Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, professor of archaeology and art from Princeton, gave a lecture on "Scratching the Surface: on the Dutch in China and Taiwan" at the Institute of Modern (Chinese) History at Academia Sinica on Tuesday. He was interested in the cultural exchange between Europeans via the Dutch and Chinese and Taiwanese in the 18th and the 19th centuries. His talk argued that the Dutch East India Company (VOC) helped facilitated cultural exchanges within Asia, from India to Japan, and less with facilitating exchanges between Europe and Asia. For Taiwan, he found remaining Dutch material goods among Taiwanese aborigines, but not within the Han Taiwanese population. For China, Kaufmann cited Dutch's lack of smart diplomacy with China to surpass other Europeans. He said that the Dutch dealt with the Manchu Qing emperor the same way they dealt with local chiefs in Batavia (Jakatar) in the 18th century. He also downplayed the value of porcelain in Europe-Asia trade by citing low quantity of porcelain export from China and low profit made from trading porcelain.
I can incorporate his talk and future books/articles into a world history syllabus. I can also include his information into China's relation with the world, and the history of Taiwan.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Seminar: Taiwan's Modern Education
I began auditing a three-hour graduate seminar on Taiwan's modern Education (近代台灣教育史) at the National Taiwan Normal University 國立師範大學 on Tuesday. Ten master's students (mostly of Institute of Taiwan History at National Taiwan Normal University) and one visiting master's student from Kyoto University 京都大学 have become my new classmates. The adviser of the student from Kyodai is prominent in studying education in Japanese-colonized Taiwan. I need to befriend him and read more of his adviser's research before I go to Japan next year.
This is the class structure. One student presents readings each week, and other students are expected to provide more comments and questions. The class is less of a discussion that I am familiar with at UC Santa Cruz, but more of a student report with critique of the student, supplemental information, and lecture from the professor. Students are reading both Chinese and Japanese literature and Japanese primary documents. The class focuses on analyzing the relationship between schools (學校) and the locale (地方). Students are expected to complete a research paper on the topic of education before the semester ends in February. They have begun to give weekly progress report yesterday. From them, I have learned about different sources and topics that I can explore for my project.
The instructor of the class is very knowledgeable. Professor Hsu Pei-hsien 許佩賢 has worked on the history of modern education in Taiwan during the Japanese period for years. I recently finished reading her book, Modern Schools of Colonial Taiwan (殖民地台灣的近代學校), a collection of essays on the topic. Her book focuses on primary schools and their impact on local society and people as well as ideas behind primary education (young citizenship 少國民). Although I have yet sat down with her to discuss my project, I need to do that once I have made some progress in my research.
This is the class structure. One student presents readings each week, and other students are expected to provide more comments and questions. The class is less of a discussion that I am familiar with at UC Santa Cruz, but more of a student report with critique of the student, supplemental information, and lecture from the professor. Students are reading both Chinese and Japanese literature and Japanese primary documents. The class focuses on analyzing the relationship between schools (學校) and the locale (地方). Students are expected to complete a research paper on the topic of education before the semester ends in February. They have begun to give weekly progress report yesterday. From them, I have learned about different sources and topics that I can explore for my project.
The instructor of the class is very knowledgeable. Professor Hsu Pei-hsien 許佩賢 has worked on the history of modern education in Taiwan during the Japanese period for years. I recently finished reading her book, Modern Schools of Colonial Taiwan (殖民地台灣的近代學校), a collection of essays on the topic. Her book focuses on primary schools and their impact on local society and people as well as ideas behind primary education (young citizenship 少國民). Although I have yet sat down with her to discuss my project, I need to do that once I have made some progress in my research.
Yoga
I began my weekly yoga lessons within the first week after arriving in Taiwan. As a beginner in an advance class and someone who has never been flexible, I tried not to compare with other classmates. Many poses are the same as ones I had learned already, but the instructor's instructions made a big difference for me. Contrast to the UC Santa Cruz yoga instructor who emphasizes the relaxation of every part of my body, this instructor in Taiwan emphasizes belly tightening and spinal cord extension while relaxing other parts of my body. I still have trouble tightening up my belly while maintaining the post and relaxing every part of my body. I "naturally" tightened up my shoulders. This combination of tightening and relaxation in different parts of my body has resulted in aches and soreness I experience in each part of my body, especially each bone and muscle on my back.
