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Beware of the
¡¥Chinese culture¡¦ pill
By Huang Tzu-wei ¶À¤lºû
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) recently said he advocates the study of classic
Chinese texts. With the presidential election just around the corner, this is a
sensitive time and his announcement has caused much debate. However, the first
traces of how the Ma administration uses politics to steer education and culture
could be seen a long time ago.
The promotion of traditional Chinese culture is only for show and the real goal
behind the administration¡¦s move is to follow Beijing¡¦s instructions to use
education and culture to subtly influence the way people think in order to
change Taiwanese perceptions of a national identity and weaken their feeling of
having a unique ethnic identity ¡X thereby paving the way for China¡¦s eventual
annexation of Taiwan.
The early signs can be seen in Chinese President Hu Jintao¡¦s (JÀAÀÜ) ¡§Message to
Compatriots in Taiwan¡¨ on Jan. 1, 2009, better known as ¡§Hu¡¦s six points.¡¨ In
this message, Hu made it clear he believes there are six steps that must be
followed to gradually achieve cross-strait unification.
The first is adhering to the ¡§one China¡¨ principle; the second is promoting
economic cooperation and the creation of a mechanism for economic cooperation
with cross-strait characteristics; the third is using Chinese culture to
strengthen spiritual bonds, in particular through youth exchanges and signing a
cross-strait cultural and educational agreement; the fourth is increasing
exchanges and dialogue with Taiwanese to build a joint vision for cross-strait
development; the fifth is making ¡§reasonable arrangements¡¨ for Taiwan¡¦s foreign
relations based on the ¡§one China¡¨ principle and the sixth is creating a
mechanism to build mutual military trust and reach a peace agreement.
Hu gave a more detailed explanation of the third point about culture and its use
in unification, saying: ¡§Compatriots on both sides of the Strait are heirs to
the fine Chinese heritage and are entrusted with the task of carrying it
forward.
The two sides must engage in various forms of cultural exchanges to strengthen
the national awareness, form a common will and cultivate the spiritual strength
that sustains us in the pursuit of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese
nation.¡¨
Hu¡¦s six points did not hold back at all, showing no fear about making Taiwanese
feel they need to be on guard because he fully expected the full cooperation and
assistance of the Ma government.
After taking office, Ma first pulled the so-called ¡§1992 consensus¡¨ out of his
hat and signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), thereby
meeting the first and second of Hu¡¦s points.
At the same time, he promoted the idea that students should read traditional
characters and write in simplified characters; that China and Taiwan jointly
compile an online dictionary of Chinese culture to facilitate cross-strait
exchanges; that Chinese academic credentials be recognized in Taiwan and that
Chinese students be allowed to study in Taiwan as well as promoting cross-strait
youth exchanges.
In March, the National Cultural Association had its name changed to the General
Association of Chinese Culture. In May, half a semester of Chinese history was
added to the new version of the senior-high history curriculum. In June, the
four Confucian classics were listed as a compulsory subject for senior-high
school students. This was all done to increase the common spiritual bond between
Taiwan and China.
Now all Ma now needs to complete the third stage on the road to unification is
to sign a cultural ECFA.
What Beijing and the Ma administration are really trying to do is copy the
¡§Japanization¡¨ promoted by the colonial Japanese government by carrying out a
¡§Sinicization¡¨ program within Taiwan to replace Taiwanese identity with Chinese
identity.
This is misleading people. All this talk of ¡§Chinese people¡¨ is aimed at
weakening the ability of Taiwanese to tell friend from foe. What they want is to
create a ¡§one China¡¨ in which people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait are
part of one big family. To achieve this end, ¡§Chinese culture¡¨ has become a tool
for unification and turned into a sugarcoated poison pill.
Huang Tzu-wei is a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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