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Taiwan's Press: Political Communications Link and Research Resource

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

J. Bruce Jacobs
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Extract

Scholars of politics in literate and semi-literate societies must study the press for two important reasons. First, the press, as a key line of com-munication, often plays an integral part in the political process. Secondly, the press often provides important politically-relevant information not readily available elsewhere. This article begins with brief comments on the communications functions of Taiwan's press and then discusses types of newspapers, particular newspapers of special importance, reporters and the journalistic profession, and press control. It concludes with a discussion of the press as a research resource.

Type
Research Note
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 68 , December 1976 , pp. 778 - 788
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1976

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References

1. China Yearbook, 1974 (Taipei: China Publishing Company, 1974), p. 327.Google Scholar This circulation places Taiwan in the top 30% of some 150 political jurisdictions. For comparative data see UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, 1973 (Paris: Unesco Press, 1974), pp. 676–80.Google Scholar

2. Unless otherwise indicated, all newspapers mentioned in this article are published in Taipei.

3. For a preliminary analysis of the role of popular associations in Taiwan's political system, see J. Bruce Jacobs, “ Local politics in rural Taiwan: a field Taiwan's Press: Political Communications Link and Research Resource study of Kuan-his, face, and faction in Matsu township” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1975), pp. 52–58. Before 1 May 1968, Ta-chung jih-pao was named Kung-jen pao (Workers' News). Ta-chung jih-pao has recently ceased publication.

4. Reprinted as a booklet: Ku Ying (Solitary Reflections), Yi-ke hsiao shih-min ti hsin-sheng (Taipei: Chung-yang jih-pao, 1972).

5. Chia Po (J. Bruce Jacobs), “ Lun tien-shih yü-yen yü nung-min hsin-sheng” (“ On the language of television and the farmers' heart-felt cry”), Chung-yang jih-pao, 19 January 1973, p. 9; also reprinted as an appendix to an article in Ta-hsüeh tsa-chih (The Intellectual), No. 62 (February 1973), pp. 47–48, 53. For discussions of the language issue in English, see “ Taiwan TV eases curb on dialect,” New York Times, 7 May 1973, p. 13 and Bruce Jacobs, “Tongue-tied tube,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 13 May 1972, p. 31.

6. For the background and references, see Jacobs, J. Bruce, “ Taiwan 1972: political season,” Asian Survey, Vol. XIII, No. 1 (January 1973), p. 106, esp. n. 12.Google Scholar

7. In the offending article – Ch'iu Ch'ui-liang, “ Liang-chung hsin-hsiang” (Two Ways of Thinking), T'ai-wan cheng-lun, No. 5 (December 1975), pp. 31–34 - the author, a Taiwanese teaching at the University of Queensland in Australia, relates the substance of his conversations with two Chinese abroad. The objectionable passage reads: “ He [a Professor Liu] believes that if the Taiwanese people wish to ‘ rule their own house,’ there are only two possible paths to take. The first is for the Taiwanese people to use armed uprising to overthrow the dictatorial regime of the Nationalist Party. The second is for the Taiwanese people to unite and struggle to obtain an early, peaceful unification with the ‘ fatherland’” (p. 34). Ironically, editorials explaining the suspension of T'ai-wan cheng-lun appearing in the 31 December 1975 issues of both Chung-yang jih-pao and Lien-ho pao quoted the above passage in full, thus giving such “ crazy, perverse (k'uang-pei) opinions” (to quote the Chung-yang iih-pao editorial) wide distribu-tion throughout the island. For background on Huang Hsin-chieh see J. Bruce Jacobs, “ Recent leadership and political trends in Taiwan,” The China Quarterly, No. 45 (1971), pp. 152–53; for K'ang Ning-hsiang see “Beating the system,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 8 January 1973, p. 13.

8. This article relies primarily on extensive reading of the Taiwan press since 1969 and 18 months of field research in Taiwan conducted during 1971–73. A travel grant from the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, which made possible the field research, is gratefully acknowledged as is a manuscript prepara-tion grant from the School of Arts and Science at Clarkson College of Technology. Those desiring a brief historical background to the Taiwan press in English should consult any recent edition of the China Yearbook (Taipei: China Publishing Company, annual). Helpful in preparing this article was Ta-chung ch’uan-po shih-yeh (Mass Media Enterprises), edited and published by the Information Department of the Taiwan Provincial Government (T'ai-wan sheng-fu hsin-wen ch'u) in 1971, esp. pp. 1–42. This volume is one of 12 books in a collection entitled San-min chu-yi mo-fan sheng chien-she ts'ung-shu (Book Collection Concerning the Development of the Three People's Principles Model Province) which was published in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution.Google Scholar