20031018

Scholars press to rewrite history

TRY AGAIN: Academics want the Ministry of Education to press ahead with plans to teach high-school students in this country more about their own Taiwanese history

By Chang Yun-Ping

STAFF REPORTER

"Apart from the scant Taiwanese history, our history textbooks, complied by pro-unification academics, teach our native Aborigines that their ethnic origins are Chinese. It's ridiculous."－Tzeng Kuei-hai, a historian

Academics from four major Taiwan-centric advocacy groups have urged the Ministry of Education not to bow to pressure from pro-unification legislators who want to stall changes to the high-school history curriculum

The ministry wants to give Taiwanese history a more prominent place in the education of students and place less emphasis on Chinese history -- a move that has angered pro-China pan-blue lawmakers.

Yesterday, the chairmen of the Northern Taiwan Society, the Central Taiwan Society, the Eastern Taiwan Society, and the Southern Taiwan Society said that history education in Taiwan should be based on Taiwanese history and that the ministry should be firm and defend the need to make the changes.

The scholars took particular exception to Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun, who they accused of buckling under pressure from some pro-unification lawmakers who opposed the government's attempts at reform.

The dispute arose on Wednesday in the legislatures education committee. Anti-localization lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) rejected the ministry's new guidelines for the history textbooks to be used in high school.

Under the proposed guidelines, Chinese history from the latter part of Ming Dynasty, the entire Ching Dynasty and the establishment of Republic of China would lose their position of prominence. History from those eras would be taught under the heading of " modern world history," which would be taught after students had already learned Taiwanese history and early Chinese history.

The changes angered the pan-blue lawmakers to the extent that ministry backed down and agreed to restore Chinese history to its former place of prominence. Huang even promised not to implement any new guidelines until 2006.

This flip-flop has angered and disappointed Taiwanese historians and scholars who had hoped to see the changes.

Tzeng Kuei-hai, a historian and the chairman of the Southern Taiwan Society, said that in the textbooks now used in high school, a meager five percent is related to the history of Taiwan.

The academics yesterday all demanded that the ministry stick to its original plan and highlight more Taiwanese history in the text books.

"The Ministry of Education should fire the convener of the ad hoc committee developing the guidelines for the textbooks, Chang Yuan, who even describes himself as a big supporter of unification," Tzeng said.

Vice Chairman of the Northern Taiwan Society Chen Yi-shen said: "We are not here to Sinicize Chinese history, but to ask for a fair balance of Taiwanese history, which is only fair."

"It is an encouraging start that more Taiwanese history is gradually being brought into our textbooks, after five decades of being totally ignored by the KMT regime. We hope the Ministry of Education will take a hard stance on the issue," Chen said.

Chairman of the Eastern Taiwan Society Yu Wen-yi, said that the Taiwanese people have long been brainwashed by learning Chinese history, which is irrelevant to the native land in which they live.

Yu, who is also a doctor, said: "My Aboriginal patients once told me they were invited to join in a dance festival for Chinese minority ethnic groups. I asked them why, since they are not of Chinese origin, did they attend such an event?"

"And then they thanked me for clarifying their origins to them and said they would never again go to the event," he said.