In order to promote the idea of "de-Sinicization," dilute Chinese history, and cultivate so-called "world citizens," the DPP authorities have taken a swipe at junior high school history textbooks.
Comprehensive "Zhongshi News Network", "United News Network" and other Taiwan media reported on September 8 that in the new syllabus history textbooks used in the second grade of Taiwan junior high schools, the part of ancient Chinese history has been greatly deleted, the curriculum has been simplified to the point of "outrageous", and the history of the 2400 years from the Shang Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty is "only 1600 words", and the three kingdoms and other historical periods have not been mentioned.
Screenshot of Taiwan media report
According to Taiwan media investigation, the main text of chapter 1 of the Chinese history section of the new edition of the textbook, "The State and Society from the Shang Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties," is only 4 pages long, with a total of more than 1,600 words. In the section "From Tribe to Feudalism", the concept of the Xia Dynasty is not mentioned at all, and the history of the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty is brushed over in only 300 words. In the section "From Feudal to Imperial State", the thousand-year history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the end of the Han Dynasty is only described in 800 words. The main text then jumped directly to the Content of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's Exclusive Confucianism, the Wei and Jin Nine Pin Zhongzheng System, and the Sui and Tang Dynasty Imperial Examination System.
Not only that, important historical events such as the Wu King's Falu, the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, the Warring States Seven Heroes, the Chu-Han Rivalry, and the Yellow Turban Uprising have all been deleted, and the three kingdoms, the Southern and Northern Dynasties and other historical periods have not been mentioned, and important historical figures such as Emperor Wu of han have been mentioned in one stroke, and only Qin Shi Huang and the Fajia have been slightly mentioned. At the same time, as a history textbook, this textbook does not mention history books such as "History" and "Book of Han" at all.
The report also pointed out that the compilation of the history section of the Tang Dynasty is also biased, the textbook does not talk about the history and political system of the Tang Dynasty, and skips events such as the rule of Zhenguan, the rule of Kaiyuan, and the chaos of Anshi, but directly puts the Tang Dynasty into the chapter "Ethnicities and Culture from the Shang Zhou to the Sui and Tang Dynasties" to talk about the Tang Dynasty's foreign exchanges.
Wu Kuncai, a professor at the Department of Applied History at Chiayi University in Taiwan, also pointed out that the 3600-year history from the Shang Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, the textbook only spent 60 pages and 6 chapters to tell, and each chapter was only 1500 words but had to tell 600 years of history.
Wu Kuncai criticized that the new edition of the textbook is "a historical outlook that spreads a sense of hatred and provokes and hurts national feelings," that the content is "messy, unclear, time-order, and without antecedents and consequences," and that "fragmentation" has become the greatest feature of the DPP authorities' education in Chinese history.
But the DPP authorities are trying to justify their actions. Taiwan's "Ministry of Education" claims that the new syllabus, "a little detailed in the past and the present," is an "appropriate" deletion of content to give flexibility to teaching. "Education Minister" Pan Wenzhong is even more unashamed to say that the new version of the textbook is not "de-Sinicized", but "emphasizes the relevance between sub-domains" and thus "trains students to become citizens of the world".
This is not the first time that such a move to "de-sinicize" the field of history teaching has long been carried out. In the draft syllabus released by Taiwan's "Ministry of Education" in 2018, the DPP authorities directly classified the Chinese history part into "East Asian history" despite the controversy, but instead classified "Taiwan history" into a separate category, and also cut the teaching of Chinese history in high schools to 1 volume.
This move to downplay Chinese history has deeply worried some Taiwanese history teachers and experts. Xu Hong, former director of the History Department of National Taiwan University, pointed out that "de-Sinicization" means self-colonization, and "de-Sinicization" textbooks will also harm millions of Young People in Taiwan.
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