[ti:Chinese Patriotism Classes Fuel Protest in Hong Kong]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:Education Report]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
[00:09.84]Thousands of protesters -- including teachers, 
[00:14.57]students, parents and pro-democracy activists -- 
[00:17.92]marched in Hong Kong last Sunday. 
[00:20.34]They were protesting a plan 
[00:24.20]to teach Chinese patriotism classes 
[00:25.94]in Hong Kong schools.
[00:31.04]"We don't want brainwashing. We want the truth," 
[00:32.66]these girls say.
[00:37.22]Organizers said ninety thousand people marched 
[00:39.02]to the government headquarters. 
[00:42.38]But police gave a lower estimate of 
[00:43.81]thirty-two thousand.
[00:47.61]The Hong Kong government says the classes 
[00:51.03]are meant to build Chinese national pride. 
[00:54.95]The government plans to require the classes 
[00:59.05]in elementary schools, starting in twenty-fifteen. 
[01:02.97]But the government is urging schools to 
[01:05.74]voluntarily launch the program 
[01:08.85]when schools reopen this September.
[01:12.89]The curriculum includes a teaching booklet 
[01:15.07]called "The China Model." 
[01:19.94]It praises the one-party rule of the Communist Party. 
[01:24.37]It says nothing, for example, about the crushing of 
[01:29.42]pro-democracy protests in Beijing in nineteen eighty-nine.
[01:34.28]Ting Kwing-chan has been teaching primary school 
[01:37.32]for thirty-eight years. He says 
[01:40.12]he was not persuaded by the booklet. 
[01:43.44]"I don't even believe the content myself, 
[01:46.94]so it's difficult to teach my students," he says.
[01:52.84]Chan Yip-Long, a nine-year-old student in the march, 
[01:56.47]said: "China wants to unify Hong Kong. 
[02:01.54]Our next generation only knows how great China is, 
[02:03.65]but not the bad stuff."
[02:11.88]Protester Paul Yeung, a parent of two children, says 
[02:16.11]he worries that too much "one-sided education 
[02:20.22]is not good for the mental development of young people."
[02:24.94]The protest was another sign of public concern 
[02:30.11]about what critics see as the Chinese government's interference 
[02:32.41]in the former British colony. 
[02:37.09]Britain returned Hong Kong to China on July first, 
[02:42.19]nineteen ninety-seven. China promised to let the territory 
[02:44.31]largely govern itself.
[02:48.91]Last month, more than one hundred thousand people 
[02:53.14]joined a pro-democracy march on July first. 
[02:57.82]It was the largest such gathering in eight years. 
[03:01.44]Many of the protesters demanded that 
[03:03.81]the city's new leader resign. 
[03:08.74]Leung Chun-ying took office earlier that day. 
[03:13.67]He was chosen by a mostly pro-Beijing committee.
[03:17.84]Willy Lam is a China specialist in Hong Kong.
[03:20.39]WILLY LAM: "People in Hong Kong -- including teachers and parents 
[03:24.65]-- have lost trust in the disinterested or 
[03:27.51]neutral nature of the Hong Kong government 
[03:31.62]regarding education, regarding the media and so forth. 
[03:35.98]So they are afraid that the C.Y Leung administration is 
[03:38.72]enforcing orders by Beijing to try to 
[03:41.29]promote loyalty to the Communist Party, 
[03:43.78]loyalty to the Chinese administration, 
[03:48.26]instead of trying to impart knowledge about China 
[03:52.42]in a fair and open-minded manner."
[03:57.03]And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. 
[03:58.73]I'm Steve Ember.