TAIPEI (AFP) — The Taiwanese author and former political prisoner Bo Yang, acclaimed for his efforts advocating freedom of speech and human rights, died of respiratory failure on Tuesday, his doctor said. He was 88.
President Chen Shui-bian "is deeply saddened by the passing of Mr. Bo. He had dedicated his life to literary works and he was also concerned about democratic and human rights," said a presidential statement.
"He was one of the leading thinkers in Taiwan's modern history and his writings and theories had profound impact on the later generations," it said.
In 1967, newspaper editor Bo, which was his a pen name, was arrested in the so-called "white terror" for criticising then President Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo in a translated article under the Kuomintang (KMT) regime.
The collections of his essays full of sarcasm about human nature and criticism against the bureaucratic and authoritative KMT government were among the best sellers in the 1960s.
Bo, whose real name was Kuo Yi-tung, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on sedition charges and spent nine years behind bars, mostly in the offshore Green Island which housed political prisoners.
He wrote three books on Chinese imperial history before being released in 1977.
Besides managing a prolific writing career, Bo was keen to advocate human rights and had served as Amnesty International's Taiwan office director between 1994 and 1996.
In 2000, he was named a presidential adviser by Chen of the Democratic Progressive Party, who was elected that year ending the KMT's 51-year grip on power.
Bo is survived by his poet wife Chang Hsiang-hua and two sons and three daughters from previous marriages.
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