Academia Historica yesterday published the fourth batch of diaries kept by former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
The diaries were formerly a part of a collection at Stanford University, but were returned to Taiwan in September last year after a long legal battle over their ownership.
Since their return, Academia Historica has been digitizing them and making them publicly available in chronological order.
Photo courtesy of Academia Historia via CNA
The fourth set includes Chiang Kai-shek’s diaries from 1930 to 1933, totaling 1,481 items and 2,214 digital files, while Chiang Ching-kuo’s diaries from 1943 to 1944 had 1,014 items and 1,253 files, Academia Historia said in a news release.
Chiang Kai-shek’s documents include one original volume and three transcribed volumes, while the Chiang Ching-kuo collection stands at two original volumes, it said.
While the items are accessible and searchable, they would not be available online until the copyright expires, although they can be accessed physically in Academia Historica’s reading room, it added.
Since March, 34 volumes and 16,138 digital files covering 24 years have been published.
The diaries are organized chronologically, with files clarifying whether each is a full or partial entry, if there is a missing page or if it has content that has yet to be understood.
The 1930 diaries include Chiang Kai-shek’s decision to be baptized, citing his mother-in-law’s illness as the motivating factor.
Both Chiangs also read each other’s entries, Academia Historica said.
Today’s batch is the earliest published so far.
Academia Historia has already published Chiang Kai-shek’s diaries in three groups from 1948 to 1954, 1955 to 1960, and 1961 to 1972.
It has also published Chiang Ching-kuo’s diaries from 1960 to 1969 and from 1970 to 1979.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS