First there was writer Wu Tan-ju (吳淡如) who lamented that the “desinicization” of the education system resulted in his daughter and her classmates not knowing who “the father of the nation,” Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), was.
Then media personality Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) had told him that Gou’s daughter did not know who Yue Fei (岳飛) — a 12th-century Chinese general — was.
Citing these two cases, Jaw criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for what he said were the party’s desinicization efforts and said that its “historical obscurantist policy” would be ridiculed by future historians.
However, the history of the Qing Dynasty’s rule over Taiwan and Sun’s revolution is fully related in elementary-school social studies textbooks. Second-year junior-high school history books also explain that the Jin Dynasty continued to advance southward, but was blocked by Yue Fei of the Southern Song Dynasty.
That children do not know those two historical figures has nothing to do with desinicization, but is the result of boredom — the old guys in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are still trying to impose the “educational boredom” they suffered on today’s children.
In the past, the KMT’s “Great China” mindset forced everyone to memorize useless eras, recite the order of long lists of dynasties, and remember where the capitals of the Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, and Eastern Zhou dynasties were, while little was taught about contemporary Taiwan.
History should teach us to criticize and reflect. The 12-year national education history curriculum pays less attention to the long bygone past and focuses more on events nearer to the present to motivate students to learn about history using materials that interest them.
If the children of this generation are not doing any worse than former generations — who had to memorize this boring Chinese history — Wu, Jaw and Gou will not need to worry.
How, for example, is Yue Fei taught in Hong Kong and China? In the Starlight series of moral education materials for Hong Kong’s Catholic elementary schools, the religious curriculum is designed to instill a patriotic spirit in children by claiming that Chinese culture is a gift from God and that they should be thankful to God for making them Chinese. Even Yue Fei’s loyalty and dedication to his nation is described as a response to the call of God.
Chinese textbooks go one step further. In the 2016 Chinese history textbook for seventh graders, Yue Fei is “reborn” as a national hero — because the old history textbook explained why Yue Fei was no hero. When it comes to history, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has the final say.
The government should learn from the CCP how to go about its “historical obscurantist policy.”
The government should portray Sun Yat-sen as the godfather of Taiwanese independence, and use Yue Fei’s loyalty to echo the idea of Taiwanese sovereignty and independence.
If it could brainwash just one generation in this way, there would no longer be any “high-class Chinese” bad-mouthing Taiwan, while the nation feeds and pays them.
Chin Ching is an educator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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