Ways of Teaching the Next Generation: Political Wisdom in Literature

This December will mark the third movie in the series based on Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis' fiction books, the Chronicles of Narnia. Writing for children, Lewis included many comments to teach wisdom regarding the adult world that children would have to navigate. We need these kinds of books for children in Taiwan.

Take for example this quote from The Horse and His Boy which chronicles the escape of a slave boy from a tyrannical empire into a small but free kingdom.

This nation's king discusses relations with their big neighbor:

"Alas... we are a little land. And little lands on the borders of a great empire were always hateful to the lords of the great empire. He longed to blot them out, gobble them up."

Although Lewis modeled this fictional empire after the Ottoman empire, his statement is completely appropriate to China and its relations with Tibet, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, etc. I'm curious to see how this statement was translated into Mandarin for the Taiwan book market.

Applause to good representation of Taiwan as Taiwan

Kudos to the AFP for reporting Taiwan without any kind of formula connecting it to China. It could have used "island nation" but simply saying "island" still leaves the interpretation to the reader instead of funneling Chinese propaganda.

Taiwanese Organizations Reaching out to Poland after the tragedy

With the tragedy of the airplane crash and death of Poland's president and government leaders it would be quite timely for Taiwanese organizations to reach out and express their sympathies. Calling all pro-Taiwan NGO's! Send flowers and sympathy cards to Poland's embassies around the world.

Write: "Our condolences to your nation and people and their democratically elected representatives. With deepest empathy to a fellow nation breaking free from the oppression of foreign empires."

We have our 228. They have their Katyn.

Name changer.

We note a refreshing turn of events: a Taiwanese organization in the U.S., Formosan Association for Public Affairs, has succeeded in getting a U.S. government entity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, into calling Taiwan, "Taiwan."

Let this little event encourage our perseverance in making a difference person by person, organization by organization.