MCLC: Taiwan textbook revisions

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Taiwan textbooks revisions
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Source: China Real Time blog, WSJ (2/5/14):
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/02/05/whats-in-a-name-in-taiwan-qui
te-a-lot/

What’s In a Name? In Taiwan, Quite a Lot
By Aries Poon

On Wednesday, the first working day after the Lunar New Year break,
Taiwan’s government was greeted by a handful of protesters opposing a
proposed revision of school curriculum that touches the island’s
existential nerves.

Last week, right before the holiday, the Ministry of Education approved
“minor adjustments” to the curriculum of four high-school subjects:
Chinese language, history, geography and civic education. While most of
the changes are seen as benign—such as clarifying the definition of
“economic well-being”—one has created a controversy: referring to China as
“mainland China” instead of simply “China” as it is in current textbooks.

Although Taiwan and China have grown closer economically in recent years,
the people in Taiwan have become increasingly divided over their
relationship with the much-bigger neighbor. The signing of a trade pact
three years ago, which lowered tariffs and removed investment barriers,
has been a boon for Taiwanese businesses. But an increasing Chinese
presence in Taiwan, coupled with Beijing’s recent push for a political
dialogue with Taipei, have stoked resistance and fear among some Taiwanese.

Outside the ministry in downtown Taipei, about 20 teachers and students
came out to demand the government retract the revision and conduct public
hearings to revisit the issue. The revisions, the protesters say, indicate
that the China-friendly ruling Kuomintang party is leading the self-ruled
island down the road to unification.

“Calling China ‘mainland China’ implies Taiwan and China are on some level
of the same entity. The revision is trying to stress the bond between
Taiwan and China,” said protester Ben Chiang, 28, a doctoral candidate in
literature at National Taiwan University. “If the government can change
things like this, I’m afraid it will later revise our history.”

The education ministry said in a statement dated Jan. 27 that the revision
is “an adjustment of wording” based on “Taiwan’s constitution and
regulations governing cross-Strait relationships.” The changes are in line
with “practical needs from the legal and social perspectives,” it said.
The ministry wasn’t available for further comment Wednesday.

According to media reports, a mayor in southern Taiwan has already said
that schools there won’t adopt the new curriculum. Greater Tainan Mayor
William Lai, a former legislator of the pro-Taiwan independence Democratic
Progressive Party, was cited in the Taipei Times
<http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/01/30/2003582467> as
saying the adjustment “distorts historical facts” and is “an attempt to
brainwash Taiwanese school pupils.”

While Beijing still claims sovereignty over Taiwan and hasn’t revoked a
threat to take the island by force if necessary, tensions have largely
subsided since Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan’s president in 2008. Top
officials in charge of cross-strait matters are expected to meet later
this month in China, the first formal talks since the two sides split amid
a civil war six decades ago.

Controversy over government attempts to exert more ideological influence
via the education system are nothing new in Asia. Controversies over
history textbooks have plagued Japan for years. And Hong Kong, which was
returned from the British to Beijing’s rule in 1997, tried to introduce
“national education” as a mandatory subject in the city’s schools in 2012.
The government withdrew the plan after more than 100,000 people took to
the streets to protest what they called an effort to “brainwash” the
city’s children.

– Aries Poon. Follow him on Twitter @ariespoon
<http://twitter.com/ariespoon>.