* Atrocities to the Chinese during World War II
My immediate family would probably describe me as a someone who yearns to learn more about Chinese history. “Tell me the story about ‘(Fill in the blank)’ Dynasty, or Mao, or the ‘Yellow River War’…”I recall listening to a story about the Japanese occupation in China during WWII. I was appalled. I have never learned about how they tortured, raped, and slaughtered my people – not in my Catholic Canadian curriculum in high school. Although my history lessons are limited to classes with Mr. Wilkinson, it was sad that I, of Chinese descent, was ignorant to this segment of history.
I am assuming that most of you have heard about the recent Chinese uproar to the Japanese history textbooks. Today, I happened to read an article titled A Deeper Look at History by Huang Naili that describes how Canadian teachers received first hand testimonies of survivors of the Japanese occupation. Because of their experiences, many teachers are becoming more aware of this neglected history and lobbying the ministry of education to include this as part of our curriculum in history.
Having learned that the curriculum is not mandatory but elective, this is nevertherless a step in the right direction. As stated in the article, we need to shift our Eurocentric view of Western Canadian history to suit the multicultural society of Canada. We “…need to see [ourselves] reflected.”
posted by miss.chip @ 21:57
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