New textbooks to particularly emphasize China's 'red revolution'

Newly-revised textbooks, which will be used by public schools across China from this week onwards, will place a greater emphasis on China's "red revolution" and go into more detail regarding the war against Japan.

New textbooks for the Chinese, history and morality curriculums have more content regarding the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the start of which was revised by the Ministry of Education (MOE) six years earlier to 1931.

Previously, the official start of the war was usually given as the "July 7 Incident" in 1937, when Japanese troops attacked Lugou Bridge, a crucial access point to Beijing.

The new books stress that the September 18 Incident in 1931, when Japanese soldiers blew up railways in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province to give a pretext for an invasion, and the events that followed, should be treated as part of the history of that conflict, the People's Daily reported.

The ministry changed the phrase "eight-year war of resistance" to "14-year war of resistance" in the new textbooks.

Students from primary and middle schools in China will receive the new textbooks approved by the MOE starting Friday. Work on these revisions started in 2012.

The history of 14-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is clearly explained in the eighth grade history book for example, said Ye Xiaobing, a professor at Capital Normal University, Beijing Morning Posted reported on Tuesday.

"Previous textbooks only set out major battles, but the new ones not only cover the history on the battlefield's frontlines but also the behind-the-scenes battlefields. The books reflect the role of the Kuomintang, as well as underlining the role of the Communist Party of China (CPC) as the mainstay in the war," Ye said.

The foundation of the CPC and the fact that the CPC led the socialist revolution and reform are covered in two of the history books, which examine the lives of more than 40 communist revolutionaries.

Primary school students will read 40 articles on the war and middle school students will read over 30 about the conflict in their Chinese textbooks, such as In Memory of Norman Bethune, a piece about the Canadian doctor who treated the sick in China during the war, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

The textbooks will also try to ensure the students have a strong sense of China's territorial situation, including sections on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region, Taiwan, the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea.