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Mabel Sieh

What we think we know about China
Last week, we saw media reports about a little girl who died after being run over by a van in Foshan, Guangdong. The driver  fled after realising he had  hit her. Then a dozen passers-by ignored her cries for help. As she lay critically injured, she was run over again.
This shocking story, which angered many people, gives the impression that mainland Chinese are cold-blooded, corrupted and bad.
People that have not spent a lot of time in the mainland  will  form their opinions,  based on what they read and hear in the media.  
Mainland student Mikaela,  who does not want to disclose her full name,  believes that the media always focuses on negative news about her home country. 'For most people, Chinese people are all uncivilised. But our generation has more access to the outside world,' says the 21-year-old student at the University of Hong Kong.
'My Hong Kong friends warned me about organ trading in Shenzhen. They said if I went shopping, I might get drugged and have my organs taken. I've lived in China more than 20years and never heard anything like that.'  
We tend to hear less about positive things and more about  problems, such as the exploitation of migrant workers and detention of activists.  
'The media tend to pick up negative, rather than positive stories because there's a general belief that 'bad news is good news',' says Wang Xiang-wei, deputy editor of the South China Morning Post. 'When I was living in Beijing, I met many Westerners who visited China for the first time. Their impression of the country is positive. They've seen many hardworking people, a better standard of living and a modernised China.' 
Professor Kerry Kennedy, HKIEd's dean of faculty of education studies, thinks the media is an important socialisation influence for students in Hong Kong. 'Media is like a surrogate for their knowledge of the world.  In research I've found that students who rely solely on media for information actually don't know anything [about the specific topic].  Students need to be taught to look at media reports in a critical way.' 
Student Ying Xiaoyi, 21, from Hangzhou , says mainlanders are looked upon differently because they are  from a communist country. 'Westerners - even Hong Kong people - think we are different because they are from a democratic society. Many Westerners are biased about communism; they think it's all bad. But the fact I'm from China doesn't mean I don't value freedom, quality and democracy. The country's political system doesn't make me who I am.'
Wang says China's government must take some responsibility for its bad image. 'Its lack of transparency doesn't help  the outside world to understand them better. As a rising country,  China needs to be more open and transparent.'
Yet he is optimistic about changes now taking place. 'Chinese leaders have been talking about being more open to the world, though it will be a challenge as there is no precedence of this kind of political structure in the country. The Western media is also trying to understand the country better and reporting with a more balanced view.'
In the news 
The Hong Kong government thinks steps should be taken to encourage students to appreciate their country. In his 2010 policy address, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced that national education would be taught, starting with primary schools next year, then secondary schools in 2013. 
Each school will have to provide teaching in the subject for up to 50 hours a year, or two lessons a week. National education will instil positive values to 'facilitate identity building' through developing 'affection for the country',  he says.
HK school leads the way
The question of whether to make national education a compulsory school subject within two years  has sparked fierce debate since Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced the plan. Many teachers have objected during the four-month public consultation, which ended on August 31.
The scheme  is one of the key political objectives of the chief executive, who steps down next year.
For years, the pro-Beijing camp in Hong Kong has been critical of schools' lack of efforts to instil a sense of national identity in students, and feared it would alienate them from the rest of China.
Opponents fear compulsory national education will be used to rationalise autocratic rule on the mainland and become a 'brain-washing' tool. 
National education has been a part of the curriculum at Hong Kong and Kowloon Kai Fong Women's Association Sun Fong Chung Primary School since it was founded 25 years ago. 'We use Putonghua as the language of instruction,' says Hui Ho-fan, head of civil education on the school's panel. 'It led people to think we were a leftist school during colonial rule; we're nothing like that. The school's board of directors has a vision - that young people need to know about happenings on the mainland to better equip them for the future. That was why we introduced national education.'
The school's policy was so successful that it won the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010-11, in the field of moral and civil education. 
Hui is not totally in favour of the government plan to put national education on the curriculum. 'The curriculum suggested by the government is too one-sided, focusing only on the positives,' Hui says. 
'They have to do it for the obvious political reasons. But for teachers, I think there is room for adjustment. How the teacher presents and teaches the subject is the key. 
'Students discuss issues concerning the mainland and we take them on visits to gain real-life experiences. We try to give them the whole picture. 
'We lead them to talk about the mainland's achievements in economic development and technology, but  also lead students to discuss issues like  [dissident] Zhao Lianhai, jailed over the melamine-tainted milk powder case.'  
Hui notes the importance of letting students learn outside the classroom. 'Every month we have a flag-raising ceremony; students go on stage to share information about the mainland. 
'On trips, our children are able to study in a mainland school so they know what it is like to study there. All these activities leave a deep impression in students' minds.' 
Timelime
October 2010: Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announces that national education will be taught as a compulsory subject, starting with primary schools in 2012, then secondary schools in 2013. 
May 2011: The Education Bureau publishes a 300-page curriculum guide for the subject  called Moral and National Education. Each school will have to provide teaching in the subject of up to 50 hours a year, or two lessons a week. He says that national education will help to instil positive values to 'facilitate identity building' through developing 'affection for the country'.  
June 2011: Beijing's head of Hong Kong affairs Wang Guangya says national education curriculums should foster local students' understanding of how socialism and communist rule came to China, and could help narrow the mainland-Hong Kong gap.  
August 2011: A four-month consultation on the proposal ends and the Education Bureau says it has received more than 1,000 submissions. Officials dismiss suggestions that the plan may be delayed.
A poll conducted by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong says that 60 per cent of Secondary Year Four pupils interviewed oppose the idea of national education.  
The Professional Teachers' Union, the city's biggest teacher group, interviews 90 per cent of all the city's teaching professionals. Seventy per cent are against the move, while 67 per cent say they are worried or very worried that the curriculum could brainwash students.
The Federation of Education Workers, the pro-government teachers' group with 13,000 members, also has reservations. Members suggest the government should test it in some schools first and combine the subject with liberal studies.
Secondary school heads say teaching the subject will  complicate ongoing education reforms, including the introduction of the Diploma of Secondary Education from next year.  
September 2011: Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the former Catholic bishop of Hong Kong, rejects the education agenda. He calls the planned subject 'too vague' and warns that it would 'brainwash' students. He calls on schools to resist the plan. 
October 2011: In his last policy address, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen says the Curriculum Development Council will submit revised proposals soon.




'National' study plan fires debate