The Institute of Taiwan History at Academia Sinica (hereafter “the ITH”) has been collecting treasured Taiwan-related records at home and abroad actively in order to support academic research since its preparatory office was established in 1993. Over the past thirty years, the ITH has accumulated considerable archival collections. These archives include categories such as (1) family and folk papers, (2) personal papers and collections, (3) institutional archives and rare books. The ITH has been keeping up with trends of latest digital technologies and applying them to its ongoing digitization efforts and archival systems of value-added content to promote the application of unique historical materials.

This project will use two years (2024-2025) to deal with the newspaper “Taiwan Shinbun” from 1938 to 1944 based on the achievements of the previous digitization project of “Taiwan Shinminpao” newspaper series, continuing the goal of the ITH to integrate digital archives and add value to the database. The project will not only organize, digitize, and catalogue the newspaper collection, but also transcribe the title and content of each news article. All the data will be imported into a full-text system maintained by the ITH and open to the public as soon as possible. “Taiwan Shinbun” was the most influential newspaper in central Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule.

This newspaper can be traced back to 1901 when “Taichung Daily Shinbun” was founded. It was discontinued in 1944, after more than 40 years of publication. Different from other contemporary major newspapers such as “Taiwan Daily News,” it especially focused on local news in central Taiwan, hence it can provide important historical evidence for local studies. In addition, as the central part of Taiwan was an important base for political, social and cultural movements during the Japanese colonial period, the particularity of “Taiwan Shinbun” as a medium for local public opinion can help researchers carry out studies from various different angles. The “Taiwan Shinbun” collection at the ITH is currently the most continuous and complete exclusive collection at home and abroad, which contains important historical material for local historical studies and historical studies of Taiwan during World War II.