Blank Front Pages, Shuttered Newsrooms: Apple Daily Exhibition Opens in Taipei to Preserve Hong Kong's Banned Press History

Edward Ka Chung Li (李家聰), former news chief editor of Apple Daily and one of the exhibition's organizers, used the front pages on display to push back against simplified narratives about what the paper stood for.

The 1997 handover front page carries the headline: "The beginning of a great era. Hong Kong believes in tomorrow." Li noted that public sentiment at the time of the handover was anxious, and many watched closely to see how Apple Daily would frame the moment. Its choice of words was telling. "Apple actually had confidence in 'one country, two systems' at the start," Li said. "If it had no faith in the framework, it would have written 'the beginning of darkness.'" He added that Jimmy Lai was in fact firmly opposed to Hong Kong independence — a point often obscured by his later reputation as a democracy advocate.

Another front page features an entirely black background with only the words "Apple Today: Charity Sale" — printed to raise funds for victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. "As far as I know, this was the only time Apple held a charity sale for a major global disaster," Li said. "So was Apple truly anti-China and unpatriotic in every sense?"

As the space for "one country, two systems" narrowed and democratic freedoms receded, the paper's editorial stance hardened. Among the starkest exhibits is a completely blank front page from July 4, 2019 — published at the height of Hong Kong's protest movement as a direct statement against the government's suppression of journalists being blocked from filming and reporting.

One of the exhibition's most revealing stories involves an internal newsroom clash from the night of June 4, 2009. For years, Apple Daily's June 5 front page had invariably featured photographs from the previous evening's candlelight vigil at Victoria Park — a tradition that symbolized the paper's democratic commitments. But that evening, the newsroom received an exclusive photograph of the newborn child of Richard Li, son of Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, and actress Isabella Leong.

A heated internal debate followed. One faction argued that editorial integrity required keeping the vigil photograph; the other contended the exclusive was too commercially valuable to pass up. The resolution was to print both simultaneously: the main edition kept the vigil cover, while a separate Richard Li front page was printed and inserted on top, with both distributed together at newsstands. The Li edition outsold the other by a considerable margin. Li recounted the episode with a wry smile, observing that the arrangement reflected Apple Daily's desire to uphold its democratic tradition while not surrendering circulation — effectively, he said, "transferring the moral responsibility to the readers outside."

The section that moved Li most personally is a photographic series titled "Ruins of Press Freedom." After Apple Daily ceased operations, individuals managed to enter the building and document its interior. The images include the staircase that police stormed during their newsroom raid, and a withered tree at the building's entrance. "I found it truly affecting — it genuinely had the feeling of ruins," Li said. Former staff who saw the photographs of the tree were reportedly moved to tears.

Also on display is a bronze statue of economist John Cowperthwaite (郭伯偉), which once stood in the lobby of the Apple Daily building — representing what Li described as Jimmy Lai's personal commitment to the free-market philosophy of "small government, big market." The statue's glasses were broken in transit to Taiwan. Li said he remains unsure how the large bronze piece was removed from the building and transported across the border.

The exhibition does not shy away from the paper's controversies. Apple Daily made significant editorial missteps in its pursuit of circulation, including a contentious adult-content feature and the "Chan Kin-hong Incident" — a case in which a reporter's involvement with a story subject raised serious questions about journalistic ethics and caused lasting reputational damage. Li was explicit that the exhibition is not intended as a tribute. "We are not here to memorialize or simply praise Apple Daily," he said. "We want to show its many dimensions across those 26 years — including the mistakes and negative episodes."

The obstacles Li has encountered in his own academic research on Apple Daily were a direct catalyst for the exhibition. Materials related to the paper are now effectively unreachable through Hong Kong's public and university library systems. "I discovered something quite sad — even academic research is no longer possible," he said. "So how sensitive has Apple become in Hong Kong? Supporting it or loving it is obviously not permitted — but it turns out that even criticizing it is not allowed either."

Beyond displaying rare archival materials, Li hopes the event will encourage Hong Kong residents and former readers who hold Apple Daily-related documents to send them to Taiwan or Canada rather than destroying them out of fear. "History across thousands of years has been written by those in power — Hong Kong today is no exception," he said. "But if 20 or 30 years from now people want to study what Hong Kong was like in the 2020s, will only official records remain? Can I not offer another perspective?"

Co-organizer Shirley Leung (梁嘉麗), a former Apple Daily reporter, expressed gratitude toward Taiwan for making the exhibition possible. "Taiwan is a free society," she said. "It would be very difficult to hold an exhibition like this in Hong Kong or other Chinese-speaking societies, but Taiwan allows us to keep backing up Apple."

The Apple Daily Special Exhibition runs from June 19 to July 15 at the Xinfu Town Cultural Market (新富町文化市場) in Taipei.