In recent years, when we talk about the victims of February 28, we always mention Chen Cheng Po, who was unfortunately killed at that time. However, apart from Chen Cheng Po, there is relatively little mention of how other Taiwanese artists have faced the impact of the times. Taking advantage of the February 28th commemorative holiday, I would like to organize the encounters of Taiwanese creators with the February 28th incident and its aftermath, in an attempt to piece together a more complete picture of the situation.
The February 28th Incident is arguably the first major event in Taiwan's post-war history, and it has had a profound impact on the development of Taiwan's history. Even Taiwanese artists, who seemingly were not at the center of the political scene, were not immune to it. In recent years, when we talk about the victims of the February 28th Incident, we always mention Chen Cheng Po, who was tragically killed at that time. However, apart from Chen Cheng Po, we seldom talk about how other Taiwanese artists faced the impact of the times. Taking advantage of the February 28th commemorative holiday, I would like to organize the encounters of Taiwanese creators with the February 28th incident and its aftermath, in an attempt to piece together a more complete picture of the situation.
The death of Chen Cheng Po during the February 28th Incident has become one of the heaviest pages in Taiwan's art history, and even in modern history. At that time, Chen Cheng-po, who was a legislator, went to the water airport where the Kuomintang army had retreated to negotiate on behalf of the public, but unexpectedly he was detained, and was finally executed on March 25th in front of the Chiayi Railway Station. However, not only Chen Chengpo, many artists have also experienced the moment of truth. For example, Timothy Po, who was Chen Cheng Po's son-in-law, was interviewed before his death and recalled the situation at the time of the February 28th Incident:
It happened to be the day of the meeting before the opening of the Taiyang Painting Society. Early in the morning, there was a lot of clamor outside, and I rode my bicycle to the area of Taipingtong and Shiqiaotou in the Taipei Circle, where the intersection of Yanping N. Rd. and Zhongxiao W. Rd. is now, when I was suddenly stopped by a soldier with a gun, who might have been planning to shoot me, but later I gave him my bicycle, and I was spared from being killed, or I would be one of the dead souls of the 28th of February now.
In order to save his father-in-law, Chen Chengpo, Po Tim-sheng originally asked Chen Yi-qian's son, Tsai Chisheng, to intercede, but he was unable to do so, and eventually received the sad news that Chen Chengpo had been shot dead. At that time, soldiers were firing guns on the street, and the situation was especially serious at night. Timothy Po, who lived in Sanjo-dong, Dazheng Street, was afraid of being hit by stray bullets, so he surrounded his room with tatami mats when he slept, and lived through those days in fear and trepidation. (Note 1)
Chen Chengpo was also implicated by his student Zhan Fuyun. Formerly known as Zhan Defa, Zhan Fuyun was taught by Chen Chengpo and Lin Yushan in the early post-war period, and often went to the "Self-help Association of Painting and Calligraphy" and the "Chunmeng Painting Association" chaired by Lin Yushan, where he learned ink and gouache techniques. After Chen Cheng Po was shot and killed, he went to the memorial hall to pay his respects, but he was arrested by the army on the charge of "suspected rebel" and detained at the Chiayi Garrison Command. He was detained at the Chiayi Garrison Command, but was only released after his relatives pleaded for his release. Soon after his release, he was shocked to learn that his cellmates had been executed, and that the military had even searched his home. As a result, he left Kaohsiung and changed his name to "Floating Cloud", which means that he was like a floating cloud floating down to Kaohsiung, and also means "running away".
Although he hid in Kaohsiung, Zhan Fuyun continued to create art for a living, opening the "Fuyun Studio" in 1949 to paint portraits of people, as well as a photographic equipment business. 1951, he began to participate in the Taiyang Art Exhibition, the Southern Art Exhibition, and the Provincial Art Exhibition, accumulating successes, and then set up the "Fuyun Art Tutoring Classes" to offer classes and teach art lessons. However, for fear of exposing his past arrests, he did not file a case with the government and only taught privately. It was not until 2003 that the government awarded Chim Fau Wan a "Certificate of Restoration of Honor" to make up for the trauma of being arrested and almost losing his life. (Note 2)
Ouyang Wen, who was also born in Chiayi, also experienced the February 28th Incident and even became a victim of the White Terror. Ouyang Wen was born in Chiayi and loved drawing and photography. He studied calligraphy with Chen Dingqi and participated in the eighth exhibition of the Taito Shudo Institute in Japan. Later, Ouyang Wen went to Japan to study at Waseda Second College of Higher Education, where he became a student of Mitsuru Nishikawa. After returning to Taiwan, he taught at the Chiayi Yuchuan Youth School (now Chiayi Chongwen Elementary School).
