"Who am I?" Twenty-five years after the handover, Hong Kong society has not asked questions, but there has been no standard answer.
Even when scholars conduct public opinion surveys, they will subdivide the identity of "Hong Kong people" into options such as Chinese, Hong Kong people, Hong Kong people in China, and Chinese in Hong Kong, which makes citizens form an illusion that they can freely choose their identity.
With the gradual outbreak of deep-seated conflicts, society has become more restless, and in many demonstrations, there are always people who blame the "Hong Kong issue" on the "central government", and even consciously or unintentionally blame "Hong Kong people" and "Chinese" Identity is the opposite.
What went wrong, why Hong Kong still has not been able to "correctly" answer the question "Who am I"?
Is it an identity system or an education issue?
How to reform, how to improve?
The "permanent resident system" forms a sense of separation
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, citizens' "Chinese" identity reached a new high since the return of China, but it has since turned sharply downward.
Many people say that one of the key points is that with the increasingly frequent exchanges between the land and Hong Kong, the contradiction between the two sides from living habits to ideology has become more and more obvious - from the "locust theory" controversy against mainlanders in 2009, the protest in 2012. The "Recover Sheung Shui" demonstration by parallel traders and the "Anti-National Religious Movement" demanding the withdrawal of the Moral Education and National Education Sections, the 2014 occupation action that urged the National People's Congress to withdraw the "831 Decision", and the 2019 amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. The turmoil against the amendment bill - the identity of many citizens has also shifted from "Chinese" to "Hong Kong people", and there is even mutual exclusion.
However, in retrospect, the lack of national identity is inseparable from the "Hong Kong resident status system" that has been used since the British Hong Kong era.
It not only shaped the "resident identity" based on "Hong Kong people", but also directly led "Hong Kong people" to distinguish "Chinese" from "national identity" in their wishful thinking.
The British Hong Kong government launched the "Hong Kong Resident Status System" in 1972, which defined the rights and obligations enjoyed and performed in Hong Kong on the basis of "Hong Kong residents", and then divided into "permanent residents" and "non-permanent residents" based on the period of residence in Hong Kong. And use "black stamp ID card" and "green stamp ID card" as identification documents.
Cheng Hongtai, director of social and political development research at the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, pointed out in his book "Hong Kong Identity Card Perspective" that the "green stamp" on the identity card at that time was the identification of locals from "Chinese" or "new immigrants" from the Mainland. ” and other important marks that distinguish the “other” is the first step for the Hong Kong Chinese to build a “local” identity. Hong Kong British can use this to condense the sense of belonging of the Chinese and maintain long-term stability.
In order to maintain long-term stability in Hong Kong, the British Hong Kong government established a "de-Sinicized" identity.
(Information Services Department)
"Citizenship" helps build national identity
However, this identity construction also has negative effects.
At that time, Hong Kong’s economy took off, and the development gap with the mainland widened rapidly. The identity consciousness of Hong Kong Chinese gradually changed from “Chinese” to “Hong Kong people”, and the two were placed on the opposite side of “self” and “other”.
In an earlier interview with "Hong Kong 01", Zheng Wangtai described that the entire identity card system and its supporting "de-Sinicization" measures have been centered on the suzerain's colonial interests from beginning to end, and the system is based on a "smooth transition". The purpose is retained to the SAR government, and in disguise, the "special identity" of Hong Kong people can be continued.
As a result, different from the fact that "citizen" is the main body of the Constitution to determine rights and obligations around the world, the Basic Law takes "Hong Kong residents" as the main body, and the right to vote and stand for election, which best embodies political rights, is based on "Permanent residents" are the main ones, and there is no requirement to have Chinese nationality, so it is difficult to reflect the Chinese citizenship of Hong Kong residents of Chinese nationality.
In addition, also in order to "smooth transition" and "pacify people's hearts", the central government also acquiesced in the existence of "dual nationality", allowing Chinese citizens holding foreign passports to be used as travel documents outside China.
However, whether it is the "permanent residency system" or the "preferential benefits" of "dual nationality", the national identity and political loyalty of Chinese Hong Kong residents are not solid enough to form a national identity that is consistent with that of "Chinese citizens" in the mainland.
In the increasingly complex and unstable international relations, these Hong Kong Chinese citizens who hold multiple legal identities will inevitably become "hostages" in the narrow gap of the game of great powers.
It can be seen that the current permanent resident status system is full of loopholes and needs to be improved urgently.
"Hong Kong 01" has always advocated the establishment of "Chinese Hong Kong Citizenship", the revision of the "resident-based" system, the establishment of a "citizen-based" system, and the construction of a three-level citizenship system of "citizen-permanent-resident-resident".
This can not only eliminate the embarrassing problem of "double allegiance", but also fundamentally establish an identity system based on "Chinese citizens", eliminate the sense of separation between "self" and "other" in China and Hong Kong, and enable Hong Kong people to cultivate corresponding Identity and national sentiment.
