The Imagined Geography: The Spatial Construction in Post-war Taiwan Bi-yu Chang (SOAS) Maps are central to our perception of the environment and are also powerful in influencing one’s worldview. In the last two decades, the study of cartographic history has taken a ‘cultural turn’ and radically extended its scope. What was once regarded as a ‘neutral’ and ‘objective’ science has been re-examined for its possible distortion and bias. Cartographic scholars have interrogated their own production of knowledge, and investigated the element of social construction in map-making. Most of the current research on Taiwan’s maps has focused mainly on those produced before the end of WWII (from the 16th century to the Japanese period) and examine their role and importance in Taiwan’s history. However, rarely anyone looks at post-war Taiwan. My research delves into this overlooked period of cartographic study, and examines the spatial construction of post-war Taiwan. In other words, my concern is to examine the way in which spatial concepts have been constructed, and also, how power has been exercised through projecting a selected worldview in map-making. This paper looks at maps used in Taiwan’s elementary education between 1945 and 1980. The year 1980 was a crucial moment for Taiwan’s map-making environment, because it was the year when the first island-wide land survey operation was completed. Since that time, the cartographic environment had improved greatly. This paper concentrates on elementary Geography textbooks during this period, and explores the spatial construction of a sense of ‘homeland’ among the younger generation. Through an examination of a top-down influence, this paper tries 1 to articulate the relationship between spatial construction, identity formation, and territorial claims. Geography Textbooks Cartographic data had been treated as top secret and were difficult to get hold of. Hence, post-war cartographic environment in Taiwan was generally barren. All maps needed to go through stringent procedure to get approvals. Between 1957 and 1980, there were 487 maps approved by the MOI. On average, there were around 20 maps being approved and published each year. Most maps (274) were used as teaching supplements.1 Therefore, the most important map market was (and still is) in school. Maps are used extensively in education because good maps can present an abstract spatial concept with simply and clear pictorial images. Since education has always played an important role in formulating and constructing national identity 2 , Geography is a crucial subject to construct the concept of ‘homeland’, distinguish the ideas of ‘us’ and ‘them (outsiders)’, and hence, form national identity. The focus of the paper is placed on the geographical concept embedded and the maps used in Geography textbooks, and tries to understand the ways in which a China-centric and native-detached spatial ideology came about. Before 2000, the compilation of Geography textbooks was under the state’s control since the beginning of public education started in Taiwan as early as in the Japanese period3. Amongst all the other highly supervised subjects -- including Chinese, History, and Citizenship -- Geography as an independent subject only started at the 1 鍾美淑, 台灣地圖測繪史, 文化大學地學研究所碩士論文, 1995. pp.179,184. 2 Apple, 1979. Ideology and curriculum. London, Boston and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 3 藍順德, 教科書政策與制度, 2005, 台北: 五南出版社. Pp. 26-27 2 highest (5th and 6th) year groups at the elementary education before 1968. Most geographical knowledge was either combined into the subjects of ‘Common Sense (常識)’ or ‘Social Studies (社會)4. Before martial law was lifted in 1987, Taiwan had undergone four times of major national curriculum revisions (1952, 1962, 1968 and 1975). National curriculum was modified and restructured many times, however, the basic ideology and structure had not changed greatly.5 The editorial committee agreed that geographical knowledge was important and should be introduced as early as possible to foster ‘nationalist spirits’ and ‘anti-communist ideologies’.6 In 1968, the nine-year compulsory education started alongside the launch of the Cultural Renaissance Movement. To incorporate the ‘anti-communist’ ideologies into the new nine-year curriculum, the previously separated subjects at Year 5 and 6 -- Geography, History, Citizenship -- were replaced by ‘Social Studies’, which extended to four years (Year 3 to 6). Although Geography subject seemed to disappear, it did not mean that there was no geographical knowledge taught in schools. Here, I will look at 4 versions of Geography textbooks (or geographically-related subjects)—1950, 1957, 1960, 1973 versions. 1950 version We will first examine the earliest 8 volumes of ‘Common Sense’ textbooks (1950 4 The ‘Common Sense’ usually included content of: History, Geography, Citizenship and Natural Sciences. When students reached higher year groups, the curriculum tended to provide them with more in-depth knowledge. Therefore, the content of ‘Common Sense’ was divided into ‘Natural Sciences’ and ‘Social Sciences’ (included History and Geography), and ‘Citizenship and Morality’. It was only when they reached the highest year-groups, more specified subjects were taught separately. 