SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter considers how the ‘national self’ is constructed through primary education and its impact on students’ identity. Combing through the 72 social studies textbooks and mapping out various self-references, it traces the genealogy of the idea of the national self-image and reveals how social studies education presents a particular vision of the collective ‘we’. The research finds that the change in official national self-image is not just a revisionist shift from China to Taiwan. Rather, the changing meaning of ‘we’ is best understood as a repositioning process; the usage and meanings of various self-references are fluid and contingent. Instead of ascribing the rise of Taiwanese identity solely to political activism, this study reveals that the foundations had long been laid, fostering in education an awareness of cross-Strait differences, and constructing an exclusive sense of Taiwanese-ness. The decentring of Zhongguo in social studies textbooks represents a change in identity, moving Taiwan from the periphery to the centre, replacing ‘where we came from’ with a more down to earth approach of ‘who we have become’.