Intercultural education and sports: teaching kabaddi in a multicultural setting in Hong Kong

Abstract

After the government of Hong Kong branded Hong Kong as “Asia’s World City,” there has been more interest in addressing the needs of multicultural education in the city. This is also the intent of this study, which discusses the impact of a sports program that involves a South Asian sport called kabaddi on intercultural competence. The program was conducted in a multicultural setting in secondary schools and social communities with participants of different ethnic backgrounds. These participants included students, school teachers and kabaddi coaches. Four schools were purposefully selected, and the data collection methods comprised interviews and participant observation. The findings of the study revealed that the program which adopted the approach of teaching games for understanding (TGfU) could enhance the intercultural competence of both Chinese and South Asian students. The students gained new knowledge about heritage/minority cultures, learned to appreciate them, and developed bonding and bridging social capital. The implications of this study validate the feasibility and merit of integrating intercultural education into physical education. However, it is important to identify the ethnic composition and relations of the participants and devise a suitable pedagogy and curriculum when implementing the program for optimal results.

Keywords:

• Intercultural education
• physical education
• kabaddi
• South Asia
• ethnic minorities
• Hong Kong

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Ethnic minorities in the official definition “refer to persons of non-Chinese ethnicity” (Census and Statistics Department 2022, 157). Thus, Japanese, Koreans, and “White” are also included in the category of ethnic minority. Yet, their social status greatly differs from that of other ethnic minority groups, such as South Asian, Southeast Asians, and Africans.

2 The eight KLAs include Chinese Language Education, English Language Education, Mathematics Education, Personal, Social and Humanities Education, Science Education, Technology Education, Arts Education and Physical Education.

3 Liberal Studies is a new subject introduced to the curriculum in the education reform in 2002 and became a mandatory subject in 2009, and multiculturalism is one of the topics of the subject. Yet, a dualistic approach (that is, “East meets West”) is adopted to interpret multiculturalism (Jackson and Han 2016). Despite the long history of South Asians in Hong Kong, their communities and cultures are barely mentioned in the curriculum.

4 After the handover of Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the government was keen to develop Hong Kong as both an international and Chinese city. In the former case, international sports events were organized. In the latter case, substantial resources were allocated to support elite athletes to win medals in international tournaments and promoted nationalism, and this is particularly important in Hong Kong with the backdrop of its unique colonial history, inducing very weak nationalism (Mathews, Ma, and Lui 2008).

5 The sports policy devised by the Home Affairs Bureau comprises three major components, which include promoting sports in the community, supporting the development of elite sports, and promoting Hong Kong as a center for major international sporting events.

6 It was reported that the proportion of adults in Hong Kong who exercise for at least 75–150 minutes each week has risen from 35.7% in 2010 to 43.6% in 2016. Even though this shows an increase, the percentage still falls far below the world average of 73% (Legislative Council Secretariat (Research Office)) 2019), which again reflects the underdevelopment of the sporting culture in Hong Kong (Bridges 2011).

7 The selected sports included cricket, rugby, kabaddi, and yoga.

8 Hegemonic masculinity among South Asians in Hong Kong often denotes strong physicality and the capacity of earning money. These attributes are largely related to the military background of their ancestors who were once recruited by the British to serve in the army or police force. During the colonial period, many of these mercenaries were exploited and arranged to carry out the most dangerous duties; yet the British justified the arrangement by “honoring” these soldiers as the martial race (Caplan 1995).

9 One of the stories told during Holi is the demise of a demon king’s sister, Holika, in a fire, which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Tihar/Deepawali is a five-day festival, during which different gods and animals are worshipped. Among them, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, is seen as one of the most important deities to be worshipped in the festival (Anderson 1971).

10 Hong Kong identity is a fluid concept. It used to be an ethnic identity based on Chineseness. In such an understanding, ethnic minorities can never be Hongkongese. Yet, during the social movement in 2019, the concept of Hong Kong identity has acquired new meanings (Mathews 2020). It has become a civic identity, namely, one’s belief in democratic values taking precedence over whether one being Chinese or not. Under such circumstances, ethnic minorities were once viewed as Hongkongese. However, as the social movement receded in 2020, the civic component in Hong Kong identity was gradually lost, and othering based on ethnicity was reinstated. Thus, from the perspective of ethnic minorities, the concept of ethnic minorities as Hongkongese is rather unstable. Comparatively, the ethnic identity derived from their ancestors is relatively stable. Furthermore, in an environment with social marginalization, resorting to co-ethnicity for resources can be critically useful. It is thus no surprise that nationalism based on their ethnicity may arise during certain sports events in Hong Kong.

Additional information

Funding

This work was completed with the support of the Faculty of Arts and Institute of Future Cities and a Direct Grant of Research 2019/2020 (Project code: 4051162) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.