I hope that these lessons will be worth it, especially since this is the only form of exercise I am doing in Taiwan.
I hope that these lessons will be worth it, especially since this is the only form of exercise I am doing in Taiwan.
Chinese Nationalist Holidays in Taiwan
When I was a kid in Taiwan, I remembered October 10 (雙十節) and October 25 (光復節) as very important government holidays. I welcomed them as a child because we had days off school. October 10, 1911 was when the Xinhai Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last imperial system in China. October 25, 1945 was when Taiwan was "officially retro-ceded back to (Chinese Nationalist or the Republic of) China." While I barely noticed October 25 this year in Taiwan, October 10 was advertised and discussed virtually everywhere, on the street and on television.
While October 10 is no longer celebrated with much enthusiasm, or at least not over 50% of the population in Taiwan for the past decade, it was different this year. The current president, Ma Ying-jeou, and his administration (belonging to Chinese Nationalist Party, Kuomingtang KMT or Guomingdang GMD) emphasized this year's "Double-Ten" celebration because this year marked the 100 centennial of the founding of the Republic of China ROC (1911-2011). The Ma administration advertised Taiwan tourism with "celebrating ROC's centennial" this year. The administration also celebrated Double-Ten with military jet flying over presidential palace, students and soldiers marching in front of the palace, and other military drills that had almost disappeared in the last decade.
Many couples got married this year in hope of receiving luck from this "good year." Various business vendors, small and big, had promotion sales in celebration of ROC's centennial.
Streets were full of ROC flags. The community I live in encourages residents to display ROC flags to show their patriotism. This campaign stood in contrast to the suppression of ROC flag display during Zhang Mingqing's visit, a top official of the People's Republic of China (PRC), in February 2011. The Ma administration told people not to display the ROC flag because it did not want to provoke China.
Some people posted this on Facebook as the date approached October 10: Display our national flag today if you love Taiwan. Some foreigners called October 10 "Taiwan's 100th birthday." It made me wonder how well residents of and visitors of Taiwan understand Chinese and Taiwanese histories. The conflation of ROC and Taiwan is historically inaccurate, and the "celebration of ROC's centennial" is debatable. When ROC was established in 1911, Taiwan had been a Japanese colony for over 15 years (1895-1945). Chinese officials and leaders in China had to deal with many issues and problems inside China, and did not spend much time, if any, thinking or worrying about Taiwan (or Hong Kong and Macao, British colony and Portuguese colony respectively). ROC was not Taiwan.
Does ROC still exist? In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and some one million Chinese refugees fled to Taiwan when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won the civil war. Chiang "relocated" "China" (ROC) to Taiwan. Even after the United Nations recognized "China" as PRC in 1971 and unseated Chiang's ROC government as the legitimate China, Chiang continued his illusion of the existence of ROC. Since the 1990s and especially the 2000s, presidents in Taiwan from both the pro-ROC and pro-Taiwan-independence political parties seem to equate ROC and Taiwan. The phrase has evolved from the phrase of "ROC on Taiwan" vocalized by the first popularly elected president in 1996, Lee Teng-hui, to the phrase of "ROC is Taiwan, Taiwan is ROC" used by the current president Ma Ying-jeou. The ROC Constitution has been revised since the 1990s, and today it formally recognizes ROC as one with legitimacy over Taiwan, Pescadores, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Orchid Island. The Constitution no longer maintain the illusion that ROC has legitimacy over the entire territory under the current PRC (I think minus Hong Kong and Macao) and the independent country of Mongolia. Still, what does ROC mean? If ROC was created in China, and meant to serve the Chinese people in China, what does it mean when one claims "ROC is Taiwan"?
Is Taiwanese patriotism the same as ROC Chinese patriotism? The historical experience of the 2-28 Massacre/Incident/Uprising that occurred on February 28, 1947, suggests "NO." Representatives from ROC ordered Chinese Nationalist soldiers to arrest, jail, and execute Taiwanese intellectuals, professionals, and community leaders. Even less-prominent people were killed as their enemies reported them as "Communist spies" to the ROC representatives in Taiwan. Those who lived through or witnessed the event, or had family members (grandfathers and fathers, uncles and cousins), neighbors and friends killed or disappeared during the 2-28 Massacre and the subsequent White Terror would not equate Taiwanese patriotism with ROC patriotism. They understand the suffering of the people, both Taiwanese and some Chinese refugees in Taiwan, during the martial law era, imposed immediatedly after 2-28 Massacre until 1987.
