Abstract：
　　This article aims to reconstruct and analyze the content of ethics (shu shin in Japanese) education in Taiwans elementary schools during the period of Japanese rule ( 1896-1945 ). It also attempts, on the basis of surveys done by a school teacher of that time and by the author herself, to assess the effects of the ethics education in question. By analyzing the content of ethics education, this work draws mainly from second-phase ethics textbooks and relevant contemporary writings. Structurally, the first section of this article covers ethics education and ethics textbooks in modern Japan, because in many ways ethics education in Taiwan imitates its counterpart in Japan. The second section is a discussion of ethics education and ethics textbooks in colonial Taiwan in general. The work then goes on to treat the style of ethics textbooks and approaches in ethics education in Taiwans elementary schools. The fourth section analyzes the distinctive features of the second-phase ethics textbooks used on this land. Finally, this article assesses the impact of ethics education. The author finds that ethics education in Taiwan was considerably successful in framing the mindset of young Taiwanese. One major reason is apparently that ethics education was closely linked to other courses, such as national language (i.e. Japanese) and history, making it a crucial component of the overall school education. In conclusion, the author makes a preliminary comparison among ethics education in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea─the latter two being Japans colonies─hoping to highlight the central features and significance of ethics education in colonial Taiwan.

Keywords：ethics education, shu shin textbooks, elementary schools in colonial Taiwan ( for Taiwanese children ), public morality

Abstract：
Before World War II, the inlayed decorative tiles often appeared on the traditional houses in Taiwan and Penghu district. It is also easy to be seen on the traditional furniture and the modern time architecture during the Japanese occupation era. More than 95 percent of these tiles were made in Japan. Most of the tiles imitated the British Victorian Tile style, and were known as Majolica Tile in Japan. The manufacturing time was around the Japanese Taisho period to the beginning of Showa period. Since the manual glazing process would take a long time, the production was forced to stop in Japan after World War II. The Majolica Tile was used in the traditional Taiwanese houses and the modern architecture. It was often called the "Decorative Tile", or known as the "Color Glazed Tile". Because of its colorful glazing and the variety of patterns, decorating on the traditional houses has always been eye catching. There are many collectors interested in these tiles, however, not many of them do know when, where, or by whom these tiles were made and how did the maker come out with these designs. Up to today, the research of these tiles in Taiwan architecture is still blank. Tiles are the popular materials for modern architecture; They are different from other architectural materials. Many different kinds of information were written on the backside of the tiles. They could tell us the date when they were made, place where they were made, and by which company that the tiles were produced. Many tiles even have their model number on the back. Therefore, by knowing the information, we would understand more about the story of the tiles, and enable to find out where and how did the tiles come from.

Keywords：Japanese Occupation Era, Taiwan Traditional Folk Residence, Decorative Tile, Majolica Tile, Victorian Tile

Abstract：
This paper analyzes whether or not Taiwan's farmland rent was too high during the Japanese colonial period. Most past studies on Taiwan's land tenure system claimed that the rent prevailing during the pre-war period was too high. Scholars generally believe that landlords' exploitation was the main factor to this high rent, however, none of them has ever made a systematic analysis for this assertion. This article tests whether or not the rent was too high both from the contribution of land to farm products and the opportunity costs of landlords' funds invested in land purchasing. Three main results are derived. First, landlords did care very much about the yield on their land. In order to raise tenants' incentives for investment and working attitude, two important arrangements were adopted in the tenure system. (1) A fixed rent system was chosen for land with a stable yield, while a share tenancy system was adopted on land with a very unstable yield. (2) Landlords also participated in land investment and lent working capital freely to tenants. Secondly, the rental rate was quite stable in the long run, and so landlords shared the fruits of their increased output and any loss from decreased output with their tenants. In the long run, landlords of farmfields suffered more risk than the tenants. Thirdly, the assertation that rent was too high cannot be accepted without any reservation. When we define the reasonable rent by the contribution of land to output, the assertaion does not hold. If the reasonable rent is defined by the opportunity cost of landlords' funds used in land purchasing, then whether or not the hypothesis holds depends on what kind of interest rate is used in the calculation. This finding shows that we cannot accept the hypothesis that farmland rent was too high in pre-war Taiwan without any reservation.

Keywords：rent, the rate of rent, fixed rent, interest rate, production frontier

Abstract：
This paper discusses the interplay of national imagination and ethnic consciousness in contemporary Taiwan by analyzing the content and the context of the disputes surrounding junior high school textbooks entitled "Getting to Know Taiwan" in 1997. The author points out that the disputes over the textbooks were a result of different historical visions competing for access to textbooks as a symbol of official recognition. The timing and the focus of the disputes can only be explained in the context of a long-term struggle between the camps of Chinese consciousness and Taiwanese consciousness over the past five decades. The two sets of competing national imagination in Taiwan diverge in their vision of Taiwan's future (to unify with Mainland China or have Taiwan independence) and their interpretation of Taiwan's past (especially Taiwan's historical relations with Mainland China and the legacy of Japanese colonial rule). The paper explains how the three major focuses of disputes were brought together along the long struggle between national imaginations and their immediate contexts in the rise of ethnic politics in the 1990s. However, as the selection and the presentation of the past is greatly influenced by the vision of the future, complex historical facts were compressed into simple symbols and positions to justify visions of the future, which makes the dispute over history difficult to settle. Furthermore, the ethnic basis of national imagination embedded in the disputes over historical interpretation has reshaped and reinforced the existing ethnic consciousness. Finally, the author proposes that what motivates most people to participate in these disputes in particular and ethnic disputes in general is the worry about others' disrespect or even erasure of one's ethnic culture and collective memory, which is considered a sign of ethnic demise.

Keywords：Taiwanese consciousness, Chinese consciousness, history, textbook, national imagination, ethnic consciousness