Today is February 28, which is a holiday here in Taiwan. It commemorates the uprising against the KMT government that took place in 1947. The KMT, which at the time still controlled much of China (though it was soon to lose it to the Communists in the renewed civil war), had only taken over Taiwan in 1945, after the Japanese surrender to the US-led Allies at the end of World War II, under which they were compelled to surrender their possessions outside Japan. Though most Taiwanese initially welcomed the KMT, they soon proved to be corrupt and often treated the Taiwanese as if they were all untrustworthy. Resentment built up, and when an altercation on the evening of February 27, 1947 resulted in a police officer shooting and killing a local, a mass protest began the next day. More shootings by the government turned it into a full scale uprising (unfortunately, some innocent "mainlanders", i.e., people from China, were attacked in the process). Many local KMT governments around the island were forced out and local people set up self-governing councils. The KMT initially promised to meet many of the Taiwanese people's demands, but within a few weeks, Chiang Kai-shek ordered troops from the mainland to be sent over. They violently suppressed the rebellion, slaughtering large numbers of Taiwanese. During the subsequent White Terror period, which continued after Chiang and the rest of the KMT government was forced to flee to Taiwan from China after they were defeated by the Communists), many more people were arrested and executed, often due to accusations of involvement in the 1947 uprising, and the uprising became a forbidden topic. Only many decades later, after Taiwan democratized, could the incident be freely discussed. The government issued an apology and made February 28 a holiday, but it never made a serious attempt to investigate the incident to reveal which individuals were responsible for the atrocities that took place. This failure to secure real justice through finding out the truth means that the incident is still a divisive issue. This is yet another example of the importance of finding out and teaching the true historical facts, as I discussed recently.
Coincidentally, while in Taiwan we look back to a past uprising against the government, a more successful uprising took place just this past week in the Ukraine, with the pro-Russian Ukrainian President Yanukovich being forced to flee and the pro-European forces taking over. This has to be counted as a good thing, since both the opposition and the European Union that they lean toward are more progressive than Yanukovich and his autocratic Russian ally Putin. Of course it must be recognized that there were some extremists among the protestors and that the opposition politicians are not without their faults, though it seems unlikely that they are as corrupt as Yanukovich. In any case, it is perhaps telling that Yanukovich's attempts to violently suppress the protests ultimately caused even many in his own party to abandon him. On the other hand, the crisis is not over, not least because some areas in the eastern part of Ukraine, particularly the Crimea, are pro-Russian. Personally, I think Ukraine should at least consider letting the people of the Crimea vote on whether they want to stay in Ukraine or join Russia (rejoin, really, as the area was part of Russia prior to the 1950s). I don't think any national borders should be considered inviolate, though I realize that if every little area was allowed to vote separately on which side to join it could result in a rather messy map, not only in this situation but in other similar ones. In any case, we can only hope that the crisis is solved peacefully and results in an overall reduction in autocracy, corruption and human rights violations in the region – in other words, that the results are rather different from those of Taiwan's February 28 uprising.
On a completely different topic, I have to mention another exciting news item: the recent announcement of the discovery of over 700 new planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. While there don't seem to be any exact analogues of Earth – that is, planets the size of Earth orbiting at a similar distance from their star – in this batch of planets (the discovery methods and our available technology still tend to favor planets that are very close to their stars, very large or both), there are many Earth-sized planets orbiting close in to their stars and a few larger planets that may be in their stars' habitable zones. Taking into consideration that these planets were found in a search area that is a tiny fraction of the whole galaxy and that the search methods used could only discover planets whose orbits are edge on toward us, the discovery of such a large number means that there is a vast population of planets out there in the galaxy, and there are bound to be quite a few Earth twins. As I have noted in the past, with sufficient effort and a bit of luck, we may find such a planet in the next few decades.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Tibetan Independence Day and Truth in History
On February 13, many Tibetans celebrated Tibetan Independence Day, which commemorates the Tibetan Proclamation of Independence made on February 13, 1913. Of course, Tibet is unfortunately not independent now, since it is occupied by China, a topic I have covered before. But Tibetans use this day as a reminder that their country has a long history of independence, one that dates back long before the proclamation. For instance, this year Tibetan groups commemorated the China-Tibet Peace Treaty signed in 822 CE. At that time Tibet was an empire, one that contested with Tang China for dominance in the Tarim Basin area (today East Turkestan, or, as China calls it, Xinjiang) and often won. The Tibetans even managed to sack the Chinese capital of Chang'an (present day Xi'an) at one point. Though the Tibetan empire collapsed in the 9th century, Tibet remained independent, if not always united, for most of the subsequent centuries, only succumbing to outside rule for two periods before the present, one being under the Mongols in the 13th to 14th century and the other being under the Manchu (China's Qing dynasty) from the 18th to the early 20th century (the Proclamation of Independence was made following the collapse of the Qing dynasty, which ended their rule in Tibet as it did in places such as Mongolia).
