Historians and civic groups yesterday warned about recent attempts to Sinicize the content of history textbooks in Taiwan, saying that if the Ministry of Education (MOE) compromises on the issue, students would be taught to adopt worldviews from the authoritarian era.
At separate press conferences, the groups and historians said several textbook publishers and media outlets’ call to change the term “Japan-governed period” to “Japanese occupation period” not only violates the current educational curriculum, adpproved in 2009, but also espouses a China-centric mindset.
“The usage of the terms ‘Japan-governed period’ and ‘Netherlands-governed period” were agreed upon by Taiwanese historians and educators after years of debate and discussion. These are neutral terms that state nothing but the facts,” Chen Yi-shen (陳儀深), an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, told one of the press conferences.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
The conference was organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors and the Union of Taiwanese Teachers, and held in front of the ministry.
Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Qing Empire in the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, Chen said, adding that if Taiwan had instead been forcefully occupied by the Japanese, the Qing Dynasty would have taken military action to repossess the island.
Several pro-independence groups, including the Taiwan Society, the Northern Taiwan Society and the Hakka Society, said at a separate news conference that the ministry should stand its ground.
Controversies surrounding high-school history textbooks have been emerging periodically since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008, when pan-blue politicians and pro-unification academics recommended revising the national curriculum approved by the previous Democratic Progressive Party administration.
The most recent controversy arose when textbooks written by three publishers were rejected by a ministry review committee in January because they went against the current curriculum.
The Chinese-language United Daily News and the China Times newspapers both brought up the issue last week in their editorial pages, saying that the term “Japan-governed period” was a misrepresentation of history.
The three publishers — Bei Yi Cultural, Shi Ji Cultural and Ke Yi Cultural — are owned by the same person: Cheng Chih-shen (鄭旗生), executive officer of the pro-unification Chinese Integration Association (CIA).
CIA chairman Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), a National Taiwan University (NTU) professor, serves as an honorary consultant for the three companies.
Chang and Cheng have both denied that their political views had anything to do with the content of the textbooks.
Lee Hsiao-feng (李筱峰), a professor at NTU’s Graduate School of Taiwanese Culture, said the historical view adopted by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian regime in the past had created an erroneous perspective of history to present to Taiwanese.
Lee said he once asked students which country had bombed Taiwan during the latter part of World War II and found to his surprise that about 70 percent thought it had been Japan.
This misconception is the result of students’ lack of awareness that Taiwan was Japanese territory at the time, Lee said, adding that his students had told him: “The history textbooks taught us that we fought the Japanese for eight years.”
The civic groups and historians said ministry Secretary-General Wang Tsuo-tai (王作台) was to blame for allowing this “falsification” of history.
Wang earlier this year said that Taiwan’s history should be incorporated as part of China’s history in the curriculum for high schools and recommended the review committee consider allowing both “the Japan-governed period” and “the Japanese occupation period” to be used in textbooks.
Pro-unification academics citing bloodline and culture as the reason Taiwan’s history should be part of China’s history “does not make sense at all,” Lee said.
“Americans would never tell you that their history is part of British history because they share the same heritage. Singaporeans would never agree that their history is part of Chinese history because they come from the same ethnic group,” he added.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we