The Ministry of Education’s K-12 Education Administration yesterday said it would convene a meeting to discuss whether to retranslate women’s names in textbooks to promote gender equality after a suggestion to use the full name of scientist Marie Curie instead of “Madame Curie” sparked heated debate.
Minister of Education Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) has instructed the agency’s translation committee to review translations of foreign academics’ names to ensure that new curriculum guidelines adhere to the spirit of gender equality and are in line with international practice, it said, adding that Yeh is “grateful for all the constructive and concrete advice the ministry has received regarding the issue.”
The announcement came one day after the Polish Office in Taipei recommended that the ministry introduce the two-time Nobel Prize winner to students using her full name.
“Although Marie Sklodowska -Curie is commonly known as Madame Curie in Taiwan, she is not just the wife of [French scientist Pierre] Curie, but also the first woman to have received a Nobel Prize,” the office said on Facebook on Tuesday.
Marie Curie’s name became a subject of debate after a curriculum guideline review committee member proposed at a ministry meeting on Sunday that future science textbooks use the full names of female scientists, instead of their husband’s surnames, and cited her as an example.
Marie Curie has been referred to in Taiwanese textbooks simply as Madame Curie.
The proposal has since sparked heated discussion. While some have seen the proposed inclusion of her maiden name as an unnecessary complication for students, others have hailed it as an important step toward improving gender equality.
The ministry on Monday said Marie Curie would continue to be called Madame Curie in textbooks, because that is the official translation, but appears to have changed its stance due to increasing pressure from gender equality advocates.
The translation committee, which is responsible for establishing official translations of foreign academics’ names, is to review existing translations of their names to ensure that they are “faithful to the sound of the original name and free of negative, vulgar, difficult and discriminatory characters,” the agency said yesterday.
The conclusions of the committee — which was formed in March 2011 and consists of 38 members, all of whom are professors — would be announced as soon as possible to set standards for new textbooks, it said.
Textbooks based on the new curriculum guidelines are to be used in elementary, junior-high and senior-high schools nationwide from the fall of next year.
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