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‘Taishang’ school songs have
pro-China lyrics
‘MOTHER CHINA’: Two of the schools had what the
DPP calls ‘inappropriate’ lyrics, while a third did not, showing that the lyrics
were not compulsory
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party
Legislator Chen Ting-fei holds up a copy of the song of a school for the
children of Taiwanese businesspeople in Shanghai during a press conference in
Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA
School songs at two Taiwanese
government-funded taishang (a term used for Taiwanese businesspeople working
abroad) schools in China reflected a serious national identity problem,
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.
The school song of the taishang school in Shanghai described China as the
“motherland” while the school song of the Dongguan taishang school in Guangdong
Province contains the words “working together to establish a great China
(共創大中華),” DPP legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) told a
press conference.
The schools were among three taishang schools in China that provide education to
almost 4,000 children of Taiwanese businesspeople and received more than NT$100
million (US$3.38 million) a year from the Ministry of Education.
“The ministry sponsored the schools in the hope of helping -Taiwanese children
retain their Taiwanese identity. That was why the lyrics are unacceptable,” Chen
said.
Even more unbelievable, she said, was that the writer of the lyrics for the
Shanghai school song was a retired principal of an elementary school in New
Taipei City (新北市), while the ministry said that the school songs were “out of
its jurisdiction.”
Chen said the DPP demanded that the ministry take immediate action to review the
schools’ practices and its sponsorship, adding that the third school — Huadong
taishang school — did not have lyrics with political implications in its school
song, which showed that the practice was not compulsory.
The schools have already made concessions to Beijing because students do not
sing the national anthem of the Republic of China (ROC) and the schools do not
fly the ROC flag, Huang said.
Despite the schools being allowed to use Taiwanese textbooks, he added,
references to the ROC and the names of government agencies are taken out.
If the schools did not rewrite the controversial lyrics, Huang said he would
demand the ministry cut its sponsorship of the schools.
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