The school graduation trip during the Japanese colonial era was an institution with specific pedagogical and ideological purposes, the National Museum of Taiwan History said.
The Tainan-based museum, which is holding an exhibition on the history of public education, said the colonial institution of the graduation trip was designed to impart a vision of imperial modernity and identity.
Many of the scenic locations favored by Taiwanese today were the same places that Japanese authorities ordered public schools to visit, museum deputy curator Xie Shi-yuan (謝仕淵) said.
The first official document to mention the graduation trip was the Regulations For Ordinary Normal Schools promulgated in 1888, he said.
However, school photograph albums in the museum collection suggest the practice became prevalent only after the 1920s, when infrastructure matured, he said, adding that the graduation trip was often the first travel experience for Japanese colonial-era Taiwanese.
Places familiar to modern Taiwanese travelers — Tamsui (淡水), Alishan (阿里山), Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), Taroko Gorge (太魯閣峽谷), Tainan’s Confucius Temple and Forts Provintia and Zeelandia — prominently feature in the records of graduation trips, he said.
The destinations often reflected ideological and political concerns of the state, he said.
For example, trips to modern mining facilities in Miaoli’s Chuhuangkeng (出磺坑) would showcase the Japanese empire’s economic and technological achievements, while taking students to Shinto temples in Taiwan or Japan encouraged the formation of an imperial civic identity, he said.
Historical materials regarding graduation trips in the Japanese colonial era, including a map of the most popular destinations, can be seen at the museum’s exhibition “Time for School: Modern Education in Taiwan,” which runs until April 14, the museum said.
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