But of course China's version of this history is rather different. First they treat the Mongols, who conquered China at the same time as they did Tibet and set up what in Chinese history is known as the Yuan dynasty, as a Chinese regime, which they clearly were not, and then they claim that China ruled Tibet from that time on, even though the native Chinese Ming dynasty (1368-1644) exercised no control over Tibet, nor did the Republic of China that followed the Qing dynasty and preceded the present-day People's Republic of China. They constantly downplay, ignore or flat-out deny Tibet's history of independence. As a student of history and a strong believer in getting the facts right, I find these attempts to distort history infuriating. And Tibet is not the only area where China distorts history. Just yesterday I saw a news report in which China demanded that the US "respect historical facts" with regard to the East and South China Seas, presumably a reference to Chinese claims that islands in these regions were historically under Chinese rule. But, as I have noted before, these "facts" are in fact highly dubious, as there is no way any nation can make a meaningful historical claim to any of these islands, all of which are uninhabited, that goes back before the 19th century at the earliest. China's version of the history of Taiwan and its relationship to China is similarly full of omissions, inaccuracies and outright falsehoods. China also insists on a questionable view of its internal history, to the point of hysterically attacking contrary views of the Boxer Rebellion and the Long March, even when the evidence is on the side of the challengers.
Regrettably, China is not the only place where false accounts of history are common. Here in Taiwan, the KMT government has recently revised the school curriculum to conform to a more Sinocentric view of Taiwanese history, for instance by reverting to the loaded term "Japanese occupation" rather than the neutral "Japanese rule" to describe the period from 1895 to 1945. The other day at the lantern show there was a display that characterized Zheng Chenggong as an "ethnic hero", presumably in line with the idea that he "reclaimed" Taiwan from the Dutch, "restoring" Chinese rule. This ignores the fact that China had never actually ruled Taiwan, and while Zheng may have used ethnically-based propaganda, his motives for forcing out the Dutch had much more to do with establishing a base for his fight against the newly established Qing dynasty of the Manchus than any broad nationalistic interests. Elsewhere in Asia, last I heard, Japan was also still failing to present its early 20th century history with complete accuracy in textbooks, as it downplayed or ignored Japanese atrocities like the Rape of Nanjing or the widespread use of "comfort women". Indeed nationalists in just about every country distort their history to make it support chauvinistic claims, and it is common for groups on one side or the other of a contemporary political dispute to use history in their support, even if they have to falsify it. For example, in the US it is common for many on the right to claim that the country was established as an explicitly Christian nation, even though any reading of the Constitution and the writings of the most prominent founders clearly shows that that is not true.
Inaccurate accounts of history are not limited to politics. For example, numerous books, movies and plays portray history inaccurately, a phenomenon that has been repeated throughout history (even Shakespeare's plays, for all their literary merit, often get the history completely wrong). Some amount to little more than political propaganda, though in many cases, such as Hollywood films with historical settings, the rewriting of history is done for commercial reasons, even though in many cases there seems little or no justification for it, and a more historically accurate film could have been just as entertaining. But at least most of these entertainment products aren't presented as if they paint a historically accurate picture. Depending on the events they portray and how widespread their interpretations become, the harm most of them cause tends to be limited. In contrast, inaccurate views of history that are presented as the truth can cause great damage. For example, the false, rabidly nationalistic history that China has spoon fed its people on will create problems throughout East Asia for years to come, as even a democratic China would be full of people who think Tibet, Taiwan, and the South China Sea are rightfully Chinese. Of course I can't claim that all of my own historical knowledge is 100% accurate, or that I am free from bias, but even when discussing topics where I have fairly strong opinions, I make an effort to be as historically accurate as I can, even when some of the facts don't bolster my arguments. Needless to say, on all such topics, I think the preponderance of evidence supports whatever view I have taken, but I try to remain open to contrary evidence, and I have actually altered my former opinions of some historical events upon learning new things about them. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to make the same effort to be as objective as possible. While my more immediate personal goal is to produce a history of Taiwanese popular music, in part to correct some relatively innocuous misstatements of fact that have appeared in other books and articles, I also consider it important to counter false views of political history wherever they appear, though in many cases they are too deeply ingrained for those who believe them to change their views.
