Hong Kong will roll out more patriotic education initiatives – including a revamped museum and a new festival – in order to ensure “continuity from generation to generation,” the city’s leader John Lee said during his 2023 Policy Address on Wednesday.
Two new programmes will be set up to help foster national identity and a societal appreciation of Chinese culture, Lee said, adding that patriotic education will be integrated into the exiting education system.
The Constitution and Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee will establish a working group on patriotic education, whilst the Leisure and the Culture and Services Department (LCSD) will establish a Chinese Culture Promotion Office.
The office, set to be founded in the second quarter of next year, will organise over 50 activities to support and promote Chinese history and culture each year, a government source told HKFP. More than 700,000 people are expected to attend annually.
The measures will be rolled out “with a view to enhancing education on our country’s history, culture and current affairs on different fronts, thereby promoting patriotism and ensuring its continuity from generation to generation,” Lee told lawmakers.
Training for teachers will also be strengthened, with 50 school inspections to take place each year to ensure good practice: “We will organise mainland study tours for teachers, provide in-school enhancement programmes on national security education as well as teaching resources on our country’s development and history with regular updates.”
A Humanities Curriculum Framework for primary schools will ensure more cultural immersion activities and national security education, whilst the Education Bureau will also oversee a “Love Our Home, Treasure Our Country 2.0” series of inter-school activities.
New festival, new museums
Two new museums will “showcase the development and achievements of our country, covering areas such as its history, politics, economic development and culture,” Lee said.
The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence will be “converted” into the Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance – presenting China’s battle against Japan during the Second World War.
Lee said the move is “to cultivate a stronger sense of national esteem and patriotism”, adding that the authorities will work with the Shenzhen Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau to show Hong Kong and Shenzhen’s joint efforts during the war.
Whilst the new museums are being commissioned, the LCSD will organise exhibitions relating to patriotism at existing museums.
Hong Kong will also see a new, annual event – the Chinese Culture Festival – starting from next year, though Lee revealed few details.
The moves come just as China passed a patriotic education law on Tuesday. The legislation will come into effect on January 1 and will cover Hong Kong and Macau. Lee said on Wednesday that the new working group on patriotic education will “dovetail” with the legislation.
A decade-long controversy
The city’s initial attempt to introduce a patriotic education curriculum in 2012 was met with mass protests. Then-chief executive Leung Chun-ying scrapped the plan after more than 120,000 people took to the streets in protest, led by now-jailed activist Joshua Wong.
Following the 2019 protests and unrest, the city introduced national security education for children aged six or above in 2021, which included teaching the four offences outlawed by the Beijing-imposed national security legislation.
During last year’s Policy Address, Lee announced HK$60 million in funding to facilitate kindergarten pupils’ learning of Chinese culture. The initiatives continue throughout school and university. Students cannot graduate from local universities without passing a test on national security.
Additional reporting: Tom Grundy.
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