The Ministry of Education has announced a draft guideline for the high school history curriculums, listing four volumes of textbooks for the required history courses. The first volume is Taiwan history, the second Chinese history, and the third and fourth volumes world history. The founding of the Republic of China (ROC) is incorporated into the Chinese history, while its taking over Taiwan is incorporated into the Taiwan history.
Another major breakthrough is that the debates over the status of Taiwan -- which was deliberately left out of curriculums in the past -- will now be included in the teaching materials for history classes. Through a complete introduction of the Cairo Declaration, Potsdam Declaration, San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Sino-Japan Peace Treaty, among others, the students of Taiwan will finally be cleared of the historical mist that has lingered since the authoritarian era. They will learn about the truth of Taiwan's history and cultivate their Taiwan consciousness.
The unification-independence issue has always touched some very sensitive nerves amidst the polarization between the pan-blue and pan-green camps. Although the ministry's move in adopting history curriculums centered on Taiwan is rather belated in comparison with the rapid pace of the democratization and localization in Taiwan, it nevertheless attracted strong criticisms and opposition from the pan-blue camp.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"Doing so will only bring disaster for the country and hurt the people," Lien went on to say.
The KMT and People First Party legislative caucuses accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of trying to practice substantive Taiwan independence by infusing ideologies into the national examinations and educational curriculums. Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Taipei City Department of Education Chairman Wu Ching-chi (
However, according to Wu, the present revisions to the curriculums are oriented to Taiwan independence and will sever the ties between the histories of China and Taiwan, twisting people's perceptions of history and creating twisted national identification for students.
In a nutshell, the pan-blue camp's criticisms against the proposed revisions to high school history curriculums consist of accusing the DPP government of ideologically-driven interference in history curriculums, as well as twisting history in an attempt to accomplish the goal of de-sinicization.
Despite the high-profile and emotional attacks by the pan-blue camp, the truth of the matter is that there are no ideological motives underlying the reforms of the high school history curriculum. In fact, it is an attempt to present a complete picture of the nation's history free of meddling by "greater China" authoritarian and orthodox ideologies.
A case in point is the issue of Taiwan's sovereignty after World War II. In the past, to assert the legitimacy and legality of its rule over Taiwan, the authoritarian regime in Taiwan mentioned only the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration in the history teaching materials, while completely disregarding the even more historically significant and legally binding San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Sino-Japan Peace Treaty.
As a result, students mistakenly thought that Japan had ceded sovereignty over Taiwan to the ROC after World War II. This self-serving distortion of history is what should be characterized as "replacing history with ideology."
The current revisions attempt to present all of the relevant materials, so that the students can finally see for themselves that the Cairo Declaration is simply a press communique that was never officially signed. The San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Sino-Japan Peace Treaty signed by the US, the UK and Japan after World War II take priority in terms of legal force. Those treaties only touched upon Japan's handing over of Taiwan and Penghu, without explicitly stating to whom those territories were being handed over.
The undetermined status of Taiwan at the time was a historical fact. Therefore, it is obvious that the education of history in Taiwan in the past was riddled with political agendas and that ideological distortions of history were made. The present proposal to revise the curriculums seeks only to restore the historical truth and to undo past distortion. It also aims to pay due attention to that part of history that had been deliberately ignored, so that the people of Taiwan can really know about what had happened to their country.
After the localization of Taiwan, history education in this country remained incapable of leaving behind the "greater China" historical and cultural values. This had become a lurking obstacle to the shaping of national identification. Through its system of political democracy, the independent political status of Taiwan has been affirmed.
However, on the psychological, cultural and historical levels, the people of Taiwan continue to exist humbly without any sense of Taiwan-centered consciousness. They can be depicted as the slaves of Chinese culture and history. In the past, Taiwan was treated as the "springboard" and "frontline base" for retaking China, as well as one of the overseas borders of Chinese culture.
The planned reforms of the history curriculum is significant in at least two respects. The first is confirming the proper role of the history of Taiwan and the second is confirming the existence of Taiwan's sovereignty.
The intent is to remedy the past situation in which Taiwan's history and geography were barely touched upon in textbooks, while extensive coverage was dedicated to topics such as the Yellow River, Yangtze River, the Chinese dynasties and the Chinese kings, emperors and philosophers. No one knew who were the great artists, politicians and thinkers of Taiwan in the past. It is virtually impossible to cultivate an independent national identity in the absence of any concept of national history and amid confusion between the history of another country and one's own national history.
Also, in the past, discussions about Taiwan's sovereignty focused on finding documents and facts to verify the political myth fabricated out of the mutual interest of the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that "Taiwan is part of China." Only by exposing this political fraud with objective historical evidence and public international law can the people of Taiwan genuinely leave behind the sad destiny of being the outcast of Asia, and rise to power.
Taiwan is an independent sovereign country and is not part of China. This is verified by the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty and the 1951 Sino-Japan Peace Treaty. But even more important is this fact: the undetermined sovereignty over Taiwan has been confirmed as belonging to the people of Taiwan through their exercise of the right to self-determination, legislative and presidential elections, the maintenance of armed forces and police in charge of upholding social order and national security in Taiwan and the taxation of the people by the government.
Under the circumstances, the history curriculums in Taiwan must undergo major reforms to live up to the needs of an independent sovereign and democratic country. The present proposal to reform the high school history curriculum is a step in the right direction. In the face of a powerful backlash by the pan-blue camp, people should step up and voice their support for the reforms.
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