Taiwan's History Education and History Textbooks, 1945-2000

From 1945 to 1993, nationalism and national autonomy were the two themes that the Taiwanese government stressed in history education and history textbooks. For nearly fifty years, this policy remained unchanged because of foreign policy and domestic political needs. Since 1993, efforts have been made to change the history curriculum. First implemented from 1993 to 1995, the new curriculum covers a variety of topics and introduces a global perspective. Although nationalism and national autonomy are still heavily stressed in the new history textbooks, they are accompanied by a host of other topics elucidating the uniqueness of the Taiwanese people. In this article, I examine recent changes in Taiwanese history education by comparing various curriculum debates from 1945 to 2000