Two streams of history subjects teaching in Hong Kong’s secondary schools from the 1950s to the 1990s

This article investigated the development of history education in Hong Kong, after World War II under British colonial rule, through an examination of a wide range of primary sources and secondary literature. The juxtaposition of two history subjects, History and Chinese History as two electives of equal importance in the education system, was a special phenomenon in the colonial world. By examining the way British-ruled Hong Kong history education had developed and why it developed in this way, this article shows the unique political and geographical situation of Hong Kong during the Cold War period. Also, the changing status of the two history subjects in Hong Kong reflects the real interests and goals of different interest groups, e.g., the British colonialists, the American NGOs and the Chinese literati, and the educational means by which these groups achieved their goals. This change has resulted in Hong Kong local history being excluded from the Hong Kong’s history textbooks silently, which encourages us to think more about the choice of content and the teaching methods in multicultural areas’ history education. All rights reserved.