Hong Kong history exam paper skirts questions on Sino-Japanese relations after last year’s row
- This year’s university entrance test did not touch on the controversial issue after exam authority was forced to scrap a question on the topic last year
- Students say they felt there would be a slim chance for a question on the issue again, while the absence of local politics in the paper raises eyebrows
The history paper of the Hong Kong university entrance test held on Thursday did not touch on the contentious issue of Sino-Japanese relations after a controversial question on the topic last year ended in its withdrawal.
Students sitting this year’s Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams said they focused their studies on other parts of the history syllabus, as they believed there would be a slim chance for the paper to have questions on the issue again.
An 18-year-old Form Six student, who gave her surname as Chan, was among the nearly 5,000 candidates who took the elective subject’s exam on Thursday morning. “I was so certain [Sino-Japanese relations] will not be tested that I did not even revise that part,” she said.
Another candidate, surnamed Yim, added: “My [teacher] had also mentioned to us that we could consider not focusing too much on the topic.”
The question that created controversy last year asked candidates whether they agreed Japan “did more good than harm to China” in the first half of the 20th century, with the Education Bureau unprecedentedly demanding the exam authority strike it out following outrage from the pro-establishment camp and Beijing’s foreign affairs arm in the city.
Critics lashed out at the question, saying it was one-sided, while the state news agency, Xinhua, said the “rage of all Chinese sons and daughters would not be settled”. The news agency also accused those involved in setting the question paper of downplaying the atrocities during Japan’s invasion and occupation of the country.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority then scrapped the question.