Historiography is a way for a government to form the collective memory and textbooks are a means to disseminate ideology. This has been an effective way of ruling as history and textbooks are used to brainwash the public by deciding what they should and should not know, all so a government can build its legitimacy.
This can be seen in the steps the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government and the Japanese government are taking to change school curricula in their countries to support their rule.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has decided to revise teachers’ manuals for junior and senior-high schools to emphasize that the Takeshima Islands — known as Dokdo in Korean — and the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan and the Diaoyu Archipelago (釣魚群島) in China —“are part of Japanese territory.” It is also requiring that textbook publishers follow these rules.
The Study Guide Outline is a guide for textbook publishers and teachers, and the commentary accompanying these guidelines is generally amended once every 10 years. The next amendment was due in 2016, but the Japanese government has moved it forward, showing the urgency with which it wants to consolidate domestic public opinion and its stance internationally.
If this is an objective view of the Japanese government’s efforts, then the textbook changes proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration are also politically motivated, intended to shape the public’s Greater China awareness as well as ingratiate the administration with China.
The new curriculum will change “China” to “mainland China” and “the era of Japanese rule” to “the Japanese colonial era,” changing more than one-third of the curriculum. These are clearly not minor adjustments as the Ministry of Education claims; they are major changes. As expected, the planned shift from a Taiwanese historical perspective to a Greater China outlook has drawn protests from historians.
Although the government’s motive for changing textbooks is very clear, things may not work out the way it wants. Textbooks must be factual and they must comply with reality and with public awareness and expectations. If the government tries to turn textbooks into a tool for its obscurantism, not only will the public be disappointed, but the historical awareness within the textbook framework and public trust in the government will also collapse.
Taiwanese learned this during the Martial Law era, during which education was based on the obscurantist policies of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). When Taiwanese traveled abroad, where they could obtain a wealth of information contradicting what they had learned in school, they became vehement opponents of the Chiangs.
The Japanese government’s decision that its students should be taught that Dokdo, which is governed by Seoul, and the Diaoyutais, which belong to Taiwan but are governed by Tokyo, all belong to Japan, is untenable legally and in the face of international realities.
Using textbooks to brainwash children will only add to the public’s frustration.
The historical outlook of the Ma administration, which ignores the Taiwanese awareness that has developed over the past two decades and is hoping that its textbook changes will restore the Chiang-era goal of “retaking the mainland” is unrealistic and out of step with public expectations.
Even if students are taught this outlook in class, they will hear and learn otherwise at home, in society at large and on the Internet. The problems created by such cognitive conflict will have a negative impact on the government.
In the end, the curriculum changes will be just another misstep by Ma the bumbler.
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
RSS