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History camp slammed
for Chiang focus
By Tang Chia-ling, Chen Yi-ching and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporters,
with staff writer
A history camp planned by the student association of National Chengchi
University’s history department has been criticized as a brainwashing campaign
after a press release praised Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son, former
president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
Titled “Images, Lives and Histories,” the university’s third history camp will
take place from July 8 to July 10, and is open to 50 senior-high school
students. Each participant will have to pay a registration fee of NT$2,500.
However, the camp sparked criticism after the association issued a press release
saying: “The event seeks to let the exploits of important historical figures,
including former presidents Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, unfold vividly
in front of the eyes of young pupils and the public through multimedia systems.”
“It also endeavors to allow students to learn about major historical events and
the evolution of the country in a light-hearted manner ... in an effort to
facilitate and promote history education,” it said.
Taiwan Youth Anti-Communist Corps executive director Yang Yueh-ching (楊月清) said
she was astonished by the way the press release hailed the Chiangs.
“It turns out that brainwashing campaigns still exist in Taiwan in 2013 and
continue to attempt to instill one-sided history in the nation’s youth,” Yang
said. “I am not saying that the two Chiangs are taboo subjects, but the history
camp’s program should at least focus on both their achievements and faults.”
Chuang Wan-shou (莊萬壽), emeritus professor at Chang Jung Christian University’s
Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies, took to Facebook to vent his anger.
“Taiwan is experiencing a rapid retrogression. Its educational sector has not
only abandoned the nation’s localization achievements, but has also distorted
its values. We deplore those who sing the praises of autocrats,” Chuang wrote on
his Facebook page.
Citing a famous quote by Taiwanese writer Wu Cho-liu (吳濁流), Lee Hsiao-feng
(李筱峰), a professor at National Taipei University’s Graduate School of Taiwanese
Culture, said “ass-kissing is not history.”
The association has since retracted the release and issued another saying: “The
camp will invite history teachers to recount key events in Taiwanese history
from the War of Resistance Against Japan to the Chinese Civil War and from the
Chinese Nationalist Party’s [KMT] retreat to Taiwan to the nation’s post-war
developments.”
A member of the association who spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday
said that after receiving complaints from netizens over its first press release
the group decided to change the press release to avoid further controversy,
though the camp focuses on other historical figures as well.
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