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Popeye and the Case of Guo Yidong, alias Bo Yang

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Edel Lancashire
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Extract

When Chiang Kai-shek and his government retreated to the island of Taiwan after the loss of mainland China to the Communists in 1949, they submitted themselves to a high degree of soul-searching in order to determine the reasons for their defeat. One conclusion drawn from their reflections was that factional conflicts within the Guomindang, lack of discipline, and a decline in morale were as responsible, if not more responsible, for their overthrow than any superior military strength which the Communists might have come to possess. They judged also that they had lost the initiative in the political and psychological battle by countering the Communists' “unlimited war with limited war,” and by having too negative an attitude towards literature. During this evaluation of past performance the Guomindang felt no need to apologize for the imposition of censorship and oppressive publishing restrictions, nor for its suppression of those Left-wing writers who, since the expulsion of Communists from the Guomindang Government in 1927, had made a point of discrediting the Guomindang in the eyes of the people. These were considered to be necessary measures in the fight against Communism. What they did regret was not having used literature as the Communists had, thereby losing the battle for the minds of the people.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 92 , December 1982 , pp. 663 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1982

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76. Clear and Bright or Tomb-sweeping Day falls on 5 or 6 April. It is a festival during which people visit their ancestral tombs.

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86. Sun made it his business to keep abreast of developments and subsequently to try to arrive at the truth after sifting through much conflicting material. How this material came into his possession, Sun does not venture to say. See Sun, “Duancu he kunan de rensheng,” pp. 331–32.

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92. Ibid. p. 91.

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94. Ibid.

95. Peng Mingmin, born in Taiwan in 1923, is a graduate of National Taiwan University and McGill University, Canada. He received his doctorate at the University of Paris. Peng specialized in space law and was at one time legal adviser to the Chinese Nationalist delegation at the United Nations. He was also Professor of Political Science, National Taiwan University. As one of the leaders of the Formosan Independence Movement, he was arrested in 1964 and charged with sedition. After imprisonment he was released on house-arrest, but managed to escape in 1970. He is now in the United States. See Ming-min, Peng, A Taste of Freedom (New York: Rinehart and Winston, 1972).Google Scholar

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99. Ibid.

100. Ibid. p. 87.

101. The Principles of the People's Livelihood is the third part of Sun Yat-sen's political and social philosophy, The Three Principles of the People. It is concerned with the livelihood of the people; the existence of society; the welfare of the nation, and the life of the masses. It implies equalization of landownership and the regulation of capital.

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103. Ibid. p. 143.

104. DBS, No. 2; BYYY, p. 97.Google Scholar

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106. DBS, No. 5; BYYY, p. 140.Google Scholar

107. Ibid.

108. DBS, No. 1; BYYY, p. 72.Google Scholar

109. Ibid. p. 88, and DBS, No. 10; BYYY, p. 173.Google Scholar

110. See Guanhan, Sun, “Ru yu shi,” p. 45Google Scholar; and, “Ruhe jiu Bo Yang” (How to save Bo Yang), originally published in C.U.C. Monthly, No. 7 (Pittsburgh, 9 August 1972), a news sheet brought out by Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh; BYYY, p. 250.Google Scholar

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113. Nan bei ji, No. 32 (01 1972)Google Scholar; BYYY, p. 232.Google Scholar

114. This is possibly a misprint and should read Zhang Changzong, one of the notorious brothers who rose to high rank under Empress Wu of the Tang dynasty (684–705).

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