Taiwan Church News: A Newspaper That Has Lived 140 Years, and the Day It Was Confiscated

30-second overview: On 12 June 1885 (the 11th year of Guangxu in the Qing dynasty), the British Presbyterian missionary Thomas Barclay published Tâi-oân-hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò (the Taiwan Prefectural Church News) in Tainan. Printed in church Romanization (Pe̍h-ōe-jī), it was the first newspaper in Taiwan's history. Through Qing rule, Japanese colonization, and postwar authoritarianism, it was suspended twice, banned from using the mother tongue, and had an entire press run seized by the Garrison Command — and it is still in print today. In 2025 it turned 140, making it the longest-running periodical still publishing in Taiwan. Its supplement covers everything from theology to social issues, and since 2022 has even featured columns on generative AI.

A newspaper older than Japanese rule

In 1885, Taiwan was still under Qing dynasty rule. That was the year Taiwan was newly designated as a province, with Liu Mingchuan pushing modernization initiatives. On 12 June, the British Presbyterian missionary Thomas Barclay founded Tâi-oân-hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò in Tainan, printing Taiwan's first newspaper on a printing press shipped from Britain¹.

In the inaugural editorial, Barclay explained why he didn't use Chinese characters: they were too hard to learn, and the literate population was too small. To let more believers read church news, he chose Pe̍h-ōe-jī (white vernacular script) for printing. Pe̍h-ōe-jī is a Latin-alphabet writing system for Hokkien, developed by early Presbyterian missionaries in Taiwan. People who could not read Chinese characters could learn to read and write it within a few weeks once they grasped the spelling rules¹².

This choice gave Taiwan Church News a dual identity from the start: it was both an internal communication of the church and Taiwan's earliest indigenous-language media. The paper's content went far beyond the church. It chronicled the founding of Taiwan's earliest middle school and school for the blind in 1885, Taiwan's elevation to a province in 1887, the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, and the 1895 escape of Tang Jingsong — president of the short-lived Republic of Formosa — to Amoy with the governor's seal in hand¹.

In other words, Taiwan had its own newspaper before Japanese rule. And the language of that newspaper was Taiwanese people's mother tongue.

Twice forced into silence

In 140 years, the paper has been suspended twice. Each time was tied to the regime's stance on language.

First time: April 1942 to November 1945. During the Pacific War, the Japanese colonial government implemented a sweeping kōminka ("imperialization") policy, mandating Japanese and forbidding Taiwanese from publishing in Chinese characters or local languages. Taiwan Church News was forcibly suspended for three and a half years¹.

Second time: April to November 1969. This time was more complicated. The Kuomintang government's "Mandarin Movement" placed mounting pressure on the written use of Taiwan's local languages. In 1955, the government banned churches from preaching in Romanized script and cracked down strictly on the practice; in 1957, Romanized Taiwanese-language Bibles were confiscated by the KMT⁸. The pressure kept rising. The combined issues 1049 and 1050 in March 1969 became the last Pe̍h-ōe-jī issue published in full. After eight months of suspension, when it returned in December, it had been switched to Mandarin Chinese characters¹³.

A writing system that could let illiterate people read and write in a few weeks was thus pulled out of Taiwan's public space.

20 February 1987: the Garrison Command shows up

1987 was the year Taiwan lifted martial law. But before that lifting, one more thing happened.

On the morning of 20 February, Taiwan Church News issue 1825 had just come off the press. The issue carried coverage of the 40th anniversary of the 228 Incident. The entire press run was seized by the Taiwan Garrison Command⁴.

This was one of the most direct acts of speech suppression in postwar Taiwanese media history. The Garrison Command's logic was simple: the 228 Incident was still a taboo topic, and any open reporting would be treated as a challenge to the regime.

But the church's response was unexpected. On 11 March, ministers of the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan took to the streets in protest. On 5 April, the church launched a second mass demonstration, with seven columns converging on the Tainan city government⁴⁵.

This was one of the few public protest actions against the state apparatus on the eve of Taiwan's lifting of martial law. In the end, the Garrison Command worked through the night to reprint the newspaper and returned it to the church news office¹.

In 2017, on the 30th anniversary of the seizure, the Taiwan Church News office reprinted issue 1825 as a historical witness to free speech⁴.

From Pe̍h-ōe-jī to the internet: a return of language

Pe̍h-ōe-jī disappeared from Taiwan Church News for over twenty years. Not until 1991, when the paper launched the supplements "Mother-and-Father Tongue" and "Taiwanese Special Edition," was Taiwanese-language writing partly restored on certain pages, in a mixed Chinese-character-and-Pe̍h-ōe-jī form³.

The timing is worth noting: 1991 is precisely when Taiwan's democratization accelerated. The unbanning of language and the lifting of martial law happened almost in step.

In 2011, the news office founded the Taiwan Church News Network (TCNN), bringing the content online. TCNN is anchored on the print edition's content, complemented by citizen-journalist contributions for breaking news, and uses its supplement to carry discussion of faith and social issues¹.

In 2025, Taiwan Church News marked its 140th year. Central News Agency reported that the paper's Pe̍h-ōe-jī archives had been incorporated as references for the compilation of Taiwanese-language dictionaries — a century and a half of accumulated written Hokkien materials, now a precious asset for Taiwan's language research⁶.

Why a church newspaper is talking about AI

Open recent issues of Taiwan Church News's supplement and you'll see some unexpected topics.

Since 2022, the "Opinion and Commentary" and letters-to-the-editor sections have started running discussion of generative AI⁷. A church newspaper founded in 1885 is now discussing the impact of ChatGPT on human life.

It seems incongruous, but it is in fact entirely consistent. Taiwan Church News has never been only a religious publication. Two things are written into its DNA. First, conveying messages in the language and form most readily understood at the moment (Pe̍h-ōe-jī in 1885, the internet in 2011, AI topics in 2022). Second, staying alert and responsive to what is happening in society (the 1895 cession, the 228 Incident in 1987, tech ethics in the 2020s).

When Barclay chose Pe̍h-ōe-jī over Chinese characters 140 years ago, that was essentially a "technology choice": pick the medium with the lowest barrier to entry that can reach the most people. From this angle, a church newspaper discussing AI is on the same logical line as choosing Pe̍h-ōe-jī back then.

The newspaper that's still printing

Taiwan's media environment has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Newspapers have folded, magazines have closed, online media have come and gone. But Taiwan Church News is still here.

It doesn't survive on traffic. It survives on the sustained support of a faith community, and on a hundred and forty years of institutional inertia. Weekly issue, physical paper edition, online edition, supplements, letters to the editor. Its readers are mostly Presbyterian Church of Taiwan members, but what it records belongs to all Taiwanese.

From Qing rule to Japanese rule to authoritarianism to democracy, Taiwan has changed regimes four times. This newspaper has been suppressed, suspended, confiscated, and banned from using its mother tongue. Every single time, it has come back to life.

Its existence is itself an argument: in Taiwan, media that tell the truth can live a long time, as long as they are willing to stand up again every time they are pressed down.

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