geography and history of Taiwan. In 1992, the newly-formed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a third of seats in the Legislative Yuan. Though short of a majority, this result empowered moderate members of the KMT over hard-liners, as well as galvanized the DPP to push for the abolition of state-sponsored textbooks and for a more Taiwan-centric education. In 1993, the Ministry of Education instituted a textbook reform committee in response to pressure from pro-independence members of the Legislative Yuan. It was expanded in 1994 to a Commission on Deliberation for Education Reform, overseen by the President of Academia Sinica Lee Yuan-tseh, and granted additional funding by Premier Lien Chan. The textbook was written between June 1995 and February 1997, and by contrast to the martial law period, scholars were allowed to devise curricula free of political interference. Following its announcement in June 1997, pro-unification hardliners and conservatives within the KMT and the New Party held protests for three weeks to little avail. Content Knowing Taiwan was released in 1996 and adopted as the junior high school textbook in 1997. This textbook aroused much interest in East Asia. The history section is presented as "history of Taiwan", and the era of Taiwan under Japanese rule was introduced more positively than previous junior high school textbooks, with objective facts and surveys. In contrast to earlier textbooks, the authors of Knowing Taiwan hoped to eliminate Chinese nationalist ideology from the curriculum, re-evaluate the Japanese colonial period (which was previously portrayed entirely negatively), and emphasizing the historical experience of indigenous peoples on Taiwan (previously looked down upon). Furthermore, the Society section of the textbook explicitly embraced the concepts of Taiwanese identity and nationality. See also History of Taiwan Ministry of Education (Taiwan) References External links Official website Books about Taiwan History textbooks Geography textbooks Taiwanese books