Taiwan Epochal Democracy Magazines

Produced by United Digital Publications of Taiwan (UDP), formerly known as Greatman Knowledge Management Group, Taiwan Epochal Democracy Magazines database is full-image full-text searchable with five Taiwanese contemporary political journals of the twentieth/twenty-first centuries. Four of the five are uniquely available in digital form through UDP.

Titles Found in the Taiwan Epochal Democracy Magazines Database

Below are the ten titles found in the collection, along with a description for each:

• Democratic Review 民主評論 (1949-1966)  Democratic Review was an anti-totalitarian publication founded by Chiang Kai-shek and launched in Hong Kong by Hsu Fu-kuan. It was most influential and robust in its initial decade, when principal contributors included Qian Mu, Mou Zong-san, Tang Jun-yi, and Zhang Jun-mai.
• Wenxing Magazine 文星雜誌 (1957~1988)  Continuing the spirit of the May Fourth Movement in China, Wenxin Magazine covered literature, arts, science, philosophy, and politics while introducing trends in contemporary thought and advocating for liberty, rationalism, and democratic reform. Wenxin Magazine became the most influential publication of Taiwan’s period of martial law after “Free China.”
• Time & Tide 時與潮 (1959-1967) The founder of this journal was Chi Shih-ying, well-known educator, scholar, and writer. Time & Tide was a voice of the opposition for many years and reported exclusively on a number of international and domestic events including the Lei-Zhen Incident, as well as questioning vote rigging of local elections, challenging judges, demanding to lift the press ban, and more.
• Thought and Words 思與言 (1963 to present) This is the only periodical in this series still being published. Since 1963, Thought and Words covered academic trends, political climates, democratic systems, society and culture. Prominent scholars from Academia Sinica and other institutions are contributors on 15+ subjects: politics, laws, society, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, communications, education, economics, and more.
• The Nineties 九十年代 (1970-1998)  The most influential forum for the discussion of liberalization in the Chinese world from 1970-1998, this journal chronicled the economic rise of Mainland China, the blossoming of democracy in Taiwan, the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China, the heightening of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and more. Nearly 8,000 articles, with many politically sensitive and not publishable elsewhere. The Nineties is the indispensable chronicle of the central events of democratic development in greater China.
• Taiwan Political Review 臺灣政論 (1975) The first high-quality, anti-KMT magazine founded by Taiwanese local elites caused a great sensation when it was first published. It is regarded as a paradigm for anti-KMT magazines and established the keynote for later opposition movements: participation in elections, parliamentary questions, magazine publications, grass-roots movements, and street protests. It laid an important foundation of “Taiwanese Identity”.
• The China Tide 夏潮 (1976-1978) Most left-wing and socialist articles in the 1970s were printed in this publication. Important for Taiwan’s democratic movements, social reforms, and cultural self-awareness movements since 1970, the publication’s goal was also to achieve peaceful reunification of the Chinese nation and social equality and justice. It was repeatedly suppressed by KMT regime, but continued to publish. In 1987, its members founded The Labor Party to advocate for workers, farmers, and environmental protection.
• Formosa 美麗島 (1979) Founded by Huang Hsin-chieh and Shih Ming-teh, and others, it is the most well-known anti-KMT magazine taking radical “the masses approach” during Taiwan’s martial law period. Its members even triggered the “Formosa Incident” in late 1979 – one of the most important political events in post-war Taiwan. While many members were arrested and sentenced to harsh penalties under martial law, the magazine was also seized. However, this marked a turning point, and the authoritarian government gradually collapsed and eventually turned to democracy.
• Con-Temporary Monthly 當代雜誌 (1986-2010) Founded in 1986, Con-Temporary Monthly was a comprehensive magazine of “humanist thought”. In the period of its founding, Con-Temporary Monthly set the standard for an alternative liberalism and presented the writings of preeminent contemporary scholars of the humanities and social sciences. Among its contributors were authors from North America, Europe, and Hong Kong. It was the longest-running cultural/ideological magazine in Taiwanese history.
• Taipei Society 澄社報導 (1992-1999) Taipei Society was founded by seven renowned liberal scholars including Hoover Hu in 1989 where they opined on politics but never participated in it. As “the third voice” between two major political parties, KMT and PPT, Taipei Society was able to be objective on current issues to promote democracy in Taiwan. In the late 1980s, when Taiwan was moving away from authoritarianism, Taipei Society’s members wrote about Taiwan’s top ten problems, deconstruction of party-state capitalism, evaluation of legislators, and constitutional reform proposals.

This database is cross searchable with other content on UDP’s “Taiwan Academic Classics” platform.