Ethnicity, Ideology, and State Hegemony: Chinese-Language Curriculum in British Hong Kong in the 1950s

• In Event: Ideology and the Shaping of International Education

Abstract

Wong (2002b, 2012a) proposes “ethnicity” as a contributing factor to explain the state hegemony over schooling in Hong Kong and Singapore. This paper argues that “political ideology” also plays an essential role to explain the development of hegemony in these two former British colonies. It takes the Chinese language curriculum of Hong Kong in different periods to demonstrate various possibile forms of state hegemony. In the early 1950s, the primary concern of the British Government was on communism. After the Communist Party took over power in mainland China in 1949, a new form of nationalism interwoven with communism emerged. When the British Government decided to counteract the communism, it inevitably rejected nationalism and the ethnic Chinese identity as a whole.

Authors

• Chung Pui Tai, The University of Hong Kong

• Zeyi Wang, The University of Hong Kong