A Story of Nationalist Government’s Literary Censorship

 

Wong Yoon Wah

 

This is a case study of Nationalist Government’s Literary censorship in Taiwan in the 1960s. The United Daily News联合报, one of the leading newspapers in Taiwan， published a short poem entitled “A Story”故事  by Feng Chi风迟, an unknown young writer in its literary supplement Lian He Fu kang联合副刊. The poem tells a story of a foolish ship captain who drifted and landed on a deserted island. After many years he is still determined to return to the mainland. The publisher Wang Tiwu王惕吾received a warning call from the President Palace in Taipei in the morning and Lin Haiyin 林海音，the editor of the supplement,  resigned immediately. No body knows what really happened to the young writer who reappeared again only at the age of 70 in 1999 and wanted to meet Lin Haiyin  when the later was seriously sick. The reappearance of the writer provides us a first-handed information of how a piece of writing was censored and how the writer was persecuted.