According to recent media reports, Taiwanese are not fond of reading. The bookstores in Taiwan know this. One, lacking customers, has pasted a sardonic couplet around its glass door frame. The first line of the couplet reads: “Nobody Enters” and the second line: “Books Stay”; the horizontal scroll across the top says: “The Door Works Fine.”
With smartphones and social media such as Facebook occupying the majority of people’s time in Taiwan, the peak era of bookstores appears to be a thing of the past. Often, bookstore employees outnumber customers.
In France, the opposite is the case. Unlike Taiwan, French society has maintained a passion for reading. Obviously, new technology has a limited influence on the French.
A poll conducted by the Centre National du Livre in 2019 found that 92 percent of French read every day, as they had done in the past, and they said they would read more if they had the time. Novels are the most popular reading material among the French. Although it is the Internet age and everyone has a smartphone in hand, 91 percent of French said they preferred reading printed books.
Moreover, 93 percent of French said reading is a hobby through which they discover new things and obtain a sense of happiness and satisfaction. Eighty-five percent of French teenagers considered reading a form of leisure, and said they read many books in addition to what their teachers assigned them.
Reading as a part of life has much to do with philosophy education. French schools place a substantial emphasis on teaching philosophy. Philosophy literally means “the love of wisdom,” and teaching philosophy means to instill in students a love for wisdom.
Coming from Greek culture, this educational tradition has been highlighted in many European countries and Israel. Why did the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution happen in Europe, and why was Europe the cradle of many great intellectuals and important scientists? Why did the first democratic movement happen in France? Why is it that the UK, the US, France and Germany have been the most powerful countries in the world over the past 200 years? Why is it that Israelis are so talented, and why is Israel a country with mighty military power and advanced technological development?
When French students take the Baccalaureat, they are required to complete one single question within four hours in the philosophy exam. Competitive students can complete a 15-page answer with neat handwriting — almost like a short thesis.
French students were not born to write in a thoughtful, sophisticated way, and the capability to write well cannot be acquired by consuming expensive supplements. The French start learning to read and write in elementary school. In class, students and teachers debate with each other, challenging one another to think harder and see things differently.
In France, language classes are designed so that students read novels and essays in their original form. The purpose is to enable students to not only appreciate, but also analyze the literary works in a critical way. Students would never be expected to memorize what they read. They pick up the habit of reading books naturally.
The method of education is similar in other European countries, the US and Israel.
Over the past 200 years, modern intellectuals of the Enlightenment such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Montesquieu were born and raised in France. Their idea of “liberty, equality, fraternity” contributed to the US and French revolutions, both of which helped transform the countries from authoritarian regimes to democratic nations. At the same time, numerous philosophers, scientists and writers were able to develop their thinking further.
France had become a hall of thinkers in science and the humanities, and the country a world superpower. This has everything to do with France’s emphasis on the importance of teaching philosophy.
However, in Taiwan, language classes from elementary school use Chinese classic literature as teaching material, with teachers lecturing such works as if teaching the Bible. Students are required to memorize these works, but for them, the classics have little to do with their lives. Students nowadays write and express themselves in the vernacular, and rarely identify with people from the past.
What is the purpose of memorizing these works? If they were not covered in the entrance exams, would the average student find them interesting and read them? After all, dialogues in contemporary novels are more colloquial and relate more to their daily lives. There are also some philosophical ideas in such literary works.
In Taiwan, the methods used to test students’ knowledge of culture and history — such as right or wrong answers, multiple choice questions, filling in the blanks and memorization — are also ridiculous.
Sometimes, students are required to write a conventionally standardized short essay in a short period, meaning their skills in critical thinking and expressing their ideas cannot be evaluated. As a result, even though a great number of Taiwanese have obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees, they lack the ability to differentiate right from wrong and are easily taken in by swindlers’ baseless rhetoric or telephone scams.
As they lack an education in philosophy, Taiwanese students generally do not have the ability to think logically and critically. They tend to obey the authority of textbooks and rarely challenge what their teachers say. They dare not criticize the mistakes that teachers might make when teaching.
Never would they question whether it is justifiable for the symbol of authority to exist in society. As a result, symbols of totalitarianism and authoritarianism have remained powerful in Taiwan today and continue to be worshiped. Statues of dictators and the spiritual guru Master (“Seafood”) Miaochan (妙禪) serve as two examples.
The lack of philosophy education also explains why many Taiwanese do not have academic ethics, integrity, morality, discretion in conduct and the ability to tell right from wrong. Academics and politicians focus on the end result of education, paying attention only to degrees and credentials. The judiciary is not any better, demonstrating a lack of moral courage and impartiality that it should have maintained.
If Taiwan wants to develop a culture of reading, it should emulate Western countries and Israel, and teach philosophy education from the get-go. That way, students can be trained to think independently and critically, and would therefore be able to challenge academic and religious authorities, as well as political powers.
Only in so doing can Taiwan’s education be on a par with the world’s superpowers.
Teng Hon-yuan is a university professor.
Translated by Emma Liu
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