HONG KONG – First come the colorful visuals: an animation of the Hong Kong skyline, like the opening scene of a children’s show. Then a grinning girl and boy appear on the screen, holding a cartoon owl with a graduation cap and round glasses in place. Together they provide an unusual incentive.
“Let’s learn about national security!”
Thus begins a chipper video unveiled by the Hong Kong government this week to instill patriotism, loyalty and a strict love of the law among the youngest residents.
For the next seven minutes, the boy and girl, led by “Uncle Owl”, take a whirlwind tour of the dangers Hong Kong faces, such as terrorism and hostile foreign powers. They learn about the armed forces that protect them from those dangers: the Hong Kong police and ultimately the central Chinese government.
“We are still young. How can we contribute to our society and our country? the boy asks, with a thought bubble floating above his head.
“I know! We have to obey the law,” the girl responds when a light bulb with a thing appears above her.
The video, which officials say would be used to educate primary school students, is part of a broader effort to overhaul the school curriculum after months of fierce anti-government protests in 2019.
Students made up nearly 40 percent of those arrested at the height of the demonstrations, and many officials accused teachers of corrupting young minds and turning them against Hong Kong and China. The education bureau pledged to exterminate “black sheep”, especially after Beijing passed a sweeping national security law last June.
Now it has shown how it plans to do that – starting with students from the age of 6.
“A little speechless,” said Carson Tsang, a high school student and spokesperson for Hong Kong Ideologist, a student activism group, of the video, adding that he did not see the need to teach students about national security so young.
The video was released late Thursday alongside dozens of pages of guidelines on how schools are advised to provide instruction on the new national security law. The rules specify that elementary school students must learn about how the People’s Liberation Army protects them, and the importance of central government agencies operating directly in the city – a new provision under the law.
Previously, Chinese authorities had largely remained in the background in Hong Kong, a former British colony promised a high degree of autonomy upon its return to China in 1997.
High school students study the particulars of the law, bundling national security education into topics as broad as biology and geography. Teachers are told to emphasize that “the campus is no place to express political aspirations,” and to tell students that “in terms of national security, there is no room for debate or compromise.”
School officials should call the police for students or teachers if a situation becomes “ serious, ” the guidelines say. Activities that could prompt police intervention include singing slogans, singing political songs, and wearing clothes with political messages.
“It is certainly not too early to start from elementary school,” Kevin Yeung, Hong Kong’s education secretary, told reporters Friday. “We can start with simple things. We can continue studying in secondary school. “
He continued, “In general, we point to the concept of national security and hope to train students to consciously take responsibility for maintaining national security.”
Compared to the guidelines’s strict admonitions, the video – with its whimsical sound effects, pastel tones, and adorable animations – appears approachable, even mild. But the message to the young viewers is no less clear about China’s vision for Hong Kong.
The owl begins by affirming that “we all know Hong Kong is an inalienable part of our country” – a rebuttal from activists who have called on Hong Kong to become independent. The owl then gestures to a map of China, with a dotted line that also claims Taiwan and parts of the South China Sea as Chinese territory.
Then the owl outlines the crimes the security law prescribes: Subversion, it says, without defining the term. Terrorism, with an animation of exploding dynamite. Collusion with a foreign land, illustrated by a silhouette of a person holding money bags and controlled by puppet theater.
The soundtrack – vaguely electronic, relentlessly upbeat, somewhat reminiscent of corporate hold music – never stops.
Later, the owl uses terms that his young audience may understand better. “Imagine some students doing what they wanted in school, like skipping classes and running around here and there,” it suggests. “How would the lesson be?”
The owl also compares the national security law, which defines crimes punishable by life imprisonment, with the expectation that people will not blow music at night. “While we enjoy rights and freedoms, we have to consider the impact on others,” it says. The girl, who has been bobbing happily in front of the speakers, dutifully puts on headphones.
On social media, some mocked the video because they expected elementary school students to understand words like inalienable and promulgation. Others feared it could still be very effective.
Mr. Tsang, the student activist, said young children exposed to materials such as the video would not learn to question the official stories.
“Ultimately, the government is training the minds of primary school students,” he said, adding that teachers would not be reluctant for fear of breaking the law themselves.
Ip Kin-yuen, a former lawmaker representing the education sector, denounced the guidelines in a broader sense and asked why there had been no public consultation period.
Mr Ip said he was not against the idea of teaching students about national security. But he said the government’s guidelines focused more on indoctrination than instruction.
“If we get national security education, it has to be education,” he said. “It should be genuine, genuine education to open the minds of the students, not to suppress them.”