The publication was banned during the latter stages of Japanese rule and editions were also impounded on several occasions during the martial law era in post-war Taiwan for discussing forbidden subjects.

[3] James Laidlaw Maxwell, a medical missionary, donated a small printing press to the church in 1880,[4] but at the time nobody in Taiwan-fu (modern-day Tainan)[5] knew how to operate it.

[9] The newspaper experienced two periods of suspension: first, during the Sino-Japanese War when the Japanese authorities ordered its cessation (1942–1945), and second, due to the Nationalist government's ban on Taiwanese Hokkien (April–November 1969).

In 1942 the Imperial Japanese government, now at war with the Allied countries including China, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, expelled missionaries from Taiwan.

When Lee Tung-hui became Taiwan's president the following year, setting society on a path toward modern democracy, 2-28 became a matter of open public discussion.