1. Taking Taiwan's democratization as starting with the illegal but unopposed establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party on 28 September 1986.

2. Luk, Bernard Hung-kay, “Chinese culture in the Hong Kong curriculum: heritage and colonialism,” Comparative Education Review, Vol. 35, (11 1991), pp. 650–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Sweeting, Antony. “Hong Kong education in historical processes,” in Postiglione, Gerard A. (ed.). Education and Society in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996), p. 43.Google Scholar

4. Meyer, Jeffrey E., “Teaching morality in Taiwan schools: the message of textbooks,” The China Quarterly, No. 114 (06 1988), pp. 267–284CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Wilson, Richard W., The Political Socialization of Children in Taiwan (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970)Google Scholar, and The Moral State: A Study of the Political Socialisation of Chinese and American Children. (New York & London: The Free Press, 1974).Google Scholar

5. On the relationship between democratization and national identity in Taiwan see Hughes, Christopher. Taiwan and Chinese Nationalism: National Identity and Status in International Society (New York & London: Routledge, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Wachman, Alan. Taiwan: National Identity and Democratization (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994).Google Scholar

6. For a detailed account of this bureaucracy, see Morris, Paul, “Preparing pupils as citizens of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong: an analysis of curriculum change and control during the transition period,”Google Scholar in Postiglione, , Education and Society, pp. 120–21.Google Scholar

7. Taiwan introduced the compulsory nine-year system in 1968, consisting of six years of elementary school and three years of junior high, or “middle” school. Hong Kong introduced a nine-year system in 1978, consisting of six years of primary school followed by three years of junior secondary. In both societies there is a high continuation rate into senior high school/senior secondary school. This article focuses on the curricula for the compulsory period only.

8. Curriculum Development Council (CDC), Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools (Hong Kong: Education Department, 1985).Google Scholar

9. CDC, Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools (Hong Kong: Education Department, 1996).Google Scholar

10. The importance of maintaining Hong Kong's global outlook if the territory is to maintain its competitive edge is mentioned in some detail with relationship to English language teaching, in Education Commission Report No. 6 (Main Report). (Hong Kong: Education Department, 1995), p. 1Google Scholar. On Hong Kong's transient society see Sweeting, , “Hong Kong education within historical processes,” pp. 65–69.Google Scholar

11. Yixian, Li, “On the characteristics, strong points, and shortcomings of education in Hong Kong: a mainland educator's view of education in Hong Kong,”Google Scholar in Postiglione, , Education and Society in Hong Kong, p. 254.Google Scholar

12. The concept of “two Chinas” refers to the ROC and the PRC, and has become especially sensitive since the ROC on Taiwan changed its policy to advocating a policy of dual recognition in the UN in 1993.

13. Ming bao, 28 12 1996.Google Scholar

14. South China Morning Post (SCMP), 23 03 1997, p. A1.Google Scholar

15. Jiaoyu bu (Ministry of Education), Guomin xiaoxue kecheng biaozhun (National Elementary School Curriculum) (Taipei: Jiaoyu bu, 1993).Google Scholar

16. Ministry of Education, Guomin zhongxue kecheng biaozhun (National Middle School Curriculum) (Taipei: Jiaoyu bu, 1994).Google Scholar

17. Chu, Yun-han and Lin, Tse-min, “The process of democratic consolidation in Taiwan: social cleavage, electoral competition and the emerging party system,” in Tien, Hung-mao (ed.), Taiwan's Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition: Riding the Third Wave (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), p. 82.Google Scholar

18. For a history and analysis of the education reform movement see Hsiao-hua, Pi (Xiaohua, Bi), Taiwan minjian jiaoyu gaige yundong: guojia yu shehui de fenxi (Taiwan's Civil Education Reform Movement: Analysis of State and Society) (Taipei: Qianwei, 1996).Google Scholar

19. Ibid. pp. 268–69.

20. By the mid-1980s more than 70% of the KMT's members were “native” Taiwanese, as in being born in Taiwan before the armed forces of the ROC took the Japanese surrender in 1945 or being the descendants of such people. Pye, Lucian, “Taiwan's political development and its implications for Beijing,” Asian Survey, 06 1986, pp. 618–19.Google Scholar

