On December 10, 1979, Shih Ming-teh, Yao Chia-wen, and two to three hundred supporters held a rally at the Zhongshan Roundabout, which ended in clashes with riot police and forced dispersal. In the aftermath, most leading figures of the tangwai opposition movement were arrested — the event known as the Formosa Incident.
Before 1979, the Government Information Office reviewed songs after the fact — many songs became hits before being banned, producing repeated absurdities. To prevent further embarrassment, Soong Chu-yu established a more rigorous review system upon taking office in 1979, requiring all songs to be submitted for approval before release or broadcast.
Between 1979 and 1985, the Chinese Folk Music Anthology — a series of vinyl LPs planned by the Chinese Folk Arts Foundation and published by First Records — documented a wide range of postwar ethnic music traditions in Taiwan. The series had a direct influence on later generations of Taiwanese pop composers.
Starting in July 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman and created earphone culture. Global sales began in February 1980.
In 1979, as the United States formally recognized the PRC, American official institutions — including U.S. military forces — gradually withdrew from Taiwan. Armed Forces Radio Taiwan was reorganized as the International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT).
On December 16, 1978, President Carter announced that the United States would establish full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China beginning January 1, 1979, and would terminate its mutual defense treaty with Taiwan.
In 1975, Tamkang College student Yang Tzu-chiung answered Li Shuang-ze’s call to ‘sing your own songs’ and became a key figure in the campus folk song movement. In 1978, Xingeé Records released her debut album; it was recalled and banned just two months later.
In 1978, Yang Tzu-chiung resigned from Taiwan Television after refusing the GIO’s demand to perform ‘purified’ songs. On August 16, she held the ‘Green Meadow Charity Folk Concert’ at Rongxing Garden to raise funds for child prostitution victims — Taiwan’s first large-scale outdoor concert in the postwar era.
On May 6, 1977, Sony Taiwan and the Sony Cultural Foundation co-organized the ‘Golden Melody Award Youth Song Competition,’ open for entries. Winners who advanced through the semifinals and finals received prize money and recording contracts. The competition represented the height of the campus folk song era.
The explosion of the 1970s ‘Nativist Literature Debate’ was the largest cultural controversy in postwar Taiwan. Its scope extended far beyond literature, encompassing ideological cleavages in politics and economics — making it a comprehensive struggle over ideas and culture.