Taipei, April 7 (CNA) Academia Historica, Taiwan’s national institution of historical research, marked the 36th anniversary of freedom of speech advocate Nylon Cheng’s (鄭南榕) death with the publication of the diary Cheng kept during incarceration and the induction of a large consignment of historical documents on Cheng’s life.
In the fall of last year, the Nylon Cheng Liberty Foundation expressed its intent to donate “a large number of historical documents” to Academia Historica, which as of Monday has archived 1,042 documents and 27 photos, Academia Historica President Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深) said at a press conference marking the occasion.
These include Cheng’s manuscripts, newspaper cutouts on major political movements spearheaded by Cheng, court documents on Cheng, company registration documents of Cheng’s magazine Freedom Era Weekly, as well as obituaries and news reports on Cheng’s death, Chen said.
Some of these documents are shown in the diary, shedding new light on Taiwan’s authoritarian era.
Cheng was detained and denied bail from June 2, 1986 to Jan. 24, 1987, charged with contravening Taiwan’s election and recall of civil servants law due to an article he published in his magazine.
However, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs files included in the appendix of Cheng’s diary, Cheng’s detention, which took place during the martial law era, could have an ulterior motive, Chen said.
During Cheng’s detention, many foreign media outlets focused on Taiwan’s civil society-led political movement linked Cheng’s arrest to his engagement in political activities, believing it to be politically motivated, Chen said.
The appendix included a “clarification of distorted reporting,” which the Cabinet’s news office sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 6, 1986, shortly after Cheng’s detention in response to reports by Chinese-language newspapers in the United States that said Cheng’s arrest was “unprocedural.”
An analysis by MOFA summarizing reports by various foreign news agencies that Cheng’s detention could be “political persecution” was also included.
Chen said that as he sees it, the Kuomintang (KMT) administration likely wanted to frame the arrest of Cheng as well as other political activists as nonpolitical to make them appear less crude.
The diary also offered rare insights into Cheng’s time in prison, including his relationships with gang bosses incarcerated with him at the Taipei Detention Center, and his musings on freedom of speech and the importance of Taiwan’s self-determination.
Cheng Chu-mei (鄭竹梅), Nylon Cheng’s daughter, who heads the foundation, said although it was hard to let go of the documents the Cheng family had safeguarded for 36 years, she saw it as a “necessary next step” so the public has access to more comprehensive data on Nylon Cheng and reflect upon his era as Taiwan works toward becoming a “normal” country.
Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), Nylon Cheng’s widow, said although Taiwan now seems to have achieved “100 percent freedom of speech” his husband had fought for, that freedom seemed “tenuous.”
“Now, as we face threats posed by China, when fighter jets fly toward us on a daily basis, where do we stand? And what should we take away from Nylon Cheng’s era and decide our future path?” Yeh said.
Nylon Cheng, who founded the Freedom Era Weekly magazine in 1984 under martial law, was a pro-democracy activist and self-declared supporter of Taiwan’s independence.
He often gave public speeches in the 1980s advocating Taiwan’s independence and demanding that an investigation be launched into the 228 Incident in 1947, a brutal crackdown by the then-KMT regime on protesters, to facilitate reconciliation between ethnic groups in Taiwan.
On April 7, 1989, Cheng, charged with sedition for publishing a “Draft Constitution of the Taiwan Republic” in his magazine, had been in self-confinement in his office for 71 days, while police, armed with live rounds, had surrounded Freedom Era Weekly’s headquarters in Taipei, ready to raid the building. Bent on defending his total freedom of speech, Cheng self-immolated. He was 41.
