Philosophers have long sought to find the “objective truth” of history. Yet politics and textbooks are often deeply intertwined, as we see in the Cold War textbooks of Taiwan and Hong Kong.  During this time period, Hong Kong and Taiwan’s citizens were under highly oppressive environments where they had little to no say over how to educate their youth. In both cases textbook logics were heavily informed by the identity anxieties of the ruling authorities. Colonial Hong Kong faced threats of Chinese nationalism and was focused on protecting the stability and legitimacy of the colony. The post-1949 KMT party in Taiwan was focused on legitimizing its authority as the “true” government of China. This logic is seen today in the textbooks of countries around the world, as ruling authorities seek to use education as a tool to teach citizens about what the nation’s identity should be. In all of these cases, past and present, the versions of history that are portrayed in textbooks also indirectly illuminate the identities that different peoples in different nations sought to embody.

For this panel discussion, we will be joined by the following students, discussant and moderator:

Holden Tsai, Pomona College Sophomore – “Textbooks in Taiwan”
Holden Tsai is a Pomona College sophomore majoring in International Relations and minoring in Asian Studies, with a research focus on U.S.-China relations. Holden will share how school textbooks were used as political vessels through which Taiwanese children were taught to become loyal citizens of the state. After the civil war in 1949, Chinese immigrants loyal to Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan where they set up a new government. The goal was to use Taiwan as a springboard to “retake” the mainland, and this goal became the dominant force in shaping post-1949 Taiwanese norms. Focusing on Taiwanese textbooks gives the contemporary audience a glimpse into the versions of history that different authorities sought to portray and how children were meant to be nationalized. The panel will discuss lessons that these textbooks have for us today and offer up frameworks for how history should be taught.

Alexander Chao, Pomona College Senior – “Schoolbooks, Geography & Identity Formation in Colonial Hong Kong, c. 1950s-1960s”
Alexander Chao is a Pomona College senior majoring in Philosophy and History with a concentration in Colonialism in Asia. Alexander will explore how Cold War anxieties of the Hong Kong government manifested in geography textbooks for primary and secondary students in Hong Kong. Amongst the post-WWII wave of anti-colonial, national independence movements, Hong Kong remained a strategic British colony. The crown colony experienced exponential growth as a cosmopolitan city and trade hub. However, its position bordering Communist China and the decline of British hegemony was subject to much anxiety. The textbooks discussed offer a window into how children were taught to make sense of the world and their place within it, covering topics like nationalism, imperial cartography, and citizenship.

Dr. Joseph W. Ho, Associate Professor of History at Albion College – Discussant
Dr. Joseph W. Ho is an Associate Professor of History at Albion College and a Center Associate at the University of Michigan’s Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. He is a historian of modern East Asia, Sino-U.S. encounters, and transnational visual culture and media. In 2024-2025, Ho holds fellowships at Stanford University and the University of Michigan, as well as the EDS-Stewart Distinguished Research Fellowship at Boston College. He is the author of Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China (Cornell University Press, 2022).

Dr. Preston McBride, Pomona College – Moderator
Dr. Preston McBride is an Assistant Professor of History at Pomona College where he teaches United States history. With a specialization in Native American, medical, and environmental histories, his research investigates student health, environmental conditions, and infectious diseases at federal boarding schools for Native Americans. His work has been featured in several PBS documentaries, a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and dozens of newspapers. He has also co-curated an exhibit on photography and submitted a joint petition to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

Attendance Information
This panel discussion is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served starting at 3:20 p.m. If you are unable to join us in person for this panel discussion, you can watch the program online via Zoom by registering here (link coming soon).

Related Exhibition
This panel discussion serves as an opening celebration of the newly installed exhibition Illuminating the Past: Educational Textbooks During the Republic China Era, on display at the Asian Library till September 12, 2025. The exhibition highlights items from the Asian Library’s collections of Chinese textbook and educational materials published in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan from the late 19th century to early 1960s. These collections have informed the two panelists’ research projects. You will have the option to check out the exhibit before or after the panel discussion.

Special Thanks To Our Collaborators

• Pomona College’s Humanities Studio, International Relations Program, Anthropology Department
• Asian Library Innovation Fund, The Claremont Colleges Library
• The M. C. Lang Fellowship in Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources, Rare Book School at the University of Virginia

Questions?
Contact Xiuying Zou, Head of the Asian Library, by emailing xiuying.zou@claremont.edu or calling 909 607-4094.