Isle of Time
Taiwan Under Martial Law: White Terror, Cold War, and Economic Takeoff (1950–1979)

The Silent Island

18 Volumes

Vol. 1

Party-State Governance

During the martial law era, Taiwan's party-state-military trinity permeated every corner of society....

Vol. 2

Forty Years Behind the Bamboo Fence

The soldiers and dependants who crossed the strait around 1949 numbered somewhere near six hundred t...

Vol. 3

The White Terror

On May 20, 1949, the Taiwan Provincial Government declared martial law, initiating thirty-eight year...

3 images
Vol. 4

Disillusioned Intellectuals

At the historical crossroads of the mid-twentieth century — as the Second World War had only just en...

Vol. 5

Cold War Frontline

After the Korean War erupted in June 1950, the United States reversed the Truman administration's ea...

Vol. 6

The Luku Incident

At one of the harshest moments of Cold War confrontation in the 1950s — while the smoke of the Chine...

Vol. 7

Purge of Indigenous Elites

Beneath the shadow of Cold War confrontation and martial law in the mid-twentieth century, Taiwan’s ...

Vol. 8

Military Power Purge

In the turbulent historical crossroads of the 1950s Cold War escalation, after the Nationalist gover...

Vol. 9

The 823 Artillery Battle

At 6:30 in the evening on August 23, 1958, the artillery emplacements along the Fujian coast opened ...

5 images
Vol. 10

Cross-Ethnic Alliance

Amid the intensifying Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during t...

Vol. 11

A Declaration of Independence

In the early autumn of 1964, the nights in Taipei felt suffocatingly still, as if even the wind had ...

Vol. 12

Red Leaf and the Baseball Fever

On August 25, 1968, Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium was packed. On one side stood the Red Leaf Ele...

Vol. 13

Nine Years of Compulsory Education

On June 27, 1967, at a memorial assembly in the Presidential Office, Chiang Kai-shek directed that c...

Vol. 14

The Taiyuan Incident

February 8, 1970 — the third day of the Lunar New Year. Inside Taiyuan Reformatory Prison in Donghe ...

Vol. 15

Losing the Seat: The UN and the Diplomatic Dominoes

Late in the evening of October 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted on Resolution 275...

Vol. 16

The Zhongli Incident

On November 19, 1977, Taiwan held local elections for five categories of public office. The race for...

Vol. 17

The Economic Miracle

The land reforms of the 1950s — the 37.5% rent reduction of 1949 that capped tenant rent at 37.5 per...

Vol. 18

Cultural Control

During the martial law era, cultural production in Taiwan was subject to tight state control exercis...