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Propagating Political Views to the Public – From New People’s Society to The Taiwan Shinminpo
Propagating Political Views to the Public – From New People’s Society to The Taiwan Shinminpo

Publication date: 29 Oct 2021
Author: Lee Yi-ling, Hsieh Min-ro |Staff member of the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

Yang Zhao-jia, one of the leading figures of the New Cultural Movement in Taiwan under Japanese rule, once said, “Newspaper and parliament are the two major driving forces for the promotion of civilization and social development.” Hence, the two core missions of the Taiwanese Cultural Association were running a newspaper and petitioning for the establishment of a Taiwanese parliament, which embodied their stand of unarmed resistance against colonial racism and had far-reaching impact on the enlightenment of Taiwan’s national consciousness.
2021 marked the centenary of the founding of the Taiwanese Cultural Association. In commemoration, the Archives organized a feature exhibition on The Taiwan Shinminpo, the only private Taiwanese-run newspaper during the Japanese colonial era. Selected collections of historical materials including personal documents, image data, diaries and passports were displayed and reviewed to illustrate that The Taiwan Shinminpo served to awaken and enlighten the people, boost national morale and propagate their political views to the public. Echoing the founding goal of the Taiwanese Cultural Association, The Taiwan Shinminpo opened a new page for Taiwanese to strive for democracy and freedom with a foothold in Taiwan and eyes looking at the world!

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II. The Chance for Visiting Taiwanese Plains Aborigines

After Thomson went to Taiwan, he mainly stayed in Tainan, which was one of the places where Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell did his medical missionary work. Dr. Maxwell came to Taiwan for his medical missionary work five or six years earlier than Thomson so that he was more familiar with Taiwan than Thomson was. When Dr. Maxwell first began his medical missionary work in Tainan, he faced difficulty since the Han Chinese refused him. Luckily, he met William Alexander Pickering soon after that. At that time, Mr. Pickering had influence since he actively participated many events and established connections with different groups. He had served in customs, played an important role in camphor trading, helped consuls from the U.K and the U.S. to tackle the issues regarding Taiwan, and visited the aboriginal peoples in Taiwan frequently. Contributed to Mr. Pickering’s language ability and his good connections with people in Taiwan, Dr. Maxwell could visit several aboriginal groups when he felt frustrated at not being able to do his medical missionary work. In fact, those aborigines treated them more kindly than the Han Chinese did. Because of Mr. Pickering’s assistance, Dr. Maxwell developed a new route to do his medical missionary work and also reduced the distance from the aboriginal peoples in Taiwan. This is why Dr. Maxwell took John Thomson to visit his aboriginal friends in 1871.

‹ I. John Thomson’s background up III. John Thomson’s footprints in Formosa ›

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