The texts included or excluded from textbooks reveal much regarding curriculum reform, editing approaches, and social demands. Mei-Shu Li was a prominent Taiwanese artist. His story titled ‘The Fragrant Plum Trees’ was edited for Chinese textbooks twice, and his paintings were adopted for various Arts-and-Humanities textbooks. Mei-Shu Li’s life story, and the texts related to him are discussed in this article. The findings are as follows:
1. Mei-Shu Li’s contributions to the art, and his life story in the textbooks reflect interesting radiance to each other. 2. After the Martial Law released in 1987, ‘The Fragrant Plum Trees’ was compiled successively for the textbooks of 1993 Curriculum Standards and of 2003 Curriculum Guidelines. It echoed the time atmosphere that highlighted the local arts and local inspiring figures. 3. The different unit-themes consisting of ‘The Fragrant Plum Trees’ in the Chinese textbooks revealed emphasis shifting from traditional culture to daily-life literature. 4. Through comparisons with related texts, Mei-Shu Li’s art works in the textbooks were used to reflect both the spirit of classics and topo-philia. 5. The differences in subject matter from Mei-Shu Li’s work in various textbooks echo the differences in educational needs during various eras.

　　The original aims of grade 1-9 curriculum reform were to deregulate, integrate the curriculum, and reduce knowledge loads, emphasizing the student-centered curriculum perspective and cultivation of basic competences. Despite the fact that the implementation of grade 1-9 curriculum reform should have made textbook compilation more suitable for learners, the economic effects have complicated the development of the textbooks. This study uses the K version of civics textbooks for junior high school social studies to explore the evolution of textbooks and the respective curriculum perspectives. In-depth interviews were conducted with 5 key persons who participated in editing K version civics textbooks and made reference to 4 editions of textbooks. The results revealed that (1) textbooks are the product of market economy effects combined with teacher preferences, (2) civics textbooks tend to be constrained to the curriculum perspectives of social adaptation, subject matter structures and the teacher- centered approach, and (3) the implementation of curriculum reform and the development of textbooks are not coherently related.

　　The purpose of this paper is to explore the textbook controversy that occurred in Kanawha County in the United States during the 1970s. This controversial event attracted national attention and is of great significance in the American curriculum history. The controversy in question began in April 1974 and lasted until early 1975. During the period of dispute, some parents did not allow their children to go to school, strikes and violent attacks occurred, and specific political groups were involved. On the surface, this incident may have resulted from factors relating to religion, class, and ethnicity. However, more thorough examination reveals deeper conflicts in lifestyles and values. In addition to affecting students’ education rights, the Kanawha County textbook controversy also made teachers reluctant to adopt controversial textbooks and innovative teaching methods and made America’s educational atmosphere more conservative. Many issues that have led to the controversy regarding Kanawha County textbooks—such as the representativeness and operation of the textbook selection committee, communication between parents and teachers, and the involvement of the curriculum and political interest groups—deserve Taiwanese educators’ attention.