5 Apart from these formal revisions, there were numerous revisions and updated versions. See Ou Yung-sheng歐用生, (1990). Analysis of the hidden curriculum of shehuei subject in Taiwan's elementary education (wo guo guomin xiaoxue shehui ke qianzai kecheng fenxi我國國民小學社會科 潛在課程分析). Ph.D. thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Education Department. pp. 174-180. Also, 司琦, 2005, 小學教科書發展史. 台北:華泰出版. 6司琦, 2005, 小學教科書發展史. 台北:華泰出版, p. 2228-30. 3 version) that used at the elementary schools. Starting from Vol. 5, the content of ‘Common Sense’ began to introduce abstract concepts and knowledge at a national level. It was only at this stage (Year 3, term 2) that maps were introduced into elementary educatiohn, including: a simple map of the world (Figure 1), a cosmos map (Figure 2), the topography of the ROC and its place in the world (Figure 3). In the Figure 3, alongside the two simple maps, a basic description about cartography was also given. Generally speaking, the geographical knowledge at this stage was already quite difficult and the layout emphasised on textual descriptions. Judging from today’s standard, there were a lot of text describing cartographic ideas, and the maps seemed difficult for a nine-year-old child to comprehend. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 In comparison to the roughly drawn maps used in these ‘Common Sense’ textbooks, maps used in Year 5 and 6 provided more details, including names of important cities, major mountains and rivers, and provincial divisions. Looking at the 4 volumes of Geography textbooks (1950 edition), the emphasis was placed on history and political topics. Even so, the maps shown at this level of learning were still primitive. For example, the maps of Taiwan and the ROC were both roughly drawn, with single colour. The central part of the map of Taiwan Province 台灣省 (Figure 4) was totally empty, seemingly uncomplicated and primitive, waiting to be explored and developed. The peripheral image of Taiwan was reinforced in the ROC Map 中華民國政區圖 (Figure 5), dangling on the right-hand bottom corner, marginalised like a fragment dripping from the great fertile land. The great land of China was the centre of the map. The gaze of map-users was drawn away from Taiwan, towards ‘our Homeland (我們 的故鄉)’ – the true China.. Figure 4 Figure 5 4 At this stage of learning, the emphasis was not placed on precision, but rather focused on indication and indexibility. The general map of the ROC gave greater details to the mainland with scale, legend, topographical indication, major rivers and cities, latitude and longitude. China’s relative position in Asia was also shown by indicating neighbouring country names. In contrast, Taiwan’s position was framed within a China-centric ‘window on the world ‘. Any non-Chinese geographical connection was cut off and alienated. Taiwan was depicted as an extra baggage holding on to its big brother-- China. Therefore, Japan’s position was distant, and Taiwan’s closest neighbour-- Philippine looked barely in sight. In the political map of the world 世界政治區域圖 (Figure 6), the ROC was placed at the centre of the world, seemingly closer to America than to Europe. Taiwan was not named, because it was only ‘a part of the ROC’. Figure 6 As you can see, they were very rough maps, putting China in the centre of the world and claiming territories that the ROC (or even the Qing court) had long lost control. Although imprecise in details, vague in scale and rough in map-making skills, this basic shape of the ROC – a Begonia leave 秋海棠葉 became iconic. While mentioning ‘World Geography’ in volume 4 (1950 version), only a dozen of countries were regarded as ‘important’ in the world that worth mentioning, including Japan, South East Asia, India, Turkey, USSR, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, United Kingdom, and United States of America. Amongst all these countries, it was interesting to see how the KMT textbooks portrayed Taiwan’s old colonial ruler – 5 Japan, and its cold-war enemy—the USSR. For example, Lesson 5 of the Volume 4 of Geography (1950 version) gave an analysis about Japan. The textbook recognised Japan’s modernisation and industrial achievement, but put a negative spin. It emphasised Japan’s limitations (such as: small arable land, earthquake-ridden region, lacking mineral resources, etc.) and the shortcoming of Japanese racial character (such as, narrow-minded, militarism ideology, and imperialist ambition). Moreover, the map of Japan (figure 7) in this lesson showed its relative position in Asia and being a close neighbour to Korea, USSR, and the ROC. Figure 7 1957 version After the 1952 curriculum revision, the maps in the Geography textbooks were improved. For example, many maps used in the later version (1957), the maps were enhanced by adding details or refocused.