Ouyang Wen's aunt and uncle were classmates of Chen Cheng Po, and it is rumored that they were taught by Chen Cheng Po, whose style can be seen in Ouyang Wen's early works. At the beginning of the post-war period, Ouyang Wen, like most Taiwanese, was actually very much looking forward to the arrival of the Nationalist government. He recalled:
After the surrender of Japan, Chiayi began to organize a preparatory meeting to welcome the Nationalist government, and since Mr. Chen Cheng Po was a member of the committee, he asked me to join. We all gathered at the Chiayi Association Hall to prepare for the welcome of the National Army. ...Teacher also joined the Sanminh Democratic Youth League and asked me to join them as well. ...Everyone was very happy. Japan was defeated and the motherland was coming. ...As a student, I had just come back from Japan, how could I know what China was like? The teacher said it was good, so I thought it was good. I was convinced that Chiang Kai-shek was the savior of the nation.(Note 3)
However, Ouyang Wen's initial impression was soon shattered by the corrupted discipline of the army and the vicious behavior of the receiving officials. He mentioned that desks and chairs often disappeared from Chongwen Elementary School at that time, and realized that the soldiers living in the building had taken away the desks and chairs and used them as firewood without authorization. The head of the Education Bureau, sent by the Kuomintang, also came to the school three or two times and asked the principal to treat him with food and wine. Au Yeung Man fought with them over the matter, which might have been the root of the problem.
After the February 28th Incident, Ouyang Wen joined the teachers' organization to maintain law and order in the Guild Hall, and then fled Chiayi to escape from the storm after hearing about Chen Cheng-po's execution. In 1948, Ouyang Wen became a teacher at Yongfu Elementary School in Tainan City, where he came to know Yan Shui Long, Kuo Pai Chuan, Shen Chieh-Ja, and Chang Bing-Tang. However, he was arrested by the military in 1950 and became one of the first political prisoners to be held on Green Island during the White Terror, and was imprisoned for 12 years. As he was the only person on the island who knew how to take photographs, he became the "accompanying photographer" for Chiang Ching-kuo's visit to Green Island, and took advantage of the situation to secretly photograph many of the island's natural and humanistic sceneries. However, the experiences of February 28th and the White Terror made him afraid to use his paintbrush, and it was not until after the 1990s that he re-created his paintings to depict his bitter feelings about that time.
Yang Sanlang, who was close to Chen Chengpo, was evacuated to Danshui at the end of the war, and after the February 28th Incident, he was almost arrested by the military and police and died. According to the memory of Yang's son, Yang Xinglang, the soldiers came to their home in Danshui to arrest Yang, and Yang's wife, Xu Yuyan, insisted on going with her husband. When the military vehicle got to the Beitou police station, it had a flat tire, and when the soldiers went to look for a tire repairman, the police chief at the time saw it and told Yang to take advantage of the situation to escape. Later, the army conducted a large-scale manhunt in Danshui, and Yang received a message from Du Lifang, the mayor of Danshui at that time, and left the area in the night. When the military raided Yang's home, Xu Yuyan had to distract the soldiers from the raid by offering them canned peaches, which were very precious at that time, to prevent them from disturbing the family. Yang Sing-lang mentioned that Yang San-lang had once published a work called "Disappointment" in the province's art exhibition, but as the political situation became more and more tense, Yang San-lang cut up the painting and redrew it into other works. Although the work is no longer in existence, we can still know how angry Yang was at the time, and how helpless he was to avoid disaster under the rule of the Kuomintang.
The recently concluded "Hand-Finished Words: Li Shih-chiao's Figure Paintings in the Current Situation" is an exhibition of Li Shih-chiao's experiences and creations, showing the journey of Taiwan's heart through his paintings from the aftermath of the Second World War to the period of the White Terror. Li Shih-chiao's "Chorus" (Song Fu Zi Gong Da), exhibited in Tai Yang in 1944, depicts a group of children gathered in front of an air-raid shelter, with a child in the center carrying a baby on his back, dressed as a military policeman, and holding a piece of paper in his hand, who seems to be leading the other children to sing along with him. Painted at a time when the war in Japan was getting worse and Taiwan was beginning to be deeply affected, this work was clearly inspired by the requirements of "jihad art" at the end of the war in Japan, the need to paint something related to the war that could inspire people. Li Shih-chiao once mentioned this in a symposium:
...In Taiwan at this time, there have been various exhibitions that depicted the military directly or created works based on photographs, but I always found that unacceptable. In the end, how could I portray the reality of the landscape, the social side of the world, and how could I portray it with children? In the end, because the situation was so pressing and tense, we had to keep our joy and hope, and we had to keep that mood until the very end, so I developed the children singing in front of the bomb shelter.(Note 4)
After the war, Taiwan was still in a state of disarray. However, thanks to the active campaign of artists, the art exhibitions in Taiwan that had been suspended due to the war were reorganized under the name of "Provincial Art Exhibition". At this time, Lee attempted to respond to the new political situation, hoping to bring in more observation and concern for reality in his creations. As he mentioned in a lecture organized by Xinxin magazine:
Art that can be understood only by the artist himself but not by others is detached from the people. This kind of art does not deserve to be called democratic culture. If politics in the future belongs to the people, art and culture should also belong to the people. Therefore, this is the direction in which we should consider the materials for our paintings from now on.(Note 5)
Li Shiqiao's "Market Gate", produced at the first Provincial Art Exhibition, can be regarded as an important work in his attempt to reflect the current situation of the society by caring for the reality. The painting depicts a busy Taiwanese food market, but among the many portraits, the young woman in the center wearing a white cheongsam and sunglasses stands out, and as the eye wanders, one can quickly see the child peddling cigarettes next to the woman, as well as the man crouching in the front right of the painting. Li Shiqiao deliberately draws the details of their ragged, yellow, and torn clothes in contrast to the well-dressed woman in the center.
