EDITORIAL: Fear not
the great ¡¥brainwashing¡¦
Recent efforts by President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s (°¨^¤E) government to emphasize Chinese
studies in school curricula have led some people to warn of a possible
¡§brainwashing¡¨ of the nation¡¦s youth and the eventual dissolution of national
identity. While the government¡¦s measures are a cause for concern, their
effectiveness in undermining Taiwanese identity is questionable.
For decades following its relocation to Taiwan in 1949, the Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) imposed strict controls on education and the media to re-sinicize
Taiwanese after half a decade of Japanese colonial rule. However, even in an
authoritarian and pre-Internet society, those efforts failed to transform
Taiwanese into something they were not (for another example of the failure of
government propaganda to turn people into mindless automatons, even in closed
societies, just ask any cab driver in Cuba for his views on Fidel Castro and
communism). However, despite the KMT¡¦s repressive tactics, Taiwanese identity
flourished, first as an underground movement and, after the lifting of Martial
Law in 1987, as part of national politics with the emergence of the Democratic
Progressive Party.
Gone are the days where state control of education can fundamentally shape young
people, if it ever did. What the government failed to accomplish in a closed
society with limited external sources of information has become an even more
formidable task today, thanks to the multiplicity of electronic sources from
which young people can access information. One need only look at China, where
dissidents continue to defy the Chinese Communist Party thanks to social media,
mobile phones and various Internet platforms, despite strict controls on
information.
The implication of this radical change in how young people learn about their
surroundings cannot be overstated and has direct ramifications in terms of how
they develop their identity, both as individuals and members of a shared
community. However hard a teacher might try to inculcate the view that apples
are blue, young people will have access to innumerable sources of information to
discredit that contention. In the electronic age, the environment that shapes
young people has become much larger than the classroom. Unless the KMT turns
back the clock and cracks down on freedom of expression ¡X and does so far more
successfully than even the most repressive of authoritarian regimes ¡X convincing
young Taiwanese that they are Chinese will be an exercise in futility. The genie
of identity is out of the bottle and it is not going back in.
Admittedly, resistance to the kind of top-down educational propaganda feared by
the more alarmist among us requires a modicum of critical thinking, but there is
every reason to believe that today¡¦s youth have the ability to do so. After all,
their parents and teachers experienced the passage from authoritarian rule to
democracy, a key element in the nation¡¦s consciousness and one whose impact has
been passed down by that generation. It is the responsibility of adults to
ensure that such values continue to flourish. There is no reason to believe they
intend to do otherwise.
The claim that young Taiwanese can somehow be ¡§brainwashed¡¨ and will receive
information uncritically not only counters the evidence, seen in public opinion
polls, but is also insulting and condescending. Such views echo the contention
by some in the older generation that young Taiwanese are disinterested in
politics and apathetic to issues of national concern. However, the young not
being easily mobilized or vocal on matters of, say, sovereignty, does not mean
that they do not care or are wavering when it comes to fundamental issues. Their
apparent disinterest could stem from the fact that the issue of identity is
already resolved in their minds and therefore does not necessitate action.
There is little reason to believe that today¡¦s young Taiwanese do not have what
it takes to confront those who would engage in historical revisionism and turn
back the clock, if that is indeed what the Ma administration hopes to
accomplish.
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