Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 20 After "4" ([-])
"To establish a 'Taiwan Consciousness', first of all, textbooks must be completely rewritten to tell the next generation that Taiwan is not only a base for rejuvenation, but also a 'home' with history, culture, and a long-term future that requires careful management. ...I think neither the government nor the people have realized that the lack of 'Taiwan consciousness' is the crux of many problems, nor have they realized how urgent the establishment of 'Taiwan consciousness' is. I was in [-] Proposal tonight, August [-]: Our textbooks must be rewritten, and in what year do you think it will happen?"

Things have changed, stars have changed, power has changed hands, and Taiwan has become "democratic".When I returned to Taipei in [-], I was loudly accused by members of the Democratic Progressive Party of being "not Taiwanese" when I stood on the inquiry platform of the Taipei Parliament.Once in [-], in an elevator of the city hall, I met a group of angry people. When they saw me, they immediately said, "Great Chinese activists, get out!"

What I want to talk about tonight is after living in Taiwan for three years, from the perspective of an intellectual who cares about Taiwan and agrees with Taiwan, I reviewed and sorted it out on the eve of my farewell, expressing it in the form of "difficulties".I think Taiwan is now facing two relatively fundamental and serious difficulties.The first, I call it the "dilemma of independent thinking", and the second, the "dilemma of culture".

Taiwan's intellectual circles have been shouting "the importance of independent thinking" for decades.My own writing in the past two years, whether it is "Wildfire Collection" or "Commentary on Novels", has constantly used various methods to call for the need for independent thinking.So some readers asked: "Independent thinking? Where do I start?"

This question seems simple, but in fact it involves too much.But first let me digress.

In 21, a former Tokyo University professor named Saburo Ieyaga filed a complaint against the Japanese government because the Japanese history textbook he wrote had some historical interpretations that were inconsistent with "national policy" and was not accepted by the Ministry of Education.Ienaga believes that the Japanese government has violated academic freedom and violated the conscience of scholars.The lawsuit went through the first and second trials, with winners and losers, and lasted for [-] years.

Ienaga's lawsuit did not attract attention in Taiwan; what attracted attention was the [-] textbook deletion incident.In order to cater to the government's likes and dislikes, textbook editors changed "aggression" to "in and out" one after another, and added an unnecessary question mark to the "Nanjing Massacre", indicating that it might not have happened at all.The Chinese got angry and protested against the Japanese government.

Ianega's argument is that a regime or government has no right to manipulate the content of people's ideological education.This argument has its historical background.In pre-war Japan, like Taiwan today, all textbooks were uniformly compiled by the government, that is to say, the government decided what kind of ideological indoctrination schoolchildren should receive.There is a huge danger lurking in this approach, and we Chinese have suffered greatly from it.There is a popular story: a Japanese teacher showed a big apple to the schoolchildren and asked them "Is it delicious?" The naive students said "delicious"; if it is delicious, where can I get it?Manchuria in China.Here, education has become a tool for those in power, subtly planting a sense of aggression in the hearts of the next generation. (Of course, this little story circulated was told by Chinese teachers to Chinese children in order to achieve another purpose.)
Using education as a political tool is what scholars like Ienaga fear. They fear that the great tragedy of history will repeat itself.In post-war Japan, like most European and American countries, textbooks were compiled by the people themselves, and the government could only review the quality, but could not manipulate its content.The purpose of this approach, of course, is to prevent a government from systematically creating obedient citizens who are easy to rule.

The Chinese who had been persecuted by the Japanese rejoiced that Japanese textbooks were no longer controlled by their government, and greatly praised Ienaga, a scholar who dared to fight against the government for conscience and truth.Hey, but our observations can't stop here, can we?What Saburo Ieyaga is fighting for is the right of Japanese schoolchildren to seek the truth and think independently. What we should ask ourselves is: Do our children have such rights?Does Taiwan have its own Jiayong Saburo?Is such a person allowed to exist?When our scholars' interpretation of history is inconsistent with political authority, is it possible for him to "struggle"?

Does intentional ideological indoctrination happen only in closed societies?An American teacher traveled to Russia.After I came back, I showed slides to the children in the classroom. One slide was a street scene in Moscow: a wide street, sandwiched between two rows of beautiful trees.The teacher asked casually: "Tell me, why did you plant a tree?"

