Isle of Time
Taiwan at the End of Martial Law: The Dangwai Movement, Street Protest, and Direct Presidential Elections (1980–1999)

Breaking the Silence

19 Volumes

Vol. 1

The Dangwai Movement

Under one-party authoritarian rule, a group of courageous Taiwanese chose to seek political particip...

2 images
Vol. 2

The Kaohsiung Incident

On December 10, 1979 — International Human Rights Day — Formosa Magazine organized a massive public ...

3 images
Vol. 3

The Lin Family Massacre

On February 28, 1980 — the thirty-third anniversary of the 228 Incident — the late-winter chill stil...

Vol. 4

The Chen Wen-cheng Incident

At dawn on July 3, 1981, the cicadas had not yet begun their song on the campus of National Taiwan U...

Vol. 5

A Hundred Thousand Drums on Orchid Island

In 1974 the atomic energy council placed the storage site for low-level radioactive waste at Longmen...

Vol. 6

The Henry Liu Murder and the Tenth Credit Collapse

On the morning of October 15, 1984, in Daly City, California, the writer Liu Yi-liang — who publishe...

Vol. 7

Birth of the Opposition

On the morning of September 28, 1986, one hundred and thirty-five Dangwai activists gathered under t...

1 images
Vol. 8

Lifting Martial Law

On July 15, 1987, President Chiang Ching-kuo announced the lifting of Taiwan's thirty-eight-year mar...

1 images
Vol. 9

A Hundred Flowers Bloom

Around the time of martial law's lifting, long-suppressed social energy erupted like a volcano. Labo...

1 images
Vol. 10

The Plant Yilan Did Not Keep

In 1986 Formosa Plastics put forward its sixth naphtha cracker and chose a site at the Lize industri...

Vol. 11

The February 28 Redress Movement

On February 4, 1987, three men announced the founding of the February 28 Peace Day Promotion Associa...

Vol. 12

A Hundred Percent Freedom

At dawn on April 7, 1989, in the offices of Freedom Era Weekly on Minquan East Road in Taipei, a fir...

Vol. 13

The Succession and the February Crisis

On the afternoon of January 13, 1988, Chiang Ching-kuo died at his Seven Seas residence in Taipei, a...

Vol. 14

Lilies in the Square

In March 1990, the chill of early spring had not yet fully faded from Taipei, yet on the broad plaza...

Vol. 15

The End of Mobilization and the Remaking of Parliament

On June 21, 1990, the Council of Grand Justices issued Interpretation No. 261: senior members of the...

Vol. 16

The Ground Made at Mailiao

The plant Yilan refused came to rest at Mailiao in Yunlin in 1991. There are no mountains here to ho...

Vol. 17

The Independent Taiwan Association Case and the End of Sedition

In the early hours of May 9, 1991, agents of the Investigation Bureau entered a graduate dormitory a...

Vol. 18

The People Choose

On March 23, 1996, the skies over Taiwan were charged with an unprecedented tension and exhilaration...

Vol. 19

The 921 Earthquake

At 1:47 on the morning of September 21, 1999, the Chelungpu fault ruptured and a magnitude 7.3 earth...