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Let’s read newspaper-Contents of The Taiwan Shinminpo and Kounan Shinbun

The Taiwan Minpao, The Taiwan Shinminpo and the subsequent Kounan Shinbun (Kounan News) constituted the newspaper series published between April 1923 and March 1944. However, surviving copies of the daily published since 1932 were few. In view of the importance of this newspaper series, the Institute of Taiwan History began gathering remaining copies both in Taiwan and abroad, and discovered an exclusive collection of The Taiwan Shinminpo (1938-1941). The newspapers carried diverse contents, including political and economic affairs, local news, arts and new knowledge, which are rare and precious historical materials for research on Taiwan history during World War II.

Reviewing the daily newspapers published since April 1932, this article attempts to elucidate the layout format and language use as well as main contents and subject matters covered in the columns. Moreover, it further analyzes the particularity and variations in choice of contents as time evolved and the environment changed. This article provides an in-depth introduction to this newspaper of the Taiwanese, and invites you to read the newspaper and revisit major and minor happenings of Taiwan past.

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IV. Lin’s Footsteps in France

On November 14, Lin and his sons arrived at the City of Light, which referred to Paris. In his diary, Lin Xian-tang thought Paris had both lightness and darkness, but there was more good than bad. In his diary, Lin said the streets in Paris were beautiful and ordered. Also, the historical sites in Paris could remind people of history. In addition, Paris was an international city where many visitors visited. As a result, it was common for citizens in Paris to meet foreigners. In other words, Parisians did not regard foreigners as outsiders, which was totally different from people in other countries. In fact, people who had not visited Paris usually imagined Paris as a beautiful city. In their mind, the life in Paris must be luxurious and dissolute. In fact, most of the Parisians had a plain life. Even though there were some streets with many places of entertainment, the places were actually mainly for foreigners. This is so called a little darkness in light. (See Figure 6 & 7)

Figure 6: The Diary of Mr. Guan-yuan on November 14, 1927.
(Source: The Diary of Mr. Guan-yuan, the digital archives of the Archives of Institution of Taiwan History)
Figure 7: The Paris Station and Porte Saint-Denis.
(Source: Michael H.Finegan Collections, the digital archives of the Archives of Institution of Taiwan History)

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