21. CDC, Guidelines (1996), pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

22. Ibid. p. 5.

23. Ministry of Education, Guomin xiaoxue kecheng biaozhun, p. 159.Google Scholar

24. For a concise survey of theories of identity as they relate to social formations see Bloom, William, Personal Identity, National Identity and International Relations. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 25–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. White, Lynn and Cheng, Li, “China coast identities: regional, national, and global,” in Dittmer, Lowell and Kim, Samuel S. (eds.). China's Quest for National Identity (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), p. 154.Google Scholar

26. CDC, Guidelines (1996), pp. 35–37.Google Scholar

27. Ibid. p. 24.

28. National Middle School Curriculum (1972), pp. 100–102, (1983). p. 97.Google Scholar

29. National Middle School Curriculum (1983), p. 36.Google Scholar

30. National Middle School Curriculum (1972), p. 30.Google Scholar

31. National Middle School Curriculum (1983), p. 36Google Scholar

32. National Elementary School Curriculum (1993).Google Scholar

33. CDC, Guidelines (1996), pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

34. Ibid. p. 35.

35. Ibid. pp. 35–36.

36. Ibid. pp. 12–15.

37. Ibid. p. 15.

38. Ibid. p. 15.

39. Ibid. p. 23.

40. Ibid. p. 24.

41. See for example his speech on youth affairs of 20 December 1997, Wenhui bao, 21 12 1997, p. A12.Google Scholar

42. SCMP, 7 03 1998.Google Scholar

43. There is, for example, widespread resistance to the Education Department policy of promoting Chinese as the medium of general instruction at the expense of English. Parents and students reacted angrily to directives in September and December 1997 which decided that the majority of schools should work towards using Chinese as the medium of instruction. The outrage this provoked among parents worried about the detrimental effect this could have on career opportunities meant that by March 1998 the Education Department had significantly to loosen the criteria determining which schools would have to use Chinese.

44. Hong Kong Economic Journal, editorial, 24 12 1997.Google Scholar

45. In August 1997 the NICT produced three standard textbooks for “Know Taiwan”: Renshi Taiwan lishi pian (Know Taiwan History Volume), Renshi Taiwan shehui pian (Know Taiwan Society Volume) and Renshi Taiwan dili pian (Know Taiwan Geography Volume).

46. Know Taiwan Society Volume, pp. 11–14Google Scholar. The Society volume does refer to some of the residents of Taiwan as being Zhonghua ren which means “people of Chinese culture,” and huazu which means “ethnic Chinese,” as distinct from the more political Zhongguoren and Zhonghua minzu which are closer to meaning “people of the Chinese state” and “the Chinese nation” respectively.

47. Hsiao-po, Wang et al. , “‘Renshi Taiwan’ lishi pian xiuding” (“Corrections to the history volume of ‘Know Taiwan’,” in Taiwan shi yanjiuhui (ed.), Renshi Taiwan jiaoke shu (The Know Taiwan Textbook) (Taipei: Taiwan shi yanjiuhui, 1997), p. 53.Google Scholar

48. Know Taiwan Society Volume, p. 63.Google Scholar

49. Yingzhen, Chen (Ying-chen, Chen), “Yi ge ‘xin shi guan’ de pozhan” (“The hole in a ‘new view of history’”)Google Scholar, in Taiwan shi yanjiuhui. The Know Taiwan Textbook, pp. 77–84Google Scholar. It may be of interest to point out here that because Taiwan was ceded by the Qing dynasty to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), in terms of international law the Japanese occupation was legal. Of course, whether one accepts this, which neither the ROC nor the PRC government has done, depends on the status one gives to international law in the period of empire building.

