A history exam question asking Hong Kong students to assess colonial Japan’s occupation of China sparked a rebuke by Beijing on Friday and reignited a row over academic freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.
The criticism comes as Hong Kong’s schools and universities — some of the best in Asia — become the latest ideological battleground in a city convulsed by political unrest since last year.
Chicken coop metaphor
China’s Foreign Ministry and state media rounded on a university entrance exam question that asked students whether they agreed Japan “did more good than harm” to China from 1900 to 1945. “Hong Kong’s education sector must not become a chicken coop without a roof,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on the Facebook page of its Hong Kong office, using a metaphor referring to the idea that students should be protected from negative influences or ideas. “Hong Kong’s (university exam) question leads students to be traitors,” wrote the nationalist Global Times newspaper on Friday.
After the criticism from the mainland, Hong Kong’s Education Secretary Kevin Yeung announced the question would not be marked by examiners because it was “biased” and had “seriously hurt the feelings and dignity of the Chinese people”. He also ordered the city’s exam board to report to him on how it was included in the test. Japan’s colonial occupation of parts of China between 1900-1945 was brutal and led to millions of deaths.
The “chicken coop” metaphor was used by Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Chief Executive Carrie Lam last week as she warned that liberal studies, a secondary school class that teaches critical thinking, helped fuel last year’s unrest.
