Junior-secondary Chinese history curricula in Hong Kong and mainland China: two patterns of approach hybridization

ABSTRACT

This study explores how Hong Kong’s latest Chinese history curriculum hybridizes Romantic and Enlightened approaches and how that hybridization converges with/diverges from mainland China’s, given the two societies’ increased integration in the People’s Republic of China. Data were drawn from Hong Kong’s and mainland China’s latest junior-secondary Chinese history curricula policies and textbooks and Hong Kong’s earlier curriculum. Despite approaching mainland China’s Chinese history in curriculum structure and promoting China as a unified multi-ethnic nation, Hong Kong’s latest history curriculum retains its earlier orientation towards the Communist Party of China and the Enlightened approach. Hong Kong’s junior-secondary Chinese history curricula try to balance Romantic and Enlightened approaches, while mainland China’s symbolically promotes and selectively uses the latter to serve the former. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future study are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• History curriculum
• national identity
• disciplinary skills of history
• Hong Kong
• China

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education under Grant [18YJC880100].