50. Yuan, Executive, Guidelines for National Unification (Taipei: Executive Yuan, 14 03 1991).Google Scholar

51. Hsiao-po, Wang et al. , “Corrections to the history volume,” p. 54.Google Scholar

52. Know Taiwan Society Volume, p. 90.Google Scholar

53. Hsiao-po, Wang et al. , “Corrections to the history volume,” p. 9.Google Scholar

54. National Middle School Curriculum (1994), pp. 854–55.Google Scholar

55. In a speech on 8 August 1991. Lee Teng-hui credited this idea to the German concept of Gemeinschaft as found in Goethe and Kant (“From uncertainty to pragmatism – the shape of the age to come,” speech to university professors. 8 August 1991, reprinted in Teng-hui, Lee, Creating the Future (Taipei 1992), p. 117Google Scholar). Peng Ming-min, though, takes the credit himself (see Peng Ming-min Educational Foundation (ed.), Peng Mingmin kan Taiwan (Peng Ming-min Views Taiwan) (Taipei 1994). p. 29)Google Scholar. Chinese nationalist stalwarts in Taiwan such as Hsu Li-nong (Xu Linong) of the “New Tong Meng Hui,” also credit it to Peng Ming-min (see Hsu, 's comments in Lianhe bao, 20 06 1993Google Scholar). So do mainland-Chinese Taiwan watchers, such as He Biao in “Luntan Taiwan ‘mingyun gongtongti’” (“Discussion of a Taiwan ‘community of shared destiny’”), Taisheng, Beijing No. 107 (1993), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

56. This point is made by Wang Chung-fu of the Department of History at National Taiwan Normal University, among others, in “Dui yu ‘renshi Taiwan’ jiaoke shu zhi ying you de renshi” (“Concerning what should be known about ‘Know Taiwan’”)Google Scholar. in Taiwan shi yanjiuhui (ed.), The Know Taiwan Textbook, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

57. CDC, Guidelines (1996), p. 75.Google Scholar

58. Cheng-sheng, Tu “Bentu-Zhongguo-shijie” (“Native land-China-the world”), Zhong-guo shibao (China Times), 25 05 1994, p. 11Google Scholar; “Lishi jiaoyu yao ruhe songbang” (“How should the fetters be released from history teaching”) Lianhe bao (United Daily News), 23 01 1995, p. 11Google Scholar; “Yi ge xin shi guan de dansheng” (“The birth of a new view of history”), Dangdai, No. 120 (1 08 1997), pp. 20–30Google Scholar; “Cong ‘renshi Taiwan’ zuotan lishi jiaoyu” (“A seminar on historical education from ‘Know Taiwan’”), Dangdai, No. 120, 1 08 1997, pp. 55–67.Google Scholar

59. National Middle School Curriculum (1994), p. 1.Google Scholar

60. This point is made by Lin Fu-shih of the Academia Sinica's institute of history and philology, who co-authored the draft of the Society volume, in defence of the use of the terminology “Taiwan's 400 years of Tragic History.” Know Taiwan Society Volume, p. 66Google Scholar. See Lianhe bao, 7 06 1997, p. 11.Google Scholar

61. The concept of “political literacy” was argued for by Britain's Hansard Society in 1974 in the context of developing political education in Britain. See Annette, John. “Citizenship and higher education: an historical overview,” paper delivered at the Political Studies Annual Conference, Britain, 1997, p. 5.Google Scholar

62. CDC. Guidelines (1996), p. 6.Google Scholar

63. Ibid. p. 14.

64. Ibid. p. 73.

65. Leung, Julian Y. M., “Education in Hong Kong and China: toward convergence?”Google Scholar in Postiglione, , Education and Society in Hong Kong, p. 266.Google Scholar

66. On “conservative moralism” and other approaches to civic education see Benninga, Jacques S., “Moral and character education in the elementary school: an introduction,” in Benninga, (ed.). Moral Character and Civic Education in the Elementary School (New York: Teachers College Press, 1991), pp. 3–20.Google Scholar

67. Dewey, John, Democracy and Education (New York: Macmillan, 1963, originally 1916), p. 87.Google Scholar

68. Tse, Thomas Kwan-cho, The Poverty of Political Education in Hong Kong Secondary Schools (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University, 1997), p. 17.Google Scholar