This thesis examines the politics of history education, collective memory and identity in contemporary Taiwan through a qualitative case study of the high-school history curriculum reform and controversy from 2002 to 2012. Through eight elite interviews, the evaluation of an extensive amount of primary sources, and the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the relevant history curricula and other official documents, I find that the most visible part of the controversy is a conflict between advocates of a “China-centered historical perspective” and the representatives of a “Taiwan-centered historical perspective”, who both try to reclaim the territory of national history to have their collective memory represented in it. Furthermore, my analysis of the relevant history curricula indicates that all of them are representative of the collective memory of more than one group. This demonstrates that the influence political parties can exert on history education is constrained by competing versions of collective memory. The thesis also shows how the strong tendency towards Taiwan-centered view on history within society has been translated into the history curriculum after the DPP created conducive conditions for meaningful change. Subsequently, the KMT tried to exert influence on the revision process, but continuous attention from the public prevented major changes. In the final analysis, it is very difficult for any political party or powerful group within contemporary Taiwan to impose one exclusive version of the past as national master narrative on the whole society. Competing collective memories of sub-national groups continue to co-exist within civil society, which demands for a more pluralist history curriculum that incorporates smaller “memory communities” in the national narrative to forestall social disunity and further controversy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CHENGCHI/G1009260302 |
| Creators | 沈拓筆, Tobias Stenzel |
| Publisher | 國立政治大學 |
| Source Sets | National Chengchi University Libraries |
| Language | 英文 |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Rights | Copyright © nccu library on behalf of the copyright holders |
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