先生教的畫畫課 Bando's art lessons

“Sensei” is what one calls a teacher in Japanese.
After the occupation of Taiwan, faced with the “Taiwanese savages” uncivilized in the eyes of the Japanese, the Government-General of Taiwan crafted an educational method specifically for the Taiwanese Aborigines. From the opening of the first Institution for Aboriginal Children in 1904 and through many years of development, in 1928 the Government-General rewrote the “Educational Guidelines for the Institutions for Aboriginal Children”, dividing subjects into Ethics, National Language, Art, Singing, Physical Education, Practical Subjects, and others. Japan’s colonial education policies established an educational system quite different from that of the Qing Empire. The Government-General designated differing content respectively for Japanese primary schools, Taiwanese public schools, and Aboriginal public schools, including different versions of the art curriculum. In the Aboriginal areas, too, it was the “Japanese teacher” who took up his art education textbook, aiming to lead the “Aboriginal Children” into full immersion in the cultivating power of beauty…
In this project, we re-examine the art textbooks of public schools during the colonial period, compiling evidence in our search for the relationship between art education of the colonial period and the Taiwanese aesthetics of today.