Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

New history textbook fuels debate over biases

Chu Ping-yi 祝平一

The government’s brutal “minor adjustments” of curriculum guidelines for senior-high school history courses at the beginning of this year have now been followed by a new history textbook published by Shi Ji Cultural Co, which has added fuel to the fire and caused further controversy over history education in Taiwan.

The Ministry of Education, saying it respects “freedom of speech,” has done nothing and will not punish the publisher for the textbook, which states that the Taiwan independence movement is likely to plunge society into chaos over national identity.

Odor of totalitarianism palls Taipei

Jerome Keating

The occupation of the Legislative Yuan has ended, and the legislature’s agreement to discuss and debate the trade agreement in services before approval appears to be back on track.

Whether President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who also serves as party chairman, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will keep their promise remains to be seen.

Similarly the hunger strike of Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and the numerous protests against the continuation of the building of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant seem to have achieved their purpose.

Academia Sinica probe to intimidate: researcher

Taipei Times

Academia Sinica’s Institutum Iurisprudentiae associate research professor Huang Kuo-chang.
Photo: Taipei Times

An investigation team set up by the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee that is scheduled to visit Academia Sinica tomorrow is an “intimidation measure,” said an associate research professor at the institution’s Institutum Iurisprudentiae.

Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) — a leading figure in the Sunflower movement — yesterday posted on Facebook two scanned copies of legislative documents that said the committee is scheduled to visit Academia Sinica tomorrow to inspect “the condition of its staffing levels and enhancements in performance after the institution’s restructuring.”

Taipei police ‘violating’ press freedom

Taipei Times

Taipei Press Photographers’ Association chairman Chiou Rung-ji accuses police of removing journalists violently from recent anti-government protests during a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA

Representatives from media worker groups and academics yesterday accused the Taipei City Police Department of using excessive force against reporters in recent protests and trying to evade public scrutiny of what they described as police’s infringement of freedom of the press.

The violent eviction of reporters on March 24, when thousands of protesters occupied the Executive Yuan compound, and on April 28, during an overnight antinuclear sit-in on Zhongxiao W Road, violated the media’s right to report, the representatives told a press conference.

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