Subsequently, Li Shiqiao created "Field Music" and "Construction". In terms of subject matter and content, these works do not seem to be directly related to the February 28th Incident, but from some of the details in the works, it seems that we can feel the artist's indictment of the regime and the current social conditions at that time. For example, in Field Music, Li Shiqiao used his family as models to paint a rural scene. The yellow background suggests the season of autumn harvest, but the figures in the foreground have no smiles at all, which is out of place with the title of the painting. A similar state of affairs is found in Construction. Although the background of the painting is an obvious construction site, the workers in the foreground are moving building materials and hammering stones, and the man in the white shirt in the center seems to be in control of the situation in the painting. To the left of the man in the center, however, is a poorly dressed cigarette vendor, and behind him is even a woman selling cigarettes, sitting by a ruined doorway. The picture is reminiscent of the February 28th Incident, which was triggered by the crackdown on illicit cigarettes.
In addition to the above examples, Huang Rong-chan, who came to Taiwan after the war, created "The Terrorist Censorship" in the form of woodcut prints, which became the most famous work of artwork of the February 28th Incident. In the foreground, soldiers are shooting people, and cigarettes are strewn around in response to the initial protests over the seizure of cigarettes. In the background is a military truck carrying heavily armed soldiers, alluding to the suppression by the Kuomintang. Huang taught briefly at the Department of Fine Arts at the National Taiwan Normal University, but his involvement in the Wu Nai-kuang Incident in 1952, which led to his execution, made him an unspeakable taboo for many years, and it was not until the 1990s that he became known again.
Although the only work that directly depicts the February 28th Incident is currently known as "Terrorist Inspection," the impact of the February 28th Incident on Taiwan's art scene has been far-reaching. For example, Hsieh Li-fa believes, "If someone wants to find those art works that reflect the February 28th incident, I will tell him that the still life paintings, landscape paintings, and paintings of nude women that have been hanging on the walls of the provincial art exhibitions and the Taiyang Exhibition for more than 40 years after 1947 are definitely related to February 28th, and it is precisely because of the existence of the February 28th incident in Taiwan that there are only works of these subjects left in Taiwanese art. Without February 28th, Taiwanese art would never be what it is today." (Note 6) (Note 6) The February 28th Incident and the subsequent 38 years of martial law made artists afraid of expressing their inner thoughts through their paintbrushes, and even afraid of being convicted for their paintings. That is why works such as Lin Yushan's Horse Dedication and Tsai Yun-yen's My Days, in which the Japanese flag is replaced by the ROC flag and the party emblem, have been created. In the exhibition "Hand-Finished Words: Li Shiqiao's Figure Paintings under the Current Situation", the portrait of Chiang Kai-shek, which Li Shiqiao was commissioned by Wu Huoshi to paint, and another painting, "The Great Generals", are placed together, so that we can feel the artist's helplessness at the time when he was furious and yet could not publicize his work in the world.
Although the events of February 28th seem to be far away, and Peace Memorial Day has become one of the many national holidays in Taiwan, we still cannot ignore the profound changes that this dramatic event has brought to Taiwan society. As Sharifa said, "A tragic event in history cannot heal its wounds by not talking about it. Instead, we must use it as a mirror to see what path Taiwan, as a community of life on this island, should take in its development. ...... Only then can we find a positive meaning for February 28th, which is what we should do as the masters of this country, Taiwan." (Note 7)
Note 1 Yueh-Hua Wang, "Through the Frightening Years of February 28-Pu Tiansheng is the Pioneer of Taiwan's Political Figures," Collector's Art Magazine, No. 31, April, 1995
Note 2 Jie-Yin Tsai, "The Dream Maker Beyond the Realm of Reality: A Look at the Paintings of Zhan Fuyun," Life is Like a Dream: Zhan Fuyun Art Research Exhibition, Kaohsiung Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, 2012.
Note 3 Zhenming Su, Malchun Jiang, and Changhua Lin, "Human Rights and Art Fighters - Ouyang Wen's Life Story," National Human Rights Museum Preparatory Office, 2015, p. 33.
Note 4 Sasaburo Yang et al., "Tai Yang Exhibition Centered on War and Art (Symposium)," in Juan-Ying Yan et al., Landscape and State of Mind: A Guide to Modern Art Literature in Taiwan, Lion Fine Arts, 2001.
Note 5 Talking about Taiwan's Cultural Future," Xinxin, no. 7, October 17, 1946, translated from Wang Deyu, "The Chaser of High Color - Li Shiqiao," Taiwan Art Complete Works 8 Li Shiqiao, 1993, p. 25
Note 6 Hsieh Li-Fa, "On the Position of February 28th in Taiwan's Art History," Exploring the Historical Perspective of Taiwanese Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 1997, pp. 115-116.
Note 7 Sharifa, op. cit. pp. 123-124.
