'Yuan Weishi' (
Chinese: 袁伟时), is a
professor of
philosophy at
Zhongshan University in
Guangzhou,
China. He was born in
Xingning,
Guangdong, in December 1931.
In the January 2006 issue of ''Bingdian'' (冰点: "Freezing Point"), Yuan published an article entitled
"Modernisation and history textbooks" (现代化与历史教科书). In it he criticised the politicisation of Chinese textbooks, which he accused of containing dangerous distortions of the historical record. He warned that highly selective and ideologically driven descriptions of events such as the razing of
Yuanmingyuan, serve to inflame
nationalistic passions among impressionable
teenagers. Yuan goes on to recall the type of education which led to the
xenophobic violence of the
Red Guard generation, and observes: "Our children are still being fed wolves' milk!".