My Take | Political atmosphere spells trouble for literature teacher in Taiwan
- Alice Ou is caught up in a storm just weeks before island’s key election by suggesting some classic Chinese texts be restored to the classroom
I failed Chinese in Hong Kong secondary school. But that doesn’t say much since I did in most subjects anyway, including English. While I never regretted not remembering any chemistry or algebra, I do wish I had a better foundation in Chinese. If nothing else, just so I could read the classics without having to refer to translations.
I tell you this just so you can guess I am biased in support of Alice Ou, a high school Chinese literature teacher from Taipei who has inadvertently been caught up in a political storm. Her crime? She told the island’s Legislative Yuan that schools should restore some classic texts dropped from the classroom recently.
She claimed that curriculum guidelines released in 2019 problematically “de-emphasised” classical Chinese and “de-Sinicised” education.
Now you may think, what’s the big deal? It’s a perfectly respectable position for a Chinese literature teacher to take. You may agree or disagree with her. But it’s doubtful that as a mere teacher, her opinion would count for much in education policy circles.
But boy, has she got herself into hot water! Editorials from big media have been written against Ou for trying to indoctrinate students. Politicians from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and other pro-independence parties have denounced her.
Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih was asked leading questions by reporters about Ou. Former president and KMT bigwig Ma Ying-jeou had to come out to defend her, saying the debate was about culture and language, not politics.
