Academics on Sunday condemned the alleged use of high-school textbooks written and edited by Chinese and urged the Ministry of Education to assess and respond to the situation.
Several high schools — including Wanfang Senior High School and Daren Girls’ High School in Taipei, the Affiliated Senior High School of National Kaohsiung Normal University and others — have this semester reportedly used teaching materials coedited by Taiwan’s Chinese Cultural Education Institute and the Cross-Strait Cultural Development Collaborative Innovation Center and College of Chinese Languages and Literature at China’s Fujian Normal University.
The textbooks — Standard-Level High School Language and Literature (普通高中國文) volumes one and two — were published by Yu Pen Digital Publishing and edited by institute director Sun Chien-chiu (孫劍秋) and others.
They passed reviews by the ministry’s National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) in January and June respectively.
Sun, also vice president of the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, said that the textbooks were originally compiled to target overseas compatriot schools in Southeast Asia and China and were submitted for review due to concerns that schools in Southeast Asia would not trust a textbook that could not be used in Taiwan.
Coediting with the Chinese school was done purely out of business considerations and was not part of China’s “united front” strategy, Sun said, adding that the textbooks are in line with the curriculum and rules.
Wanfang Senior High School and others are only “selecting” this version, meaning that only some classes are using it, Sun said, adding that most classes are still using other domestic versions.
China and Taiwan began coediting high-school language and literature textbooks in June 2014, Chinese media reported, adding that corresponding with the so-called “1992 consensus,” the team visited dozens of secondary schools and colleges on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to compile a total of 5 million words in 13 textbooks.
Every nation’s education system is independent and should not be directed by other regimes or countries, especially since China and Taiwan are still hostile toward one another, National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature professor Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) said.
It is important to not let textbooks deviate from the mainstream values of Taiwanese society, Chen said, adding that human rights and equality are core educational values.
Textbooks should not just think about benefiting the other side of the Strait, he added.
China is looking to use various “united front” tactics against Taiwan and will infiltrate as much as it can, Chen said, adding that China wants to transform the thinking of Taiwan’s younger generation.
Chen urged the ministry to not neglect the issue and asked it to set up a careful gate-keeping mechanism to prevent the introduction of ideas that deviate from those of democracy.
National Taipei University of Education professor emeritus Lee Hsiao-feng (李筱峰) criticized the ministry for allowing the situation to occur, asking: “Would US textbooks be cowritten by England?”
This has already caused serious damage to Taiwan’s national dignity and political subjectivity, Lee said, expressing surprise that this occurred under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
DPP Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) also expressed concern that textbooks would become part of China’s “united front” tactics if ideas from civil exchange become the standard at schools.
“Taiwan can engage in cultural, educational, academic and other forms of exchange with China, but civil exchange remains civil exchange,” he said, adding that the ministry must not acquiesce.
The main focus of the review is whether the content contains mistakes or deviates from the curriculum, a NAER official said, adding that all the listed editors are Taiwanese.
Asked about the Chinese editors listed in the teacher’s handbook, the official said that the handbook is not part of the review.
If the publisher hides this information, evidence is needed to investigate whether there has been a violation, she added.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS