I saw this article online yesterday and honestly was pretty surprised at it... the link follows below but I'll write a short summary on the article with some exerpts included.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/asia/01china.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The article in the link above was written by Joseph Kahn and published in the NY Times on 9/1, here's the opening line:
BEIJING, Aug. 31 — When high school students in Shanghai crack their history textbooks this fall they may be in for a surprise. The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.
Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.
Wow, hold the press, seriously? Think about it, this would be like removing democracy from the US history books. Puts into perspective the idea and act of removing significant aspects of Chinese history from current history books.
Now before people get all stirred about it, keep it in perspective, history books get re-written all the time. Think about the revisions in the textbooks for students in the US. Perspectives on Native American Indians, african americans have really changed... then take a look at Germany, Italy, France, Japan, I bet their textbooks have changed a lot too.
The article talks about the scope of change a bit more:
The new text focuses on ideas and buzzwords that dominate the state-run media and official discourse: economic growth, innovation, foreign trade, political stability, respect for diverse cultures and social harmony. J. P. Morgan, Bill Gates, the New York Stock Exchange, the space shuttle and Japan’s bullet train are all highlighted. There is a lesson on how neckties became fashionable.
The French and Bolshevik Revolutions, once seen as turning points in world history, now get far less attention. Mao, the Long March, colonial oppression of China and the Rape of Nanjing are taught only in a compressed history curriculum in junior high.
One of the leaders of the modifications talked about his concept for history being much more about people and societies rather than leaders and war.
“History does not belong to emperors or generals,” Mr. Zhou said in an interview. “It belongs to the people. It may take some time for others to accept this, naturally, but a similar process has long been under way in Europe and the United States.”
Even though China has been moving away from Communism as a ruling ideaology, this is the first venture into examining it as a special event rather preaching it as gospel. The article goes on to futher discuss the change being needed to prepare students for global interactions. Before you go thinking how revolutionary the new textbooks are, consider the following expert:
Like the old textbooks, .., the new ones play down historic errors or atrocities like the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the army crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989.
The junior high school textbook still uses boilerplate idioms to condemn Japan’s invasion of China in the 1930’s and includes little about Tokyo’s peaceful, democratic postwar development. It will do little to assuage Japanese concerns that Chinese imbibe hatred of Japan from a young age.
It also leaves out the resistance by Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethinic group, Kublai Khan's invasion, Wen Tianxiang's most prominent symbol of loyalty and patriotism.. so while the change is literally revolutionary in thought for a country so deeply engrained in culture and communism, there are still certain perspectives and historical facts left to explore on one's own.
No comments:
Post a Comment