Anarchism in Taiwan first developed out of the anti-imperialist resistance to theEmpire of Japan, when a number of youngTaiwanese nationalists were exposed to anarchism during their studies abroad. Influenced by the anarchist movements inChina andJapan, and in close cooperation with a number ofKorean anarchists, the Taiwanese anarchist movement reached its height during the 1920s, before being suppressed by 1931.
Following theFirst Sino-Japanese War, the island ofTaiwan wasceded by theQing dynasty to theEmpire of Japan. Attempts to form an independentRepublic of Formosa were defeated by theJapanese invasion, which brought the island under Imperial rule. In the wake of the occupation, Taiwanese social movements started to focus on calls fordemocracy andself-determination, with more radical and revolutionary ideas also beginning to take shape. Following the events of theRussian Revolution and with the outbreak of theMay Fourth Movement in theRepublic of China, many youngTaiwanese nationalists experienced a sharp turn towardsleft-wing politics, with a number picking up on the ideas ofanarchism andcommunism during their studies inTokyo orBeijing.[citation needed]
In 1919, when the Japanese colonial government ofDen Kenjirō started to implement a policy ofcultural assimilation in Taiwan, the Taiwanese anarchist Yu Gingfang led an uprising against imperial rule, but it was put down.[1] In Beijing, where theChinese anarchist movement was rising to prominence, the Taiwanese anarchist Fan Benliang founded the "New Taiwanese Anarchist Society" and the anarchist newspaperNew Taiwan.[2]
During the early 1920s, anarchist and communist ideas took hold within the youth faction of theTaiwanese Cultural Association.[3] On 30 July 1923, the Taipei Youth Association was founded, and by December 1926, the organization had expanded into theTaiwan Black Youth League [zh]. This organization used the Cultural Association as a platform to promote anarchist ideas publicly, even openly opposed thePetition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament. The Black Youth League organized hundreds of public meetings and lectures that were attended in the thousands,[1] with one meeting that was called in support of theKorean independence movement being attended by prominent Japanese anarchists such asIwasa Sakutarō andHatta Shūzō.[4] On January 2, 1927, the Black Youth League began to take steps to organizetrade unions in Taiwan, but on January 31, the organization was discovered by Japanese police.[3] In February 1927, the Black Youth League was banned and its members were subjected to mass arrests,[1] with many being sentenced to months in prison.[3] In November 1929, the anarcho-syndicalist Taiwanese Workers' Mutual Aid Association was established by Chang Weixan. But by August 1931, a number of its members were charged with illegally possessing weaponry and another wave of mass arrests followed.[1]
Meanwhile, inmainland China, many Taiwanese anarchists found themselves collaborating withKorean anarchists due to their sharedanti-imperialism,[5] notably together establishing the Eastern Anarchist Federation (EAF) inShanghai.[6] The Korean anarchist leaderSin Chaeho even collaborated with the Taiwanese anarchist Lin Bingwen in an attempt to forge banknotes for funding the EAF's activities, but they were both arrested by the Japanese authorities in Taiwan and would later die in prison.[7] The EAF also establishedanarchist schools inQuanzhou, which included two Taiwanese teachers in the faculty at the Dawn Advance Middle School.[8]
The suppression of the Taiwanese anarchist and communist movements in 1931 marked the beginning of Japan's turn towardsmilitary dictatorship, culminating in thePacific War, when the Empire of Japan was finally defeated by theAllies. Taiwan was subsequentlyretroceded back to theRepublic of China, and when theKuomintang was defeated in theChinese Civil War, the nationalist governmentretreated to Taiwan.[9] Among those that fled to Taiwan were a number ofChinese anarchists, two of which included the anarchist eldersWu Zhihui andLi Shizeng, supporters ofChiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government.[10] The new Taiwanese government subsequently oversaw a "White Terror" against left-wing political dissidents, implementingmartial law that lasted until theend of the Cold War.[11]
Sincedemocratization, there has been a renewed interest of anarchism in Taiwan. In 2003, theAtayal community ofSmangus [zh] adopted a form ofChristian anarchist organization, where community assets are managed cooperatively by the villagers.[12] In 2016, the newly elected PresidentTsai Ing-wen recruitedAudrey Tang, a self-described "conservative anarchist", to join theDemocratic Progressive Party's government as a member of theExecutive Yuan. As a government minister, Tang has since voiced her support fore-democracy andradical transparency in Taiwanese politics.[13][14][15]
