The 228 Incident began on 28 February 1947 and was eventually forcefully suppressed by the Kuomintang (KMT) government, resulting in the deaths of more than 10,000 civilians. The date is now commemorated as Peace Memorial Day in the hope for peaceful cohabitation between different ethnic groups.


Macalester College

The two texts used in this experiment were excerpts of editorials published in two newspapers a few days after the outbreak of the 228 Incident.

The texts (Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading)

Jeng-Yi Tzeng, (2010) Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading. National Tsing Hua University. United Kingdom Literacy Association. Journal of Research in Reading, ISSN 0141-0423 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2009.01404.x Volume 33, Issue 2, 2010, pp 128–147


Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading


The 228 Incident

The first (350 Chinese characters in length) was written by the contemporary Minister of Defence, who argued that the incident was caused by the
people’s hatred of the KMT government. This hatred was first encouraged by the Japanese government during its colonisation of Taiwan, and later was further enflamed by the Communists, who fabricated rumours to vilify the KMT government. The author intentionally used many emotionally charged expressions to manipulate the readers’ emotional responses (e.g. ‘their behaviours were extremely bigoted and brutal . . .’).


Text #1 (Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers’ performance in memory and reasoning while reading)

The second text (336 Chinese characters in length) was authored by a journalist, who argued from a civilian’s viewpoint that the incident was an outburst of popular rebellion against the government’s inability to solve problems such as political corruption, economic decay, rocketing unemployment rates and an unreasonable monopoly policy on commodities such as liquor and cigarettes.


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