Taiwan Portraits FDCs

Taiwan FDC
Name: Lei Chen, Fu Jheng, Kuo Yu Shing and Huang Hsin Chieh Portraits
Issue date: 2007 December 10th
Number: Sp. 513

This Post has specially selected four representative figures of democracy movement—Lei Chen, Fu Jheng, Kuo Yu Shing and Huang Hsin Chieh—for a set of four stamps, each with a denomination of NT$5.00. The designs of the stamps follow: (from left to right)

1. Lei Chen (1897-1979): Born in Changsing County of Jhejiang Province. When he was 20, he went to Japan to study at Kyoto Imperial University. When he returned to China, he founded the Free China Fortnightly. Because he called for political reforms and tried to organize an opposition party, he was labeled an enemy of the state and imprisoned. After being released from prison, he once again showed deep concern about protecting human rights and promoting political reforms, he also expended great energy in pushing to establish an opposition party. He has deservedly been called "a thunderclap of democracy" and "a fighter for human rights."

2. Fu Jheng (1927-1991): Born in Gaochun, Jiangsu Province with the name of Jhong-mei, Fu, left his studies and took up arms, joining the ROC army's youth corps as the war of resistance against Japan (World War II) raged. After the war ended, he studied economics at Shanghai's Datong University and political science at Wuhan University. He used to be the editor-in-chief of the Free China Fortnightly. In 1960 he and Lei Chen were thrown in jail for trying to organize the China Democratic Party. After the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979, he once again threw himself into the Taiwan democracy movement.

3. Kuo Yu Shing (1908-1985): Kuo was born in Yilan. He graduated from Taihoku Imperial University (now National Taiwan University). After graduating, he served as a representative in the temporary provincial assembly and in the Taiwan Provincial Assembly for more than two decades. Throughout his life, he was involved in democracy movements. As a politician, he stressed freedom and democracy and actively tried to organize an opposition party. After he left for the United States, he threw himself into the Taiwan democracy movement, carrying the movement's torch and paving the way to the future.

4. Huang Hsin Chieh (1928-1999): Born in Taipei City to a family that originally hailed from Ansi, Fujian Province, Huang graduated with a degree in public administration from the Taiwan Provincial College of Business and Law. Over his career, he served as a member of Taipei City Council, a delegate to the National Assembly, and a legislator. As the founder of Formosa magazine, he was imprisoned as a result of the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979. After being released from jail, he was elected as the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, and used to serve as a senior advisor to the president. Having deeply tilled the fields of Taiwan democracy, Huang is regarded as one of the democracy movement's leading figures.