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EDITORIAL: Teach
facts, don’t whitewash them
Incensed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s curriculum
revisions, angry at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continued attempts to
brainwash them, 90,000 of the territory’s residents took to the streets in the
biggest show of anti-Chinese sentiment since the British handed it back to China
15 years ago. The protesters are saying that if the Hong Kong government does
not pull back, they might boycott classes. It seems their dissatisfaction with
China’s influence has reached boiling point.
The territory’s government has decided to incorporate a new “Moral and National
Education” course into the elementary-school curriculum from September. These
courses are about the Chinese communists, but their biased and rosy portrayal of
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the way it governs has been met with a
backlash. A handbook, entitled The Chinese Model, distributed by the Hong Kong
Education Bureau as a teaching reference, contains sections encouraging
schoolchildren to have a sense of national identity with, and nationalistic
pride in, China, cultivate a sense of patriotism and love of the CCP, and sing
the praises of the party. This is why residents are accusing their government of
attempting to brainwash their children on Beijing’s behalf.
Rulers have the power to interpret history in their own way and to exercise
control over how the subject is taught in schools. It has happened throughout
history, as new regimes take over, or a new dynasty overthrows the former. It
offers a way to establish the legitimacy of their rule and facilitate
indoctrination of the local populace. It comes as no surprise that Beijing would
want to implement a new curriculum addressing lingering allegiance to the
British crown and that would be more favorable to the Chinese regime. However,
both the way in which this is done and the way local residents respond are
crucial.
Although Hong Kong island and Kowloon had been ceded in perpetuity to Britain
and the New Territories were under a 99-year lease, residents had no experience
with full-blown democracy. However, they do enjoy a high level of education and
freedom. Information is freely available and there is a distinct awareness of
the rule of law. This is very different from the situation in China.
Beijing is going to find it much harder to indoctrinate Hong Kong residents than
it did with the mainland population. Ever since the CCP took power, Hong Kong
has been the free world’s window on China. Hong Kong residents are all too aware
of what the CCP is like and how it chooses to govern. They are very familiar
with recent Chinese history: the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square
massacre, the uprisings in Tibet and Xinjiang and the CCP’s handling of
dissidents Ai Wei wei (艾未未), Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) and countless others before
them, as well as wayward officials such as Bo Xilai (薄熙來), so there is no way
people in Hong Kong are going to fall for fairy tales of how magnanimous or
perfect the CCP is. It is natural that they would oppose such a whitewashed
version of history.
Sunday’s protest was the result of the complacency of the Hong Kong government
and Beijing’s misreading of the situation.
Yes, a government has the right to revise its national curriculum, but there has
to be some kind of consensus within a society of what is taught in schools,
otherwise people will protest.
The uproar in Hong Kong should serve as food for thought for President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) and his government, who want to revise the Taiwanese curriculum to include
contentious subjects such as the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The nature of what is taught to children in our schools needs to be subject to
open and transparent debate, to be based on fact and respectful of dissenting
opinions, to steer away from contentious ideas and to encompass, as much as
possible, the prevailing consensus within society.
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