But of course China's version of this history is rather different. First they treat the Mongols, who conquered China at the same time as they did Tibet and set up what in Chinese history is known as the Yuan dynasty, as a Chinese regime, which they clearly were not, and then they claim that China ruled Tibet from that time on, even though the native Chinese Ming dynasty (1368-1644) exercised no control over Tibet, nor did the Republic of China that followed the Qing dynasty and preceded the present-day People's Republic of China. They constantly downplay, ignore or flat-out deny Tibet's history of independence. As a student of history and a strong believer in getting the facts right, I find these attempts to distort history infuriating. And Tibet is not the only area where China distorts history. Just yesterday I saw a news report in which China demanded that the US "respect historical facts" with regard to the East and South China Seas, presumably a reference to Chinese claims that islands in these regions were historically under Chinese rule. But, as I have noted before, these "facts" are in fact highly dubious, as there is no way any nation can make a meaningful historical claim to any of these islands, all of which are uninhabited, that goes back before the 19th century at the earliest. China's version of the history of Taiwan and its relationship to China is similarly full of omissions, inaccuracies and outright falsehoods. China also insists on a questionable view of its internal history, to the point of hysterically attacking contrary views of the Boxer Rebellion and the Long March, even when the evidence is on the side of the challengers.
Regrettably, China is not the only place where false accounts of history are common. Here in Taiwan, the KMT government has recently revised the school curriculum to conform to a more Sinocentric view of Taiwanese history, for instance by reverting to the loaded term "Japanese occupation" rather than the neutral "Japanese rule" to describe the period from 1895 to 1945. The other day at the lantern show there was a display that characterized Zheng Chenggong as an "ethnic hero", presumably in line with the idea that he "reclaimed" Taiwan from the Dutch, "restoring" Chinese rule. This ignores the fact that China had never actually ruled Taiwan, and while Zheng may have used ethnically-based propaganda, his motives for forcing out the Dutch had much more to do with establishing a base for his fight against the newly established Qing dynasty of the Manchus than any broad nationalistic interests. Elsewhere in Asia, last I heard, Japan was also still failing to present its early 20th century history with complete accuracy in textbooks, as it downplayed or ignored Japanese atrocities like the Rape of Nanjing or the widespread use of "comfort women". Indeed nationalists in just about every country distort their history to make it support chauvinistic claims, and it is common for groups on one side or the other of a contemporary political dispute to use history in their support, even if they have to falsify it. For example, in the US it is common for many on the right to claim that the country was established as an explicitly Christian nation, even though any reading of the Constitution and the writings of the most prominent founders clearly shows that that is not true.
Inaccurate accounts of history are not limited to politics. For example, numerous books, movies and plays portray history inaccurately, a phenomenon that has been repeated throughout history (even Shakespeare's plays, for all their literary merit, often get the history completely wrong). Some amount to little more than political propaganda, though in many cases, such as Hollywood films with historical settings, the rewriting of history is done for commercial reasons, even though in many cases there seems little or no justification for it, and a more historically accurate film could have been just as entertaining. But at least most of these entertainment products aren't presented as if they paint a historically accurate picture. Depending on the events they portray and how widespread their interpretations become, the harm most of them cause tends to be limited. In contrast, inaccurate views of history that are presented as the truth can cause great damage. For example, the false, rabidly nationalistic history that China has spoon fed its people on will create problems throughout East Asia for years to come, as even a democratic China would be full of people who think Tibet, Taiwan, and the South China Sea are rightfully Chinese. Of course I can't claim that all of my own historical knowledge is 100% accurate, or that I am free from bias, but even when discussing topics where I have fairly strong opinions, I make an effort to be as historically accurate as I can, even when some of the facts don't bolster my arguments. Needless to say, on all such topics, I think the preponderance of evidence supports whatever view I have taken, but I try to remain open to contrary evidence, and I have actually altered my former opinions of some historical events upon learning new things about them. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to make the same effort to be as objective as possible. While my more immediate personal goal is to produce a history of Taiwanese popular music, in part to correct some relatively innocuous misstatements of fact that have appeared in other books and articles, I also consider it important to counter false views of political history wherever they appear, though in many cases they are too deeply ingrained for those who believe them to change their views.
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