Prominent historians say Hong Kong educators should take care with grisly subjects, decline to comment on Tiananmen statues’ removal
- Responding to a recent outcry over schoolchildren being shown graphic footage of the Nanking massacre, both acknowledged the importance of giving students the ‘facts’ about history
- But neither would discuss the ramifications of three universities’ decision to remove statues commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown
Two prominent Hong Kong historians have said educators should be careful how they handle difficult subjects following an outcry over children being shown footage of the 1937 Nanking massacre, even as they stressed the importance of giving students the facts about dark chapters in history.
However, both declined to comment on the possible ramifications of recent decisions by the University of Hong Kong, Chinese University and Lingnan University to remove campus artworks commemorating the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Lawmaker-elect and Lingnan University associate vice-president James Lau Chi-pang and Professor Joseph Ting Sun-pao, the former chief curator of Hong Kong’s history museum, responded to the pair of recent controversies after a talk on Sunday about life in the city during the Japanese occupation.
Asked if he was worried that the Tiananmen artworks’ removal indicated the crackdown – any mention of which is strictly suppressed in mainland China – could become a taboo subject in local universities, Ting only said he “would insist on telling history based on facts”.
While acknowledging the works reflected Hongkongers’ reaction to the crackdown, he added he was not in a position to comment further on the universities’ decisions.
Lau, who was elected to the Legislative Council earlier this month, said he planned to push national education in the city’s schools, particularly Chinese history. Asked if the Tiananmen crackdown should also be taught, he said it could be done in a “fact-based, rational, fair and objective way”.
“There are historical facts on what happened … and different views about it,” he added.
Both also weighed on a local primary school’s decision earlier this month to show graphic footage of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers murdering Chinese civilians and fields littered with dead bodies as part of activities marking the 84th anniversary of the invasion of Nanking – the former name for Nanjing. China estimates that more than 300,000 people perished over six weeks in the ensuing massacre.