Rewriting History
"When high school students in Shanghai crack their history textbooks this fall they may be in for a surprise. The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization."Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.
"Nearly overnight the country’s most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950’s. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today’s economic and political goals."
Where's Mao? Chinese Revise History Books
(Joseph Kahn, New York Times, September 01.06)
posted by Lindsay @ 10:19 AM
1 Comments:
From one extreme to another. The same stuff happened in many countries of Eastern Europe, after the collapse of Soviet Union. We experienced that transition, the change in history textbooks.
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