If One Loves Taiwan, Why Not Love a Preface to a General History of Taiwan?

  If One Loves Taiwan, Why Not Love a Preface to a General History of Taiwan?

A Commentary by Lin Chih-cheng

Source: China Times

October 30, 2017

The Conference on Textbook Guidelines Review of the Education Ministry on October 29 selected by vote the writings recommended for senior high school Chinese literature in the 12-year national education program, deleting the Preface to a General History of Taiwan written by Lien Heng to be substituted by the Voyage to Lukang. Lien Heng is grandfather to former Vice President Lien Chan; his Preface to a General History of Taiwan enjoys rather high critical acclaim. Now the Ministry of Education decided to delete it, inevitably leading to questions of targeting. We are afraid this would elicit political effects, causing social confrontation.

According to history, when Lien Heng was 13, his father, Lien Yung-chang bought a book written by Yu Wen-yi titled Notes on Reading the Writing of the Annuals of Taiwan Prefecture and gave it to him, saying: "If one wants to be a Taiwanese, one cannot be ignorant of things about Taiwan." Based on the dual motive, both his father’s teachings and instructions, and the occupation of Taiwan by Japan, Lien Heng started writing a General History of Taiwan in 1908, completing it in 1918, becoming a tome on the general history about Taiwan. The Preface to a General History of Taiwan is the forward of that book.

The Preface to a General History of Taiwan has been included in the textbook of Chinese literature since the textbook guidelines were passed in 2006. It referred to the national consciousness under Japanese rule, explaining the status of Taiwan at the time and presenting pluralistic facets of the history of Taiwan at that time. Lien Heng wrote this piece because he wanted the "Taiwanese to know things about Taiwan"; it has excellent contents and has enjoyed rather high acclaim.

The Conference on Textbook Guidelines Review of the Education Ministry on October 29 deleted The Preface to a General History of Taiwan from recommended articles for senior high school Chinese literature textbooks, the reason being that the article referred to the arduous pioneer work by Han Chinese ancestors in Taiwan, claiming that it was viewing the aboriginal history from the Han Chinese perspective, and so there were questions about it being discriminatory against the aborigines. For this reason, the conference decided to delete the article.

In fact, during the Japanese colonial rule, generally people were using the Han perspective to treat the aborigines; this is a historical fact and won’t change just because the textbooks don’t teach it. If we erased all articles of that era containing references to aborigines as “barbarians,” it would not only be a loss to Taiwan's history, but also disadvantageous to understanding aborigines’ past.

With regard to how the Han Chinese and aborigines got along in the past, what modern education should do is to present the true history to our children, and then tell them we should no longer treat aborigines from the Han Chinese viewpoint. Moreover, the aborigines and Han Chinese are equal; they should not be discriminated against.

In addition, now the DPP is in power; deleting Lien Heng’s Preface to a General History of Taiwan from textbooks would inevitably create misgivings of a "political purge"; if this leads to social confrontation, it would not be a blessing for Taiwan.

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