The Government Information Office (GIO) yesterday published a book on the 100 years of the Republic of China (ROC), giving pride of place to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), while barely mentioning former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The book looks at 170 aspects of the ROC’s first 100 years, narrowed down from a total of 20,000 topics by a review panel of four.
The panelists were Huang Ke-wu (黃克武), director of the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica; Ciou Siou-jhih (邱秀芷), of Chiu Ko Publishing Co; Tsai Shih-ping (蔡詩萍), executive director of the ROC (Taiwan) Centenary Foundation; and author Ping Lu (平路).
Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), recognized as the founding father of the ROC, is depicted as the “chief engineer” of the ROC, Chiang Kai-shek as “the pioneer of the anti-Japan and anti-communist movement” and Chiang Ching-kuo as the “No. 1 civil servant of the ROC” in three separate articles that address historical events associated with them, each covering two to four pages.
The book does not highlight the roles of Lee and Chen in the country’s history in standalone articles.
In a two-page article with the title “The implementation of direct presidential elections” that details the changes to the way in which ROC presidents have been selected since it was first established, Lee is mentioned in a few paragraphs.
Chen is mentioned in another two-page article on the “transfer of power” that talks about the victory of the Democratic Progressive Party in the 2000 presidential election and its loss in 2008.
Michael Chen (陳天爵), director of the GIO’s Department of Compilation and Translation, told the Taipei Times by telephone that the review panel chose the 170 topics through “thorough” and “cautious” deliberation.
“The book gives a plain statement of facts and does not pass judgement on the heads of state,” he said.
Chen said the book does not include an article specifically on Lee because there is already an article written by Lee about Yoichi Hatta, the creator of the Wushantou Reservoir.
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