Academician Ts'ui-Jung Liu has given a speech about the topic “How to study Taiwanese History”, on the “ National History Award ”ceremony. She said, the study and research of Taiwanese history should avoid discussing Taiwan from the view or vision of Taiwan. Only seeing Taiwan from the way the world looks at Taiwan, can find a breakthrough. There is many thing in Taiwanese History that can be discuss and study. however, now they problem is, how to promote the standard in research, and bring the attention of the international academic community to the study in this area.

 Ts'ui-Jung Liu said, “ we study history, so not only the ruler and government but also the public and citizen can read and understand. The problem of the traditional study in history: Only focus on the government however not the whole country; only care about the behavior of one individual however not the whole group; only understand the truth however never notice the idea of it;  Only plagiarize however not create.”

 The essence of the study of history, is to make life the main purpose of studying it, bring realistic into it. In recent years, historians advocate to learn from down to up, to sudy the life of a normal person, therefore, the study of environment exist. Since in the study of environment, not only penetrate deeply into the lit of lower-class, but also the land which will be seen as the history. She emphasized, this is something Taiwanese researcher should look forward and learn from. She is already doing it, and six years ago, when she proposed for it, her thesis has been collected into “ Proceedings of Chinese Environmental History ” in The Australian National University.

 

(22 May 1999 United Daily News)