Publication date: 27 Oct 2022
Author: Lee Yiling, Chu Fengchung |Staff member at the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

The Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, in the years past unearthed a precious collection of the published works in 1938 – 1944 of “Taiwan Shin Min Pao” and its successor “Shing Nan News”, the only newspapers launched by the Taiwanese during the colonial rule of Japan. The newspapers covered a diversity of topics, encompassing contemporary Taiwanese politics, economy, society, culture, the arts and trends among the masses through the lens of which one is able to recognize an international order in flux before and after the outbreak of the WWII and, with the progress of the war, its tremendous impact on various aspects of civil life as state and society adjusted to the wartime regime in total war. Serialized in more than 50 accounts with 300 articles and more, the overseas travel literature published by the two newspapers in this period faithfully presented, in the eye of the traveler, the reality as it was perceived in a world shaken by war.

This piece goes through a selection of the accounts of travel that are of interest and, with the descriptions given by travelers from Taiwan and Japan to be complemented by such colorful collections as photographs, travel tickets, old papers, postcards and others, it invites you to read through the tracks of the travelers in question over tens of thousands of miles across Beijing, Manchukuo, the United States, Germany, Burma and Vietnam and discover the landscapes around a turbulent world in the midst of war from nearly a hundred years ago and the heart-felt worldviews of the travelers.