Speaker

Li Na

Host

Tang Xiaolin

Introduction

Renjian Thought Review (1985–1989) was a photojournalism magazine founded by Taiwanese writer Chen Yingzhen during the ‘golden age’ of industrial and commercial economic development in Taiwan. It was also a milestone of humanistic learning and thought engaging in social change. In 1983, Chen Yingzhen said to his friends ‘let’s start a magazine about people!’ Just as  his literary career was in full swing, he put aside his novel greatly anticipated series Mountain Road and Washington Tower, and devoted himself fully to Renjian Thought Review. It was intended to explore ways to ‘rebuild the rich relationship between people, and between people and nature’, in order to aid the continual advancement and  unprecedented prosperity of Taiwanese society, which at the time was dealing with the  many costs and issues of modernization. This lecture will use the ‘Tang Yingshen’ case of 1986 featured in Renjian Thought Review as an example, thoroughly examining the text, and specifically analyzing the ways in which Chen Yingzhen and his colleagues in Renjian Thought Review developed the report, and the ‘Tang Yingshen rescue operation’, which drew many cultural figures and students into a grand debate on issues of modernization and the subsequent period of social upheaval, as well as the cultivation and nurturing of of the youth issues that were  laid and honed by Renjian Thought Review. As a form of knowledge cultivation, the topic of ‘humanity’ in Renjian Thought Review still has important enlightening significance, provoking reflection on the enrichment of the modern ‘self’ and the connection between literary and artistic activities, and social reality.