An examination of the publication of junior secondary Chinese history textbooks in post-war Hong Kong (1950-2000) = 戰後香港初中中國歷史教科書出版研究 (1950-2000)

Abstract

In addition to its principal purpose of supporting educational goals, a textbook is also a cultural commodity of economic value. Therefore textbooks can be examined not only from the perspective of education, but also from the perspective of publication. After the Second World War, tremendous changes took place in China, and subsequently the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were governed separately by two antagonistic parties. Suddenly Hong Kong became a cultural arena where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) struggled against each other, leading to a confrontation between left- and right-wing forces. In this context, the British administration in Hong Kong carried on the implementation of educational reforms while seeking to avoid being dragged into the whirlpool of the CCP and KMT’s cultural wrestling. This indirectly resulted in the localization of the publication of Hong Kong’s textbooks. Because of the radical changes in China’s political situation, a huge number of academics fleeing social upheaval took refuge in the South and consequently gained a foothold in Hong Kong, where a large part of them participated in educational and academic activities. They made important contributions to secondary and tertiary education, and to the compilation of textbooks as well. Indeed, they laid the foundations for the publication of Chinese History textbooks and the training of textbook compilers. This thesis investigates the circumstances of the publication of Chinese History textbooks for junior secondary schools in postwar Hong Kong, with the aim of analysing how the publication of textbooks was affected by the development of Hong Kong’s educational system and the authorities’ implementation of reforms in educational policy and curriculum. Meanwhile, various changes in Hong Kong’s educational system accelerated the development of the textbook publication industry and the replacement of textbook compilers in the second half of the twentieth century, reflecting a process of localization oriented to the needs of Hong Kong. This study thus helps us to understand how the development of the educational system, the publication of textbooks, and the replacement of textbook compilers impacted one another in specific political and social circumstances.