomic Bomb”, for which he was credited to be the first writer to use the term Cold War in recent history.