臺灣文學虛擬博物館

Literary journals｜Classical poetry journals｜Political journals

During the early postwar period, running a journal press became enormously popular in Taiwan. Intellectuals transformed their desires into words. They shouldered the responsibilities for welcoming the future and anticipated the start of a new age. Around this time, the issues of people’s livelihoods had gradually emerged, and the intellectuals made their suggestions with the journals. The period saw the rise of many different journals, and about 200 journals were published; however, most of them came to an end within one year. Among the journals, only a few could be clearly classified as literary journals. The others could be considered comprehensive journals. Most of these journals contained columns for literature and arts, and they formed the literary trends and activities of the time together with the literary journals.

Literary journals

▸ The inaugural issue of Taiwan Culture (Donated by Qin Xian-Ci)

Taiwan Culture, edited by Yang Yun-Ping, etc. Taipei: Taiwan Culture Association, began publication on September 15, 1946, and ceased publication on December 1, 1950.

“…A famous chef who has always made great Japanese cuisine, suddenly shifts from ‘miso’ and ‘katsuobushi’ to ‘deer sinews’ and ‘bear’s paws’ and is at a complete loss …this has been the depression in the cultural circles in Taiwan since China took over Taiwan….”.

The forward to the inaugural issue of Taiwan Culture, “The mission of the Taiwan Culture Association,” demonstrated that the Taiwanese generally felt confused with the conversion of their identity during the early postwar period. The Taiwan Culture Association, which aimed to promote the Taiwanese culture, held the founding conference at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei in June 1946. The intellectuals of the time gathered together at the conference. Taiwan Culture was published in the same year, and the editor-in-chiefs were Su Xin, Yang Yun-Ping and Chen Qi-Lu in that order. It was initially defined as a comprehensive cultural journal and its contents contained literary works, comprehensive summaries and reviews of current affairs, information on cultural activities, introductions of new western cultural theories, and so on. However, it was changed to an academic journal from the 5th volume (1949), and ceased publication on December 1, 1950.

◆　◆　◆

▸ The inaugural issue of Taiwan Monthly (Donated by Zhao Tian-Yi)

Edited by Shen Yun-Long, published by Taiwan Monthly Press, starting publication on October 25, 1946, with 86 pages.

Right after World War II, the National Government immediately established the Taiwan Provincial Executive Office on September 1, 1945, as the special administrative organization that took over and ruled Taiwan. Taiwan Monthly was published in Taipei on October 25, 1946. It was the official publication of the Taiwan Provincial Executive Office. According to its foreword, this publication was created to let “domestic people,” meaning the people in Mainland China, understood more about Taiwan's situation, “reporting Taiwan's circumstances to domestic readers,” and also “to introduce the culture of Mainland China to the readers in Taiwan.” Moreover, it played the role of a bridge for cultural exchange between Taiwan and the “homeland,” Mainland China.

For this reason, the inaugural issue featured the journalists of foreign media to describe their impressions of Taiwan with the theme of “Taiwan, in the eyes of foreign journalists.” In addition, it outlined the political systems, society, economic nature, demographic composition, and education in Taiwan. However, one of the articles in the literary column, written by Mei-Chun, titled “Wu Feng, A Young Man Who Was Beheaded by the Aborigines” was full of discrimination and misunderstanding of the aboriginal customs, which in particular warrants a reassessment today. This publication was ceased in May 1947, with a total of 7 issues and 6 volumes.

Classical poetry journals

▸ The inaugural issue of Taiwanese Poetry Newspaper (Donated by Zhou Ding-Shan’s family)

Taiwanese Poetry Newspaper was published independently from the Taiwanese Poetry Society of Jian Guo Monthly. It was published on January 1, 1949, but it was suspended in February of the same year. The editor-in-chief was Ceng Jin-Ke.

There were 68 founders of the journal, among whom were Taiwanese Huang Chun-Qing, Lin Xian-Tang, Xie Ru-Quan, Wei Qing-De, Yang Yun-Ping, Chen Feng-Yuan, Huang Zan-Jun, Li De-He, Huang Shui-Pei and so on. People from China included Liang Han-Cao, Xu Duan-Fu, Niu Xian-Ming, Chen Ji-Bo, Mao Yi-Bo, Min Xiao-Ji and so on. Due to the lack of funding, it was too difficult to hold a general meeting for the members. Therefore, it relied on the communication voting for members to elect the supervisors. However, the list of the supervisors was changed in the second issue.
 

Political journals

▸ The inaugural issue of Free China (bound edition) (Donated by Li Pao-Wen)

Free China began publication in November 1949 and ceased publication in September 1960. It was hosted by liberals and politicians from Mainland China after 1949, such as Hu Shi, Lei Chen and Yin Hai-Kuang, and was published by the Free China Journal Association. This journal occupied a vital position in the market of speech in Taiwan. Under the authoritarian regime of the Nationalist government (Kuomintang), it was almost the only media source whose dissenting voices could be heard in public in the 1950s. The “literary column,” which published literary works, existed from the inaugural issue of Free China. Throughout the 1950s, more than 400 works were released with the publication of 260 issues and the genres of the works were diverse. From the “Calling for contributions” in the inaugural issue of Free China, the concept of publication could be seen, such as anti-authoritarian papers, discussions, fictions, woodcarvings and photos.