Event: Eyes Over the Bamboo Curtain: Expoloring China's Past from Spy Images **MOVED TO HAINES Rm 332

ABSTRACT: During the Cold War the Central Intelligence Agency, with the help of ROC government in Taiwan and ROC Air Force, flew U-2 spy planes missions over Mainland China between 1957 and 1968. A good portion of China was covered. After the films were declassified by the CIA and by the ROCAF, Lin has been doing researches, collecting and indexing these images in the past 15 years. He has been working with the National Archives and Academia Sinica, and providing help and images to researchers in the area of remote sensing archeology, military history and architectural history. 

The CIA took these photos right at the dawn of rapid population growth and large scale urbanization of modern China. With these images you are able to peek into China’s past. In this presentation Lin will give a brief history of the spy missions, aerial photograph equipment used, and a good number of image samples over China and some other portions of the world.

BIO: Lin XU is an independent researcher specializing in curating and georeferencing declassified images collected by U.S. military and intelligence agencies using aerial and space-based platforms. In collaboration with U.S. National Archives and Academia Sinica, Lin has put together a large collection of legacy remote sensing images over China to support academic institutions engaged in research on archeology, architectural history, and historical geography. He lives in Boston and works as a computer engineer for an IT company he co-founded.