The Chinese Nationality Law does not allow dual nationality, but since many Hong Kong people held foreign passports before and after the handover, and based on the principle of a smooth transition, the Chinese side treats the BNO as a travel document and tacitly accepts "dual nationality" in disguise.
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Did not make up for the lack of "de-Sinicization" education
On the other hand, the British Hong Kong government's implementation of a "de-Sinicized" education system and the unsuccessful "decolonization" of the SAR government's education system after the handover are also the key to the fact that Hong Kong citizens have not been able to answer the question of "Who am I?" .
British education in Hong Kong has always been based on the colonial ideology of the sovereign country, while emphasizing "de-Sinicization".
For example, the "Citizenship Section" opened in the 1950s mainly instilled the ideology of the colonial suzerain, emphasizing the superiority of the British system and culture; in the 1970s, the Citizenship Section was changed to the "Economic and Public Affairs Section", emphasizing citizens' law-abiding And obey responsibility, strengthen the consciousness of serving capitalism.
During this period, the British Hong Kong government explicitly prohibited teachers and students from using words such as "motherland", "nation" and "nationality" in the school by promulgating the "Education Regulations", and excluded some politically sensitive issues and historical facts from the curriculum, such as the Opium War, The history of the founding of the People's Republic of China, etc., will be avoided in the textbooks of primary and secondary schools.
The language education policy of "emphasizing English over Chinese" is another manifestation of "distancing people's education".
Until the 1990s, more than 90% of secondary schools in Hong Kong used English as the medium of instruction, so that everyone from the elite to ordinary people took pride in speaking English.
In contrast, at that time Cantonese did not enjoy its lofty status as the "natural mother tongue" in Hong Kong society, let alone the "social mother tongue" Putonghua as an important symbol of national language identity. In the case of obvious deficiencies, national identity will undoubtedly lose its carrier.
After the reunification, the SAR government reformed the curriculum system in 2001/02, trying to make up for the lack of national identity in education. For example, the Curriculum Development Council included "moral and civic education" in the "Basic Education Curriculum Guide - Do Your Best" In order to encourage schools to cultivate students' values and attitudes, including national identity.
Since then, "moral and civic education" has been regarded as an important part of values education, which can be found in different curriculum guidelines and frameworks.
The "Report on the Progress of Educational Reform (2)" published in June 2003 also listed "national identity" as one of the seven learning objectives, which students are expected to achieve within ten years, and it has continued to this day.
The authorities did not deliberately ignore the cultivation of national identity, but this state religion system is full of problems and cannot help the "post-90s" and "post-00s" generations of Hong Kong people to establish a correct national identity.
When Deng Fei, a member of the Legislative Council Election Committee and vice chairman of the Federation of Education Associations, was interviewed by "Hong Kong 01", he analyzed the lack of state education from three aspects: system, norms and content.
Deng Fei, a member of the Legislative Council and vice-chairman of the Federation of Education, who has been concerned about the state education for a long time, told the "Hong Kong 01" reporter that the curriculum documents published by the bureau in the past did not provide a quasi-definition for the key concepts of the state education.
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State religion lacks normative school representation
Deng Fei pointed out that in the past, the state education system was based on "school-based processing", that is, the proportion of the state education curriculum was determined by the school itself.
In addition, due to the lack of a systematic discipline specification and a complete curriculum syllabus for the state education, the relevant content is scattered in different subjects, and the curriculum documents published by the bureau do not define the key concepts of the state education.
"What is 'China'? What is the 'country' of love? Is it the 'China' of traditional culture? Or the contemporary 'People's Republic of China'? These questions were not clearly sorted out in the past." Curriculum documents have always eschewed these key concepts.
Based on the 2002 "Basic Education Curriculum Guide - Do Your Best".
Take Advantage of Your Strengths as an example, it does not accurately define the national identity, but constantly emphasizes "deepening the understanding of the history and culture of the motherland" and "strengthening students' interest and attention to the current development of the motherland", expecting schools to strengthen students' awareness of national identity recognition.
In addition, patriotism or national identity education is inherently the "instillation" of values, and teachers, as frontline workers, have the obligation and responsibility to cultivate students' patriotism, but the above guidelines even emphasize that "schools should not impose national feelings on students, and should provide students with More learning opportunities to cultivate their sense of belonging to the motherland.” This rather “deliberate” argument is undoubtedly a weakening of the school’s leading role in national education, and an attempt to evade the responsibility of the national education.
However, it was extended to the 2014 "Basic Education Curriculum Guide - Focus, Deepen, Sustain (Primary 1 to 6)", emphasizing that "it is not to impose feelings for the country on students".
It was not until 2017 that the Secondary Education Curriculum Guidelines were deleted.
The state education is implemented with "school-based teaching", coupled with the lack of independent disciplines and systematic discipline norms, so that schools have a lot of space to interpret core concepts, which leads to the problem of "one state religion, each expressing itself"; Ancient culture, neglecting contemporary China", which made students have a tendency to "reflect the past rather than the present", laying a hidden danger for the "anti-state religion" in the future.
