Furious Flame at Prison Bars
——A memory of my experience (2)
By Zhu Xuanxian
Woodcut, 13.5×10cm, 
In Shanghai City, March, China, 1949
(The second work about the close-down of Shanghai Observation magazine (Observation Event) in 1948)
NO.W-010

        《觀察》聚集了當(dāng)時中國知識分子中最“星光燦爛”的一群人：曹禺、胡適、卞之琳、周子亞、宗白華、吳晗、季羨林、柳無忌、馬寅初、梁實秋、馮友蘭、傅雷、朱自清、費孝通、錢鐘書等。

        《觀察》是20世紀40年代中國進步民主運動的一面相當(dāng)重要的旗幟，影響極大。

        1948年12月蔣介石親自下令國民黨政府查封《觀察》，并逮捕了《觀察》工作人員，這就是當(dāng)時震驚中外的“《觀察》事件”。

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        當(dāng)時在上�！队^察》雜志社工作的朱宣咸，1948年底，在近代史上著名的“《觀察》事件”中被捕入獄， 后來中國近代民主運動的先驅(qū)之一、“五四”運動的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人與著名“七君子”之一的王造時先生親自出面，以自己的影響力給當(dāng)局施壓，并親自擔(dān)保和營救了包括朱宣咸在內(nèi)的進步人士出獄 。
        作為親歷者，出獄后朱宣咸將自己的這個親身經(jīng)歷用刻刀創(chuàng)作出了:《失去自由的人們》、《憤怒的火焰在鐵窗口燃燒》、《入獄前的搜身》，正是這些新興木刻版畫作品，成為了至今留下的、當(dāng)時真實記錄《觀察》被查封這一歷史事件的唯一美術(shù)圖像文獻。

Observation Event: Observation was a weekly periodical about current political affairs, which started publication in Shanghai by a celebrity named Chu Anping in September 1946. The English words surrounding the logo of the magazine on the cover were INDEPENDENCE, NON-PARTY and THE OBSERVER, which indicated the standpoint of the magazine. “Democracy”, “l(fā)iberty”, “progress” and “rationality” were the pledge of the magazine, while “fairness”, “independence”, “construction” and “objectiveness” were its “basic principles”. Observation was published 113 times in 5 volumes before the Liberation(1949).
 

Observation involved “the most splendid stars” among the intellectuals of China at that time, such as Cao Yu, Hu Shi, Bian Zhilin, Zhou Ziya, Zong Baihua, Wu Han, Ji Xianlin, Liu Wuji, Ma Yinchu, Liang Shiqiu, Feng Youlan, Fu Lei, Fei Xiaotong and Qian Zhongshu, etc. .
 

Observation was an important banner of the progressive and democratic movements, with great influence during that period.
 

In December 1948, the Kuomintang Government closed down Observation magazine according to the order directly given by Jiang Jieshi, and arrested all the staff. It was the famous Observation Event which astonished the whole country and even the world.
 

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Zhu Xuanxian had been working in the Observation magazine of Shanghai, and in 1948, he was imprisoned due to the well-known “Observation Event” in Chinese modern history. After his release, based on his experiences in prison, he finished the woodcut works including People Who Lost Their Freedom, Furious Flame at the Prison Bar and Body Search before Imprisonment, which were the only fine art literature recording that event truthfully.