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8 Christmas specials
get to grips with reality and start thinking about how to best prepare their kids for this future.” Within Hong Kong, the infl uence of the mainland is felt everywhere. Step out at lunchtime during the week and you are likely to hear conversations in Man darin nearly as frequently as Cantonese, the dialect traditionally spoken in Hong Kong. Hong Kongers used to act as a bridge between China and the West. A few decades ago, many rushed to the mainland to set up factories or to run the Chinese branches of multina tionals. Increasingly, these jobs are going to mainland Chinese who speak fl uent English and have graduated from Ivy League universities or Oxbridge. Many com panies want staff who not only speak the language of the clients they are pursuing but also watch the same fi lms and gossip about the same celebrities. Ms Lau, who bought her son the police toys, works in fi nancial technology. “I manage a lot of mainlanders who have moved to Hong Kong for work. They work harder, stay later and are more ambitious and thick skinned. There is no way a local Hong Konger on my team can compete with them. The Hong Kong compet itive advantage is gone.” She may not embrace the de mocracy movement, but she is not happy about the changes in the curriculum. “When I was growing up, we were taught to think at school. Now, it’s a joke.” She adds of her son, “Not only is he not going to learn about what really happened in Tiananmen Square, but he is also not going to be competitive against main land Chinese his age when he enters the workforce.” Hong Kong is one of 11 cities being merged into the Greater Bay Area, a signature plan of China’s president, Xi Jinping, which covers an area of nearly 90m people with an economy larger than Australia’s. Shenzhen is at the centre. Hong Kong’s primary role will be to pro vide Chinese companies with a way to raise money from abroad. Faced with this future, some wealthy Hong Kongers are sending their children to private schools which teach in Mandarin and English. “My children can pick up Cantonese on the street. I don’t care if they aren’t fl uent,” says one Hong Kong father whose privateequity fi rm mostly invests in mainland China. He and his wife speak Mandarin at home. More and more highschool graduates from Hong Kong are choosing to attend university across the bor
The Economist December 18th 2021
Many in Hong Kong fear the next generation will be like the post-Tiananmen generation in mainland China
der. Tony Lam chose to study on the mainland because he has family there and tuition is about a quarter what it is in Hong Kong. He hopes to fi nd a job in advertising or public relations when he graduates. “There are a lot more jobs in the mainland.” Mr Lam says the past two years of pandemic and protests have “proved the su periority of the mainland system”. Several of his friends who are also pursuing university in mainland China were encouraged by their parents to do so. Some parents reject the idea that the regime’s con trol is inevitable or, at least, permanent. Rachel Leung is home schooling her daughter on a small farm be cause she wants her to have a connection to the land and to have time to play—and because she wants to in sulate her from China’s infl uence. “The party will eventually fall,” she says. “When? I don’t know. Maybe 20 or 50 years from now. And when it does, what skills will our children, our grandchildren, need to thrive?” She pauses as children covered in mud from planting rice run by, then lists the qualities that she thinks they will need. “A willingness to communicate, the ability to persuade and compromise, empathy and love, knowing how to listen deeply. There will be an end to this darkness. For now, we can’t do anything big. But we can do small things like raise our children with this future in mind.” lessons learned Ms Leung may be right. But the Chinese government has plenty of practice in moulding young minds. In 1989, at the height of prodemocracy protests in China, hundreds of thousands of people piled into Tianan men Square. Li Ming’s father was one of them. After the massacre, he made his way back to his home town to join the civil service. When the party rolled out its pa triotic education campaign, Mr Li was one of tens of millions of students who were subjected to it. “My father taught me to never say anything in pub lic that could get me into trouble,” he says. “He taught me, above everything else, to protect myself. It is a very pragmatic approach to life in China: it is the way to survive.” But his father also bought him whatever books he could fi nd. He pushed Mr Li to think for him self by observing society and the people around them. When Mr Li moved to Hong Kong for university, his fa ther warned him: “Be very careful what you say. But al ways remember: think for yourself.” Many in Hong Kong fear the next generation will be like the postTiananmen generation in mainland Chi na. They expect the curriculum to change so much that the government’s campaign of indoctrination may succeed. Still, there are reasons Hong Kong may hold out. Because it is already advanced, the party’s deal with the mainland—of economic growth in exchange for political submission—does not apply. And so far, unlike in mainland China, the government has not re stricted internet access. But the past two years in Hong Kong have shown how well the party understands power and how ruth lessly it will wield it. Mr Li may continue to think for himself, but he has absorbed the lesson his father drew from Tiananmen. He has returned home and is prepar ing for his civilservice examinations, with an eye to becoming a local propaganda offi cial. n
................................................................................. Some names were changed to protect individuals featured in this story.
