【Benefits and Powers】Cultural Security and Education

Cultural security itself is not abstract.

The cultural security that most directly affects a society is education.

The original meaning of education is to build students' thinking ability, work ability and team ability, that is, the five abilities of "morality, intelligence, body and group beauty".

So, can Hong Kong education achieve this goal?

Hong Kong education has often emphasized "free choice" after the handover, and the curriculum has changed and there are many choices.

However, if students have not even established basic abilities, how can they really choose?

On the other hand, Hong Kong society often emphasizes students with good grades as champions, but why can a student who graduated from secondary school be a champion?

Building competencies is the essence of education.

In terms of cultural security, the identity of Hong Kong young people with the country should be established. This must start with basic history, philosophy, literature, and art, and understand Chinese art and Chinese philosophy. They are the basics of cultural identity.

Of course, cultural identity is not necessarily a single one, and the best Western philosophy and best literature can also be learned.

In the past, Hong Kong's success was inseparable from the cultural connection between Chinese and English, which is the original cultural identity of Hong Kong people.

After the return, this cultural identity ability was not adjusted, and strangely it became "internationalization" and adjusted everything to be attached to the United Kingdom and the United States.

It is an ironclad fact that people identify with British and American popular culture much stronger than Chinese culture.

However, students under the educational policy after returning to China do not identify with Chinese culture, but only identify with Western popular culture, which constitutes a cultural security issue.

The emergence of cultural security issues will affect the development space and ability of students.

They have not yet established their abilities, but they think that freedom can solve all problems, but they do not know how to use it.

Therefore, in order to improve cultural security in Hong Kong, the primary task is to introduce systematic basic education of Chinese culture, starting from kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools, so that young people in Hong Kong can understand the basics of Chinese culture.

What are the basics of Chinese culture?

Calligraphy, philosophy, history.

Some people will say that these knowledge and skills can't be "eaten", but can you really "eat" when you study business now?

There are many prejudices in society that Chinese culture and education are backward and old-fashioned.

On the contrary, there are many wisdoms in Chinese culture, such as Sun Tzu's Art of War, Tao Te Ching, I Ching, etc., which can strengthen students' ability of thinking and help them analyze the current situation of society.

Therefore, teaching Chinese culture is to help students build stronger multiple thinking ability, not to become a so-called "brainwashing" education.

Really high-quality cultural safety education is based on high-quality cultural identity education.

When primary and secondary schools lay a solid foundation for cultural identity education, they can build cultural autonomy.

When you enter the university, you will cultivate a citizen who has both a cultural vision and who knows how to build the country.

Hong Kong's current colleges and universities use the "mercenary" system for teaching for the so-called international rankings, and the courses are also dominated by Europe and the United States.

Lack of the ability to integrate Chinese and Western cultures.

Although scholars have the freedom to write papers and express their opinions, they do not have the freedom not to teach their students well.

When the main function of a university is for international ranking rather than building students' cultural autonomy, it only relies on foreign scholars without building its own team, which also affects cultural security.

To improve cultural security in Hong Kong, the primary task is to introduce systematic basic education of Chinese culture starting from kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools, so that young people in Hong Kong can understand the basics of Chinese culture.

(File photo/Visual China)

Does cultural security mean that we should be one-size-fits-all and not internationalize?

Of course not, but requires that the cultural security of colleges and universities must be based on a perspective with a local independent perspective.

What is Indigenous Autonomy?

For example, the world-famous Juilliard School in New York has established a branch in Tianjin. The teachers of this branch are all Chinese graduates of Juilliard School, and Hong Kong people are also invited to participate in the teaching.

This "localized internationalization" is an arrangement that truly benefits cultural autonomy and guarantees cultural security.

What Hong Kong does is international recruitment and international bidding, finding some people who have no feelings for China and Hong Kong, and design some courses that are not close to the ground, and play international ranking games.

Will it be possible to cultivate talents in the end?

If a college system cannot cultivate its own academic talents and scientific research talents, it will endanger cultural security.

If you look at other parts of Asia, there is a balance: cultivating its own talents and bringing in foreign talents.

The question is, why can't a society as rich as Hong Kong cultivate its own team and often rely on foreign mercenaries?

This is exactly one of the core issues of the current education system in Hong Kong.

Education should be about building competencies, not rankings.

If you don't change your policy, but just live on the illusory international ranking indicators, you will continue to have a state where young people don't understand what they can do and how they can do it.

Therefore, in order to ensure cultural safety, it is necessary to adjust the current over-emphasis on vanity international rankings and achievements, and to substantially build up the capabilities of young people in Hong Kong, build cultural antibodies, and resist the invasion of vulgar culture viruses.

Hu Enwei

is a member of the National Hong Kong and Macao Research Association, a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and Zuni.

Icosahedron United Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer

(The article is purely the author's opinion and does not represent the position of Hong Kong 01.)