In Hong Kong, Brainwashing Education

Written by Oiwan Lam

The Hong Kong Education Bureau is planning to make patriotic education compulsory for primary and secondary school children.

The objective of the Moral and National Education Curriculum is to build “national harmony, identity and unity among individuals”, help the students to “develop a sense of belonging to the motherland”, “support national sports teams” and “appreciate Chinese culture”. The plan, however, has sparked fears in the society of political brainwashing.

“Brain-washing is a common practice”

Hong Kong school children. Image by Flickr user wok (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

As if to self-fulfill the prophecy, the Director of Publicity, Culture and Sports Department at the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong, Hao Tie-chuan, wrote in the Sina micro-blog on May 8, 2011, that “brain-washing” is a common practice in western education systems (Note: today I found the message deleted, here is a copy [zh]):

关于香港中小学的德育及国民教育，有人说是“æ´—è„‘”，只要看看美、法等西方国家这方面的制度，就会看到这种必要的“æ´—è„‘”是一种国际惯例；有人说要培养中 小学生的批判意识，但国际社会通常做法是在大学培养批判思维意识，而不是中小学；有人说德育及国民教育不要听中央政府的，但那还叫国民教育吗？

Responses to Hao’s “brain-washing” theory

Hao’s comment has widely been reported in mainstream media, Facebook and other social media platforms from May 9-11 2011 and many netizens visited Hao’s micro-blog to leave comments, only to find out that most of the critical comments had been deleted. Many netizens pointed out that they had been blocked from commenting in Hao’s micro-blog, including myself. Below is a screen capture of my failure to comment on Hao’s “brainwashing remark” on May 11 2011:

Nevertheless, I managed to save some of the comments through Sina search (the more critical ones have been blocked from search by Sina administrator):

石孝文 [zh]：英國教育教導國民愛國，也同時從小就培養她/他們的批判精神；國民愛國，但不會盲目維國。一個人由小學開始被「洗腦」洗至大學，腦都早已殘廢了，只怕耶穌重臨再行神蹟，也不能令腦殘生出批判思維。聽中央政府是愛 D 教育，而非國民教育。還望郝先生釐清思維再發言，別為爭功而暴露了腦殘真相。

忽悠神Johnson [zh]：典型的不懂裝懂，假如你真的懂還說得出這些說話，你更罪惡。西方的是國民公民教育並存，之所謂國民教育認同感，是基於國家歷史榮辱認知，政府奉行憲政主義下有限政府原則，對歷史中立，皆因政府的組成是人民意願。至於人之所以為人，是良知的判斷，人如何立足於社會做人處事，則為公民教育。

音樂逹人史丹利 [zh]：中聯辦宣傳部長郝鐵川近 日透過微博發表，毫不掩飾地指出香港政府推動德育及國民教育科就是要向學生「洗腦」，製造只臣服於黨的公民。「德育及國民教育如果不要聽中央政府的，但那 還叫做國民教育嗎？」有香港立法會議員形容言論「赤裸得令人心驚」！…哈哈哈哈，我覺得這宣傳部長夠坦白，很可愛！

CLPRO [zh]：有木有良知啊！！！你這不是在逼瘋人民嗎？人民愛國是由心而發，用得著你這樣做麼？法國人民之所以愛國皆因自由、平等、博愛，美國人民之所以愛國是因為愛自由、包容力高，中國人民之所以不愛國，是因為腐朽的架構、失敗的教育、官僚主義，醒醒吧！一個真正強大的國家不需要國民教育，國民會自然自豪！

How to brain-wash the kids?

So much for Hao’s Freudian slip, what exactly would the curriculum be that is implemented in Hong Kong? Sam Ng has studied the consultation document and explained the brain-washing process [zh]:

在「我為國家隊打氣」這教案裡，再三求同學們回憶奧運頒奬台上國旗升起國歌高奏的情景，要同學說出自己感受。然後有一個注意事項：「教師如發現學生對國家民族感情不太強烈時，不要批評，並接納其表現，但仍請學生為此作自我反省。」如何反省呢？面壁思過？寫悔過書？

還有一個「我學會了唱國歌」的教案，一輪聽唱國歌之後，老師要學生：「請你站起來，大聲說出其中兩個中華民族的精神。」然後：「請大聲說出『我為到自己是一個中國人而高興』」。要求學生大聲說出的，在這個教案中還有幾次之多。

Kursk from inmediahk.net also points out [zh] that the devil is in the detail and invites the readers to take a close look at the curriculum. For example, although students do not need to take an examination, they have to go through a series of evaluations:

課程文件提出了一個必須嚴肅討論的評核方法：讓家長評估學生、學生互相評估。他們會有一個量表，評估學生是否做到指定的標準。

As Kursk rightly spells out, it is impossible to evaluate a person’s feeling and emotion, thus the side effect of such evaluation may be mutual policing among school kids:

同儕互評還可能帶來另一個問題，就是學生之間互相監視。這個擔憂可能有點拉遠了，不過其實學生互相舉報在內地學校不是什麼奇怪事。香港的國民教育課評估表只要加入更多有關「體諒國家」、「維護國家領土完整」等項目，同學之間的互評就可變成互相監督了。

A battle with the state educator

It is inevitable that the Chinese government would impose “brain-washing” mechanisms in the Hong Kong education system and mainstream media. At inmediahk.net, Tommyjonk urges citizens to be prepared for the ideological battle [zh] by quoting local intellectual Ma Kokming’s talk about the role of organic intellectuals:

「葛蘭西認為，資本主義的國家體制更扮演著教育家的角色(The State as Educator)。要重新啟動社會主義革命，必須抗衡資本主義的主導意識形態，這個任務落在有機知識份子(organic intellectual)身上。葛蘭西設想的有機知識份子不是在象牙塔裡閉門造車的人，而是緊密跟社會上的抗爭運動相呼應的。」

事實上，香港教育界內仍有不少進步的有機知識份子（見管治不能的香港）。假若中央及特區政府真的不理反對銳意推行德育及國民教育必修課，我們便需要集結業界內外所有進步力量，跟龐大的國家機器大幹一場！！！