Taiwan history from the perspectives of history and social studies textbooks in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia and revelations for developing teaching materials for international exchanges

Abstract

Textbooks are the most common cultural media in schools. By studying about Taiwan in textbooks developed in their own countries, students in other countries gradually form an impression of Taiwan. Studying their textbooks and properly managing the impression presented would allow us to help influence the impression of Taiwan students in other countries form. This paper aims to explore how Taiwan history is presented in history and social studies textbooks of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia and to offer suggestions for developing teaching materials for international exchanges. To achieve the above-mentioned goals, research textbooks have been selected from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, in particular, those by organizations which have international exchanges with Taiwan schools. The history and social studies textbooks are for secondary schools. The analytical framework consists of temporal and content dimensions. The former is to inquire which periods of Taiwan history are introduced. The latter is to examine the potential discoursal effects based on the analytical category. The results contribute to the understanding of the impression of Taiwan history presented in the textbooks of other countries and to the development of teaching materials for international exchanges in these areas.