University of Heidelberg

The project's scope consists in two Ph.D. dissertation fellowships which started in 2009. The intended output are two dissertations scheduled for 2012.  

The project A8 “Teaching Identity” looks at the issue of history education in East Asia from regional, national and transnational perspectives, focusing on the colonial background of Manchuria. Ulrich Flick analyzes history textbooks in Manchuria in the larger context of the history of Japanese colonial education. Sarah Lüdecke studies the representations of Manchukuo in Chinese history textbooks in 20th century China.  This approach allows comparing the two “new” identities created for the Chinese and Japanese inhabitants during the existence of Manchukuo and after 1949. The comparative studies will also elaborate different perspectives on Japanese colonial education and the role of Manchuria in constructed national narratives in history textbooks in Manchukuo and in the PR China. The two PhD projects are presented separately below.

Subproject

“History schoolbooks in Manchuria (1931-1945) – Aspects of shaping citizenship under de facto-rule of Japan”

Ulrich Flick, M.A.

This subproject is focusing on the conception of a national narrative for the region of „Manchuria“ in colonial Japanese textbooks during the period of Japanese rule in Northeast China, putting its emphasis on the construction of the puppet state of Manchukuo and its period of existence until the Japanese defeat in the Second World War. Basing on textbook analyses the issue of identity – and accordingly citizenship policies concerning the local Chinese and Japanese as main objects of colonial education - is going to be discussed. Comparison to policies for history education in the so called old Japanese colonies of Korea and Taiwan shall put my research into the context of the history of Japanese colonial education.
Despite obvious differences between the education of Chinese and Japanese pupils there has been an evolution in the ideas of a “Manchurian” identity beginning with the compilation of Japanese textbooks in Manchuria in the early 1920s culminating in the construction of a national narrative for the newly founded state of Manchukuo. The way the national identity of Manchukuo is dealt with in education is shifting intensely following the changes in development of the colonial regime. Comparison of the historical flow of identity construction between Chinese and Japanese pupils shows differences and changes in policies of citizenship concerning these two ethnical groups. Further comparison of policies for history education in Korea and Taiwan depicts the uniqueness of Manchukuo among other Japanese colonies due to the rule by a puppet regime.

Subproject

“Manchukuo and the question of Chinese national identity. An analysis of Chinese history textbooks from 1930 to 2007”

Sarah Lüdecke, M.A.

This subproject “Manchukuo and the question of Chinese national identity. An analysis of Chinese history textbooks from 1930 to 2007” aims at analyzing representations of Manchukuo (1931-1945) in Chinese history textbooks from the 1930s to 2007. It scrutinizes the role of Manchukuo in defining a “Chinese” national identity. The analysis is contextualized in discourses of Chinese national identity and education during the time of the Japanese occupation of northern China and after the founding of the PR China.
The dissertation will focus on three aspects: What place does Manchuria as “lieu de mémoire” have in the narration on the Chinese nation, the Chinese perspective on Japanese colonialism, and how the questions of collaboration, national heroes and enemies are dealt with. History textbooks which were produced during the existence of Manchukuo by the Japanese authorities, Nationalists/Guomindang and collaborationist regimes in China can be seen as battlefields for the different political groups which tried to reshape the past and thus create collective identities. The analysis of the Chinese textbooks from the 1950s and the 1990s compares the representation of Manchukuo diachronically and focuses on the following questions: How do the textbooks deal with the Japanese colonial empire in China and what is its role in the creation of a national identity? The representation of resistance in Manchukuo which can be read as a founding myth of the PR China will be given special attention.
History education as a political issue in East Asia is taken into account. What are the difficulties of a transnational presentation of Manchukuo and Manchuria in Chinese, Japanese and Korean history education? International schoolbook controversies and schoolbook commissions in East Asia are presented and analyzed to answer this question.