Subterfuge hegemony: The simmering politics of the shelved Hong Kong moral and national education debates in the media

ABSTRACT

The implementation of moral and national education (MNE) in Hong Kong came to a stand-still when in 2012 anti-MNE student protests triumphantly saw it being shelved. Many perceived MNE as indoctrination and politically motivated by the leadership. Five years have gone by since the demise of the MNE. Ostensibly, the struggle for hegemonic control over the MNE curriculum is lost for the moment. However, this paper argues that the battle for control over the implementation of MNE is not yet over. Simmering politics about the shelved MNE continues to be a point of debate in the media. I frame this argument using “subterfuge hegemony” in conjunction with analysis of news discourse on the MNE debate to demonstrate how hegemonic work is carried out in South China Morning Post. Such a line of inquiry and analyses is significant as it offers the chance to deconstruct the differing interests and power relations around a high stake citizenship/civics education. It also throws light on the on-going tensions building up around the clash of “liberal” and “illiberal” ideologies that are embedded in the “One Country, Two Systems” political order in Hong Kong.

KEYWORDS:

• Subterfuge
• Gramsci
• National Education
• supersession
• hegemonic spin

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Michael Apple and Leonel Lim for their insightful comments on earlier drafts. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers and journal editors for their astute and helpful feedback. The shortcomings of the article however remain the author's.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aaron Koh

Aaron Koh is an associate professor in The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Education. He has published in the areas of Global Studies in Education, Cultural Studies in Education and Sociology of Education. His most recent publication includes three co-edited books, Education in the Global City: The Manufacturing of Education in Singapore (Routledge, 2016), Elite Schools: Multiple Geographies of Privilege (Routledge, 2016) and New Sociologies of Elite Schooling (Routledge, 2017) and a joint authored book, Class Choreographies: Elite Schools and Globalization (Palgrave, 2017). He is on the editorial board of Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Curriculum Inquiry, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy and Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education and International Studies of Sociology of Education. He is also the co-founding editor of the Springer book series: Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education.