Legislators clash over high school history textbooks

The national identity dispute flared up in the legislature yesterday as Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) along with two historians reported on the new guidelines for high school history textbooks.

The late arrival of the convener of the ad hoc committee developing the guidelines for the textbooks, Chang Yuan (張元), at yesterday's legislative conference on education, angered lawmakers.

Following an uproar over Chang's absence, Chang rushed to the conference to report on the new guidelines to the education committee.

Chang apologized for his late arrival, which he blamed on his giving a speech to 30 history teachers explaining the new guidelines.

Under the new guidelines, Chinese history since 1500 -- including the latter part of Ming Dynasty, the entire Ching Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) -- will be considered part of modern world history.

Taiwanese history will be taught in the first semester of senior high school, followed by Chinese history and then modern world history.

The method of instruction will follow the theories of National Palace Museum Curator Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝), who is developing changes to social science textbooks.

Tu has served as the director of the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica and Chang is a professor of history at National Tsing-hua University's (清華大學) graduate school of humanities and social science

Chinese National Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said the conference was "a guideline paving the road for Taiwan's independence" and is an attempt to "wipe out the existence of the ROC."

Facing such criticism, Chang said the guidelines have nothing to do with ideology, politics or personal interest.

"The goal of the new guidelines is to help students learn history from a global perspective and to start with the things that are most familiar to them," Chang said.

He said it is most important that students have the ability to analyze historical materials with independent judgment.

"Of course there are various kinds of historical perspectives, but there is no doubt that the content of history textbooks needs to be faithful to historical facts, which is also the conviction of the committee members," Chang said.

People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) said the new guidelines will only confuse students' national identity because "Chinese history is cut in half."

Lee accused Tu of "serving a specific political party."

His remark infuriated Tu.

"Every word in the guidelines was worked out by each committee member, [and do not represent] only a certain person's idea," Tu said, calling for Lee to provide evidence to support the allegation.

Many Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators expressed their support for the new guidelines.

"The guidelines stress progressive concepts and a creative perspective which are closest to the historical truth," said DPP Legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水).

"We also hope that Taiwan's cultural history can be increased in the textbooks, which is currently lacking," Lin said.