As I watched people in Taiwan celebrate, or not celebrate, ROC's centennial, I saw that many do not understand history or what they were celebrating. It pains me to see people ignorant of well-known and recent histories.
While October 10 is no longer celebrated with much enthusiasm, or at least not over 50% of the population in Taiwan for the past decade, it was different this year. The current president, Ma Ying-jeou, and his administration (belonging to Chinese Nationalist Party, Kuomingtang KMT or Guomingdang GMD) emphasized this year's "Double-Ten" celebration because this year marked the 100 centennial of the founding of the Republic of China ROC (1911-2011). The Ma administration advertised Taiwan tourism with "celebrating ROC's centennial" this year. The administration also celebrated Double-Ten with military jet flying over presidential palace, students and soldiers marching in front of the palace, and other military drills that had almost disappeared in the last decade.
Many couples got married this year in hope of receiving luck from this "good year." Various business vendors, small and big, had promotion sales in celebration of ROC's centennial.
Streets were full of ROC flags. The community I live in encourages residents to display ROC flags to show their patriotism. This campaign stood in contrast to the suppression of ROC flag display during Zhang Mingqing's visit, a top official of the People's Republic of China (PRC), in February 2011. The Ma administration told people not to display the ROC flag because it did not want to provoke China.
Some people posted this on Facebook as the date approached October 10: Display our national flag today if you love Taiwan. Some foreigners called October 10 "Taiwan's 100th birthday." It made me wonder how well residents of and visitors of Taiwan understand Chinese and Taiwanese histories. The conflation of ROC and Taiwan is historically inaccurate, and the "celebration of ROC's centennial" is debatable. When ROC was established in 1911, Taiwan had been a Japanese colony for over 15 years (1895-1945). Chinese officials and leaders in China had to deal with many issues and problems inside China, and did not spend much time, if any, thinking or worrying about Taiwan (or Hong Kong and Macao, British colony and Portuguese colony respectively). ROC was not Taiwan.
Does ROC still exist? In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and some one million Chinese refugees fled to Taiwan when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won the civil war. Chiang "relocated" "China" (ROC) to Taiwan. Even after the United Nations recognized "China" as PRC in 1971 and unseated Chiang's ROC government as the legitimate China, Chiang continued his illusion of the existence of ROC. Since the 1990s and especially the 2000s, presidents in Taiwan from both the pro-ROC and pro-Taiwan-independence political parties seem to equate ROC and Taiwan. The phrase has evolved from the phrase of "ROC on Taiwan" vocalized by the first popularly elected president in 1996, Lee Teng-hui, to the phrase of "ROC is Taiwan, Taiwan is ROC" used by the current president Ma Ying-jeou. The ROC Constitution has been revised since the 1990s, and today it formally recognizes ROC as one with legitimacy over Taiwan, Pescadores, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Orchid Island. The Constitution no longer maintain the illusion that ROC has legitimacy over the entire territory under the current PRC (I think minus Hong Kong and Macao) and the independent country of Mongolia. Still, what does ROC mean? If ROC was created in China, and meant to serve the Chinese people in China, what does it mean when one claims "ROC is Taiwan"?
Is Taiwanese patriotism the same as ROC Chinese patriotism? The historical experience of the 2-28 Massacre/Incident/Uprising that occurred on February 28, 1947, suggests "NO." Representatives from ROC ordered Chinese Nationalist soldiers to arrest, jail, and execute Taiwanese intellectuals, professionals, and community leaders. Even less-prominent people were killed as their enemies reported them as "Communist spies" to the ROC representatives in Taiwan. Those who lived through or witnessed the event, or had family members (grandfathers and fathers, uncles and cousins), neighbors and friends killed or disappeared during the 2-28 Massacre and the subsequent White Terror would not equate Taiwanese patriotism with ROC patriotism. They understand the suffering of the people, both Taiwanese and some Chinese refugees in Taiwan, during the martial law era, imposed immediatedly after 2-28 Massacre until 1987.
As I watched people in Taiwan celebrate, or not celebrate, ROC's centennial, I saw that many do not understand history or what they were celebrating. It pains me to see people ignorant of well-known and recent histories.
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