[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.

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