The children scrambled to raise their hands and answered: "There are spies in the tree!" "Bugs can be placed in the leaves!" "There are cadres behind the trunk who can spy on the people."

The teacher was shocked on the spot, and after returning home, he began to think about a question: a very innocent photo, why would such a young child have such "political" thoughts?

The next day, he put on another slide, a street scene in Chicago: a wide street, sandwiched between two rows of beautiful trees.He asked the child: Why are trees planted by the roadside?The children rushed to answer: enjoy the shade, beautify the city, have fresh air, bear fruit, play "peek-a-boo"... So the teacher wrote an article asking whether education and information in American society are really free from manipulation and indoctrination expressed deep doubt.

Well, this brings me back to my original topic: independent thinking.When the education channels and information content in the big environment are controlled and manipulated, it is very, very difficult to think independently.When thinking about "where does independent thinking start", I found the social textbooks of Taiwanese elementary schools to see what our children are learning.

Flipping through it casually, I saw such a title: "A Promising Government".Needless to say, you all know the content.But my God, how can this be considered "education"?This is pure propaganda, and the object of the propaganda is our seven or eight-year-old children!Many people are dissatisfied with the government's performance in "diplomacy", environment and education. At the same time, many people think that Taiwan's abundant food, clothing and education are due to this "promising" government, but this is not the point of the problem; Our current government is active or not, and the topic of "a promising government" that shapes ideology and creates obedient citizens should not appear in textbooks.If educators have the conscience to give our next generation room for independent thinking, the title of this lesson must at least be changed to: "What is a promising government?" List out the criteria for evaluating government actions and let children Draw your own conclusions.

However, appealing to the "conscience" of educators is a solution, not a solution.As long as the right to compile textbooks is monopolized by the government, which government is willing to give up the great opportunity of "building consensus"?The fundamental solution is to imitate the advanced countries and hand over the right to compile textbooks to non-governmental scholars.But you said, what if non-governmental scholars write texts like "A Promising Government" out of intention to curry favor?What if the "Ministry of Education" only approves textbooks with texts like "Promising Government" in the review process?What if the parents of school children don't really care what kind of ideological education their children receive?
If you assume this way, I can only say: If Taiwan’s scholars betray their conscience to please the power, if the government itself has no intention to implement democratic ideas, if Chinese parents don’t care whether the next generation has the freedom and ability to think independently, then Taiwan It is very "primitive", let alone thinking independently.

But Taiwan is not like this.We have intellectuals who are upright and far-sighted, rulers who care about image and strive for innovation, and even a large middle class who are already parents and have a very strong desire for themselves and the next generation to have independent thinking space.On the one hand, it is this strong desire. On the other hand, it is not easy to dismantle the ideological checkpoints hidden in every corner of society and in the depths of people's hearts for decades; textbooks are just one of the checkpoints.

It is difficult for Taiwan to make fundamental and substantive progress if the hidden pillars of ideological barriers are not removed. This is one of the difficulties.

The second dilemma I call cultural schizophrenia.

In the past year, our tourism bureau has been sounding the alarm: fewer and fewer tourists come to Taiwan, and many people are attracted to the mainland.So the experts analyzed the reasons, such as too strict entry and exit restrictions, which is inconvenient; Taiwan's publicity is not enough; Taiwan's environment is too dirty and so on.These are of course important factors.However, as far as my understanding of Westerners is concerned, there is another very fundamental reason why tourists prefer Taiwan to the mainland, that is, Taiwan has no cultural characteristics to speak of.

how to say?Our publicity to the outside world is: Chinese culture is in Taiwan, it depends on China coming to Taiwan, in other words, use "China" as the banner of the call.Before the opening up of the mainland, this was still possible, but after the opening up, it will not work.Tourists have to pay tribute to the birthplace of Confucius, Du Fu's thatched cottage, Yue Fei's tomb... Is there any of these in Taiwan?No.Tourists should pay their respects to the long-famous Yangtze River, Yellow River, Mount Tai, and West Lake; these are not in Taiwan either.Why do tourists come to Taiwan to look for "China"?

But Taiwan is not without its own things: as a subtropical island, she has alpine forests and oceanic Jiaoxi; Chinese landscape.The problem is that we don't mention these characteristics of Taiwan itself at all; what we emphasize wholeheartedly is how "China" Taiwan is - from an outsider's point of view, it looks like a cover.Some say no; no say yes.

(End of this chapter)