‘One country, two narratives’ of China as a nation: comparing Chinese history education in mainland China and Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This study explores the narration of China as a nation in history education in two regions – mainland China and Hong Kong – that share cultural roots but different socio-political contexts. Inductive analysis of data from junior-secondary Chinese history textbooks used in the regions in the late 2010s revealed that whereas mainland China’s textbooks constructed China as a nation by stressing its constitutive territory and ethnic inclusiveness, Hong Kong’s highlighted its constitutive ethnicity and changing territory, more frequently and directly narrated interethnic conflicts, and more explicitly promoted Han superiority. The study proposes constructing the nation in history education as a contextualised and socio-political exercise of reinterpreting the past to reflect current contexts and needs.

摘要

本研究探讨中国大陆和香港这两个地区历史教育中关于中国作为一个国家的叙事，这两个地区有共同的文化根源，但社会政治背景并不相同。通过对2010年代末两地使用的初中中国历史教科书数据进行归纳分析，发现中国大陆的教科书通过强调中国的领土构成和民族包容性来建构中国的国家叙事，而香港的教科书则强调中国的民族构成和领土变化，且更频繁和直接地讲述民族冲突，并更明确地宣扬汉族的优越性。本研究建议将历史教育中的国家建构视为一种重新阐释过去以反映当前背景和需求的情境化的社会政治活动。

KEYWORDS:

• Nation
• history education
• history textbooks
• China
• Hong Kong

关键词:

• 国家
• 历史教育
• 历史教科书
• 中国
• 香港

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of China under [Grant number: 18YJC880100].

Notes on contributors

Shuqin Xu

Shuqin Xu is an associate professor of Research Centre for Public Administration and School of Government at Sun Yat-Sen University. Her main research areas include politics in education, educational policy and governance, and citizenship education.