Flight to Formosa by Frank Clune is an illustrated travel and current-affairs account published by Angus & Robertson in Sydney in 1958, with some bibliographic records dating the book to 1959. Its full title is Flight to Formosa: A Holiday and Fact-Finding Tour of Nationalist China’s Fortress of Freedom and the Ports of Hong Kong and Macao.
The book recounts Australian author and travel writer Frank Clune’s journey to Formosa (now Taiwan), Hong Kong and Macao during a period of intense political tension in East Asia. Clune visits Taiwan, then governed by the Nationalist Chinese government under Chiang Kai-shek following its defeat in mainland China in 1949. He interviews Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang and other Nationalist figures, and examines the political situation on the offshore island of Quemoy, close to the Chinese mainland. Combining travel observations, personal encounters, historical background and contemporary political commentary, the book offers a snapshot of Taiwan and the surrounding region during the Cold War. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and maps, it is of particular interest to collectors of Australiana, travel literature and historical accounts of East Asia in the 1950s.
