Academics on Sunday condemned the alleged use of high-school textbooks written and edited by Chinese and urged the Ministry of Education to assess and respond to the situation.
Several high schools — including Wanfang Senior High School and Daren Girls’ High School in Taipei, the Affiliated Senior High School of National Kaohsiung Normal University and others — have this semester reportedly used teaching materials coedited by Taiwan’s Chinese Cultural Education Institute and the Cross-Strait Cultural Development Collaborative Innovation Center and College of Chinese Languages and Literature at China’s Fujian Normal University.
The textbooks — Standard-Level High School Language and Literature (普通高中國文) volumes one and two — were published by Yu Pen Digital Publishing and edited by institute director Sun Chien-chiu (孫劍秋) and others.
They passed reviews by the ministry’s National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) in January and June respectively.
Sun, also vice president of the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, said that the textbooks were originally compiled to target overseas compatriot schools in Southeast Asia and China and were submitted for review due to concerns that schools in Southeast Asia would not trust a textbook that could not be used in Taiwan.
Coediting with the Chinese school was done purely out of business considerations and was not part of China’s “united front” strategy, Sun said, adding that the textbooks are in line with the curriculum and rules.
Wanfang Senior High School and others are only “selecting” this version, meaning that only some classes are using it, Sun said, adding that most classes are still using other domestic versions.
China and Taiwan began coediting high-school language and literature textbooks in June 2014, Chinese media reported, adding that corresponding with the so-called “1992 consensus,” the team visited dozens of secondary schools and colleges on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to compile a total of 5 million words in 13 textbooks.
Every nation’s education system is independent and should not be directed by other regimes or countries, especially since China and Taiwan are still hostile toward one another, National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature professor Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) said.
It is important to not let textbooks deviate from the mainstream values of Taiwanese society, Chen said, adding that human rights and equality are core educational values.
Textbooks should not just think about benefiting the other side of the Strait, he added.
China is looking to use various “united front” tactics against Taiwan and will infiltrate as much as it can, Chen said, adding that China wants to transform the thinking of Taiwan’s younger generation.
Chen urged the ministry to not neglect the issue and asked it to set up a careful gate-keeping mechanism to prevent the introduction of ideas that deviate from those of democracy.
National Taipei University of Education professor emeritus Lee Hsiao-feng (李筱峰) criticized the ministry for allowing the situation to occur, asking: “Would US textbooks be cowritten by England?”
This has already caused serious damage to Taiwan’s national dignity and political subjectivity, Lee said, expressing surprise that this occurred under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
DPP Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) also expressed concern that textbooks would become part of China’s “united front” tactics if ideas from civil exchange become the standard at schools.
“Taiwan can engage in cultural, educational, academic and other forms of exchange with China, but civil exchange remains civil exchange,” he said, adding that the ministry must not acquiesce.
The main focus of the review is whether the content contains mistakes or deviates from the curriculum, a NAER official said, adding that all the listed editors are Taiwanese.
Asked about the Chinese editors listed in the teacher’s handbook, the official said that the handbook is not part of the review.
If the publisher hides this information, evidence is needed to investigate whether there has been a violation, she added.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
RSS