HONG KONG: Beijing’s Hand In Educational System Feared

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Yojana Sharma

HONG KONG, Mar 25 1997 (IPS) - With Hong Kong reverting to Chinese rule in three months, its school textbooks are being revised to reflect the change in sovereignty.

But textbook publishers and teachers say it is still not clear how history will be taught after the June 30 handover, and school books here may have to be changed yet again to reflect the ideological viewpoint of Beijing.

Under guidelines put out by the Hong Kong government in 1994, colonial terms such as “governor” are to replaced. China will no longer be referred to as a “neighbouring country” and references to Taiwan as the “Republic of China” are to be deleted.

However, when China’s vice premier Qian Qichen said in Beijing early this month that Hong Kong textbooks that do not conform with China’s principles would have to be revised, this sent shock waves through the educational establishment.

Speaking before China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, Qian said: “The contents of some textbooks currently used in Hong Kong do not accord with history or reality and are not suited to the changes after 1997.”

In Hong Kong, worried educators said this signalled Beijing’s inclination to intervene in educational matters, and impose its view of history. Many reject the overtly ideological approach adopted on the Mainland for teaching history, geography and cvic studies.

The debate had taken on quite strident undertones. Some concerned teachers refer to textbook “censorship”, propaganda and distortion while a few politicians have even said that Qian’s latest statement threatens Hong Kong’s promised autonomy.

Under the Joint Declaration, the 1984 treaty between Britain and China on the handover, Hong Kong retains autonomy over its education system.

Governor Chris Patten said the treaty and Hong Kong’s Basic Law “are clear that educational policies are to be set by the (post- 1997) government, and not to be vetted for political correctness by Chinese officials”.

“Censorship can’t change the history of the world. In a free society, teachers are not told what facts they can teach and what facts it is politically wrong for them to teach.”

The Colonial government has already given the go ahead for some changes in textbooks. These include revisions in references to the Opium Wars under which Hong Kong was ceded to Britain, because present references are considered to have “Western bias”.

Current guidelines to textbook publishers include changes in names of institutions including many which have dropped their ‘Royal’ title in the runup to the handover. The guidelines also suggest textbook writers use more examples from China. But there are no official guidelines on many other political events including the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

The Chinese government saw the uprising as a counter- revolutionary movement aimed at overthrowing the communist government while Hong Kong people supported it as a democracy movement.

Head teachers fear Qian’s statement heralds more far-reaching changes. “He would not need to stand up in the NPC if he only meant minor changes in Hong Kong textbooks,” said one.

Publishers are worried that the politicisation of education will lead to “mistakes”, requiring new textbooks to be published soon after the handover.

They want changes to be vetted by the post-1997 administration- in-waiting, headed by Chief Executive Tung Chi Hwa. Many educationalists are against this because they fear it could lead to political interference from China.

In China, schoolchildren are already being instructed on the history of Hong Kong through new textbooks and documentary films. Communist Party propaganda creates an unflattering picture of the departing colonialists and credits the hard-working Chinese for Hong Kong’s economic success.

The Chinese interpretation gives short shrift to the view that British administration provided an ideal environment for entrepreneurship and trade.

A recently issued textbook “97. Hong Kong” published by a Hong Kong publisher in collaboration with the Chinese provicial government of Guangdong notes that under Britain’s freeport policy for Hong Kong it exploited free-trade “and used the world’s dirtiest merchandise – opium to trade for the world’s best tea, rice, silk, cotton and leather from China.”

The current Hong Kong textbooks note that Britain announced Hong Kong a free port. “This trading policy has attracted numerous European merchants to trade in Hong Kong,” says one Hong Kong history book ‘Today’s Hong Kong.’

Teachers note that the current Hong Kong textbooks are factual but not necessarily balanced. On the other hand, Mainland Chinese textbooks are “full of emotional adjectives” and very overtly seek to promote nationalism.

Blatant communist propaganda is unlikely to be imposed on Hong Kong – and teachers warn that children will shy away from such an approach anyway.

But Chinese officials here have said openly that not enough is taught to Hong Kong children about China, patriotism and nationalism.

Hong Kong’s Education Department has defined patriotism as “instilling a sense of belonging to China”, and has issued some guidelines on how to do this in the classroom. School children will be encouraged to understand their national identity by learning about Chinese festivals and tribes.

Teachers now believe that there could be more political overtones to teaching such values, and that greater ideological content in textbooks is inevitable.