While the Four Books and Five Classics (四書五經), a collection of Confucian writings dating back to 300 BC, are considered examples of good literature, it is inappropriate to make them mandatory texts in schools because building a Taiwanese identity and Taiwanese literature is even more important, academics said in a forum yesterday.
Discussing the de-sinicization of four Asian countries — Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam — at a forum organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP), panelists made side comments on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) recent re-election campaign ad in support of efforts to promote the reading of Chinese classics among children.
The television ad, released on Monday last week, highlighted Ma’s commitment to promoting Chinese culture.
“Reading the books is not bad, but making it mandatory by state authorities is wrong. It’s the Chinese way of doing things. If you want to talk about de-sinicization, that would be the first thing we should de-sinicize,” said Lee Yeng-chyh (李永熾), a history professor at National Taiwan University.
Lee, who specializes in Japanese history, said Japan “absorbed” what it perceived as good in Chinese culture — rather than de-sinicize — and empowered its own culture.
However, he said, Japan abandoned Confucianism, which uses Confucian moral standards as the backbone of society, and opted to follow the example of Western European democracy and civilization.
Influenced by China for centuries and later colonized by France, Vietnam decided it would establish its own writing system, literature and culture, said Chiung Wi-vun (蔣為文), a professor of Taiwanese literature at National Cheng Kung University.
Though Vietnam has been strongly influenced by Chinese culture, it lists Chinese literature as “foreign literature” in its national curriculum, he said.
Taiwan is at the same crossroads that Vietnam once was at, Chiung said, adding that he has called for improving education in Taiwanese language, literature and history, listing Taiwanese as a mandatory language course in schools and enacting a language equality act as ways to build up a strong Taiwanese culture and identity.
Meanwhile, Rick Chu (朱立熙), chief executive officer of the Korean Studies Academy, said South Korea did not carry out de-sinicization on a national level, although the country did change the official Chinese translation of the name of its capital Seoul in 2005 amid escalated tension between South Korea and China.
“Instead of de-sinicization, I would say [South] Korea did everything it could to encourage its people to be proud of its own culture, language and history,” Chu said.
Taiwanese have long been influenced by Chinese culture to the extent that people think it would be unwise or impossible to de-sinicize, TAUP president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) said.
“The experience of the four Asian countries could serve as examples for us. Building one’s own culture and identity is never easy. It takes hard work, wisdom and time,” he said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods