Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper examines how the geo/bios divide rendered the Lop Nur desert a sacrifice zone in China’s Cold War. Nuclear testing reworked deep geological time into contaminated strata, while tales of spirits register dispossession. Land and life became material witnesses of the nuclear Cold War.

Paper long abstract

Not all sands are created equal. The shortage of construction-grade sand—generally sourced from lakes, riverbeds, and quarries—has recently received growing attention, which serves as a reminder of the importance of materiality in the built environment and social life. Meanwhile, the undesirable desert sand, which exists abundantly, and has often been framed “valueless” and a threat. Yet, paradoxically, Deserts are frequently exploited as strategic spaces by military-industrial complexes worldwide.

Long deemed empty and lifeless, many desert regions do not simply contain oil and mineral reserves. They also served as proving grounds for military exercises and scientific experiments. From the American West to East Kazakhstan to Northwest China, deserts have been central sites of nuclear testing. These sites, mirroring one another visually and geopolitically, were central to the planetary rise of nuclear weaponry. Remarkably, all assertions of emptiness notwithstanding, the area is filled with stories of spirits and ghosts, along with ancient ruins.

This paper especially examines how the imagined geo/bios divide enabled the rendering of the Lop Nur desert as a sacrifice zone during China’s Cold War mobilization. It also shows how the persisting tales of spirits and supernatural forces reveal stories of dispossession and historical erasure. As nuclear tests violently reworked deep geological time, overwriting it with lasting contaminated strata, the land and surrounding life forms were made into material witnesses: an archive of the nuclear Cold War sedimented in radioactive debris, vitrified sand, and airborne dust that continue to shape the present.