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

        《观察》聚集了当时中国知识分子中最“星光灿烂”的一群人：曹禺、胡适、卞之琳、周子亚、宗白华、吴晗、季羡林、柳无忌、马寅初、梁实秋、冯友兰、傅雷、朱自清、费孝通、钱钟书等。

        《观察》是20世纪40年代中国进步民主运动的一面相当重要的旗帜，影响极大。

        1948年12月蒋介石亲自下令国民党政府查封《观察》，并逮捕了《观察》工作人员，这就是当时震惊中外的“《观察》事件”。

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        当时在上海《观察》杂志社工作的朱宣咸，1948年底，在近代史上著名的“《观察》事件”中被捕入狱， 后来中国近代民主运动的先驱之一、“五四”运动的领导人与著名“七君子”之一的王造时先生亲自出面，以自己的影响力给当局施压，并亲自担保和营救了包括朱宣咸在内的进步人士出狱 。
        作为亲历者，出狱后朱宣咸将自己的这个亲身经历用刻刀创作出了:《失去自由的人们》、《愤怒的火焰在铁窗口燃烧》、《入狱前的搜身》，正是这些新兴木刻版画作品，成为了至今留下的、当时真实记录《观察》被查封这一历史事件的唯一美术图像文献。

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”, “liberty”, “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.