In 2010, the SAR government established the Moral and National Education Ad Hoc Committee, which proposed to study the establishment of independent "moral and national education subjects" in primary and secondary schools. However, it was funded by the Hong Kong Education Bureau and compiled by the Institute of Contemporary China of Hong Kong Baptist University, and distributed to the whole territory free of charge. The national education reference textbook "China Model: Teaching Manual for National Conditions" distributed by primary and secondary schools was accused of blindly praising the Chinese Communist Party and "brainwashing" students.
In 2012, the ideological trend of scholars led by Huang Zhifeng launched many demonstrations and occupied the East Wing Plaza of the Government Headquarters, finally successfully forcing the Leung Chun-ying government to shelve the plan.
Deng Fei believes that the society had never questioned the necessity of the state religion before, but it was later "demonized"; until the occupation action in 2014 and the turmoil against the amendment in 2019, the society's national consciousness was continuously disintegrated, and the national identity was also destroyed. Constantly shrinking.
Deng Fei said that because the national education has not been able to effectively cultivate students' national identity, the opposition has taken advantage of the "anti-national religion" in 2012.
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"Knowing" and "recognizing" are not necessarily related
Regarding the weak sense of national identity of Hong Kong students, the establishment often blamed the students' lack of understanding of the national conditions or their prejudice against the current state of national development.
However, the New Democracy Party's 2018 research report "National Identity for Youth" found that more than 95% of the respondents had visited the mainland, 85% knew how to read simplified characters, nearly 70% had a WeChat account, and nearly half used to browse Mainland websites, having taken the Mainland high-speed rail, and liking Mainland film and television characters—it shows that the students are not completely ignorant of the country.
Lui Ta-lok, director of the School of Hong Kong Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, said that research has shown that "knowledge" and "identity" are not necessarily related.
In an interview with "Hong Kong 01" earlier, the principal of Chuangzhi Middle School, Huang Jingrong, pointed out that in order for students to form a national identity, they cannot rely on teachers to "script the textbook", or talk about some abstract big truths and talk about "how to be patriotic" tediously. Carry out "patriotic emotion education", integrate history, geography, literature and folk stories into teaching, "persuade with reason and move with emotion" to subtly arouse students' patriotic feelings.
Taking geography as an example, practical investigation activities such as local feelings can help students better understand the land under their feet, and it is easier to develop a local feeling for the country.
In the past, the school-based approach to national education lacked discipline norms and educational content, which has changed in recent years.
For example, last year the government changed senior high school general education to civics and social development. The curriculum focuses on "Hong Kong under "One Country, Two Systems", "Country since the Reform and Opening Up", and "Interconnected Contemporary World".
The former explains in detail the constitutional relationship between the country and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and also explains the concepts of Chinese nationality and Chinese citizenship.
The curriculum framework has also greatly increased the contemporary national conditions, such as high-tech, medical and health care, culture and education, infrastructure construction, poverty alleviation and development, etc., and no longer "emphasizes the past over the present".
The government has also implemented compulsory Chinese history courses in junior high schools since 2018, and more systematically imparts national education.
Deng Fei emphasized that the bureau should cultivate students' sense of national identity, not only culturally China, but the Chinese identity of the People's Republic of China under "one country, two systems".
(Photo by Yu Junliang)
Digitization brings new challenges to state religion
Deng Fei, who is the principal of Hong Kong Island Secondary School in Tseung Kwan O, also emphasized that the Education Bureau should train students to form a Chinese identity in the People's Republic of China under the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, rather than focusing on the "cultural China" identity as in the Hong Kong-British period.
However, he also reminded that in the face of the challenges of the digital generation, it is necessary to change the teaching method of traditional national education.
Deng Fei explained that the emotional and cognitive structures of the digital generation are different. Emotions are cultivated in daily life”; but the new generation is addicted to the online social and virtual world, the emotional structure is somewhat “sluggish”, and has no sense of many things, “Don’t talk about patriotism, even talk about the people around you and the community If you don’t fall in love, it’s even harder to say you love society, Hong Kong and the country.” Even if history is a core part of the state religion, for young people, “it’s just the story of the dead... There is no way to read books and dramas like when we were young. Collections and movies, substituting them into the historical situations and humanities of martial arts novels and romance novels, resulting in emotions and love for the entire Chinese history.”
"As a teaching worker, we cannot intuitively add two more history halls just because students are not familiar with Chinese history and culture." Deng Fei suggested that Hong Kong refer to the examples of foreign state religions that successfully combine history and different elements to cultivate students' skills subtly. Historical concepts, such as the strategy game Age of Empire, can stimulate players' interest in history. "They hired very professional historians to develop the game. Why can't we borrow ideas from them and use technology to make curriculum and education better? Interesting?” He suggested that the Education Bureau can introduce innovative thinking in teaching materials and teaching methods, and use multimedia education methods, including holding micro-movie competitions, to reactivate students’ interest in learning.
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