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Exhibit focuses on pre-Martial Law magazines

The "magazine wave" during the pre-Martial Law period represented the people's thirst for democracy and freedom of expression and the forced termination of these publications typified the regime at that time, a Cabinet official said yesterday at the unveiling of an exhibit in Taipei.

Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) made the comments during the opening of the National Central Library's exhibition featuring more than 200 publications that were curtailed by the government during the Martial Law period.

Shieh praised the courage of the literary forefathers, who spoke out against an oppressive regime, saying their sacrifice was crucial in giving rise to democracy in the nation.

The exhibition organizers said that more than 110 new magazine publications emerged between October 1945 and March 1947 -- between the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) initial occupation of Taiwan and the infamous 228 Incident, where an estimated 20,000 Taiwanese were killed or tortured for standing up against KMT rule.

Another 100 magazines published in the early 1950s were also short-lived because of government censorship.

The biggest common denominator of these 200 banned publications is a majority had no connection with those published during the Japanese colonial period and most of them disappeared after the 228 Incident, the organizers said.

Ho Yi-ling (何義麟), an associate professor at the National Taipei University of Education, said most of the magazines also bore the word "new" in their titles.

The common usage of "new," he said, demonstrated the collective strive for a new Taiwan among the people.

Most of the magazines that came out after the 228 Incident were either government publications or government sponsored. The phenomenon, he said, indicated that freedom of speech and expression was greatly restricted and downsized after the KMT fled from China to Taiwan in 1949.

One example he gave was The Liberty Weekly, a political critique that was popular among the youth but condemned by the KMT government.

The weekly was shut down after the 228 Incident and the government refused to grant the publication a license. The publisher reportedly made repeated attempts to dodge government hound dogs by changing the name of the weekly several times, he said.
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