The importance of being "fun" when trying to teach a serious topic cannot be stressed enough.
Take, for example, English teachers who use piles of flash cards and various other toys to teach students vocabulary. History, a traditionally staid topic, could also benefit from a dose of humor.
The book Portraits of Foreigners in Taiwanese History (
Behind these fictional elements, the book presents 20 foreigners who lived in Taiwan in the 1800s and early 1900s and are deemed influential in the island's development. None of the 20 people introduced in the book is a politician -- a refreshing break for students accustomed to history written by generals and kings. There are Christian missionaries, doctors, educators, anthropologists, biologists, artists and engineers. Some of the names are still famous today, such as Canadian Presbyterian missionary George Leslie Mackay (馬偕), whose legacy lives on in the Mackay Memorial Hospitals and several educational institutions. Some, like German zoologist Hans Sauter (紹達), are barely known outside their professional spheres, despite the fact that a significant number of Taiwanese wildlife species are named after him.
Thirteen of the 20 foreigners in the book are Japanese, which may put off those with a "Greater Chinese" consciousness, but their inclusion certainly reflects Taiwan's colonial experience. In addition to the 13 Japanese, the book also features five Englishmen, one Canadian and one German.
The selections appear to be based more on a persons' work rather than ethnic or political considerations. Some of the Japanese in the book vigorously opposed their governments aggressive colonial policies on Taiwan. The best example would be anthropologist Mori Ushinosuke (森丑之助), who fiercely criticized the Japanese government's bloody crackdowns on Taiwan's Aboriginal tribes. Mori committed suicide in July 1926 by jumping from a ship into the sea on his way to Taiwan after a Japanese corporate sponsor rejected his plan to promote an autonomous area for the Taiwan Aborigines. Then there were Kanaseki Takeo (金關丈夫) and Ikeda Tashio (池田敏雄), who jointly ran a Japanese-languages cultural journal Customs of Taiwan (民俗台灣) from 1940 to 1945. Both vehemently criticized then governor-general Kobayashi Seizo's (小林躋造) policy of Japanizing Taiwan -- a policy known in Japanese as Kominka (皇民化).
Each of the 20 subjects is given a two-page biography, followed by a clipping from the imaginary gazette containing a datelined news report about an important event in the subject's life. Fay Chou (周惠玲), deputy editor in chief at the book's publisher, Yuan-Liou Publishing Company (遠流出版社), said the book's historical details faced rigorous review by a team of veteran scholars. Some of the news reports, however, take on a slightly surreal twist as they report events that occurred in the future. Chou said the editorial team decided after a lengthy debate that the stories are meant for contemporary readers and therefore do not have to stick to the illusion of reality created by the "Gazette." Allowing for this chronological tampering, the book is saved from reading like old newspaper articles.
Details about the subjects' personal lives provide the narratives with rich material that generates fresh perspectives by simply allowing historical data to speak for itself. Ultimately, the accuracy of the content can only be judged by experts, but the authors deserve praise for abstaining from the relatively easy job of issuing sweeping judgments on historical characters.
To add more fun to the reading, each subject is also accorded an "oblivion index" (被遺忘指數). A high index rating indicates he or she is almost completely forgotten today. At the book's end is also a 14-page parallel timeline for world and Taiwan history from 1600 to 1999. In another example of how much effort went into making the book fun, even the timeline is embellished with photos of people's daily tools -- kerosene lamps, charcoal irons, smoking pipes, grass sandals.
This, the first book in a 12-volume biographical history series, should make a good read for those who wish to better understand Taiwan's unique heritage.
For your information
Portraits of Foreigners in Taiwanese History
(正港台灣人)
By Li Huai (李懷) and Chang Chia-hua (張嘉驊)
192 pages
Yuan-liou Publishing Company (遠流出版社)
Language: Chinese
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