Knowing Taiwan

Knowing Taiwan^[1] or Understanding Taiwan (Chinese: 認識臺灣; pinyin: Rènshì Táiwān) is a textbook for junior high-school aged children that has been in widespread use in Taiwan since 1997. The book is divided into sections that cover social studies, history and geography (Chinese: 社會篇、歷史篇、地理篇).

Background[]

Under the one-party rule by the Kuomintang (KMT), or the Chinese Nationalist Party, students in Taiwan had been required to learn the history of China in the postwar period. With a state monopoly on the production of textbooks, the KMT instilled a sense of Chinese nationalism through the education system. Though students then did learn history of Taiwan as well, it was included in history of China textbooks, rather than independent history of Taiwan textbooks. After the death of Chiang Kai-shek, his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo began to liberalize the political system of Taiwan, eventually lifting martial law in 1986. After Chiang Ching-kuo's death, Lee Teng-hui, the first native Taiwanese president, continued the liberalizing trend, and held the first direct presidential election in 1996, while arguing that Taiwanese students should learn more about geography and history of Taiwan.^[2]

The textbook was written between June 1995 and February 1997. Its origins can be found in the years following martial law, when the Ministry of Education instituted a textbook reform committee in response to pressure from pro-independence members of the Legislative Yuan. It was expanded in 1994 to a Commission on Deliberation for Education Reform, overseen by the President of Academia Sinica Lee Yuan-tseh, and granted additional funding by Premier Lien Chan. In contrast to the martial law period, scholars were allowed to devise curricula free of political interference. Following its announcement in June 1997, pro-unification hardliners and conservatives within the KMT and the New Party held protests for three weeks to little avail.^[1]

Content[]

Understanding Taiwan was released in 1996 and adopted as the junior high school textbook in 1997. This textbook aroused much interest in East Asia. The history section is presented as "history of Taiwan", and the era of Taiwan under Japanese rule was introduced more positively than previous junior high school textbooks, with objective facts and surveys.^{[citation needed]} In contrast to earlier textbooks, the authors of Understanding Taiwan hoped to eliminate Chinese nationalist ideology from the curriculum, re-evaluate the Japanese colonial period (which was previously portrayed entirely negatively), and emphasizing the historical experience of indigenous peoples on Taiwan (previously looked down upon). Furthermore, the Society section of the textbook explicitly embraced the concepts of Taiwanese identity and nationality. ^[1]