October 3, 2024
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government has launched a TV advertisement featuring a new patriotic song called Our Home, doubling down on its efforts to promote national education in the city.
The minute-long ad, which started broadcasting on local television channels on China’s national day on Oct 1, is the latest in a series of patriotic education initiatives launched in recent months.
The music video depicts scenes of China’s science and technology achievements, Hong Kong’s recent wins at the Olympic Games and heart-warming slice-of-life moments in the city.
These are set against a Cantonese song performed by veteran singer-turned-politician Cally Kwong, an elected Hong Kong delegate to China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress.
“We hope (the ad) can reach people across different walks of life and age groups in society, and subtly instil in them a stronger feeling of ‘Love our country, Love Hong Kong, Love our community’,” said Ms Starry Lee, convenor of the Working Group on Patriotic Education, which coordinated the ad’s launch.
The group – a dedicated team set up by the government in April to lead Hong Kong’s efforts to improve its people’s sense of national belonging and knowledge of China’s history, culture and current affairs – is behind some of the city’s patriotic education initiatives.
National education has been a top priority for Chief Executive John Lee since he took office in July 2022, charged with leading a city left socially divided after years of upheaval following 2019’s anti-government protests, the imposition of a national security law and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other recent initiatives include a national security exhibition that opened in August at the Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the addition of a new subject focused on patriotic education that was made mandatory for secondary school students from September.
The newly released ad opens with views of the Hong Kong skyline and its famed Lion Rock mountain, the lyrics making reference to the hardy spirit of resilience associated with the iconic peak, set to a tune reminiscent of the city’s 1990s Cantopop music.
“We love our country, our beloved home; together we walk, lifting each other up… No matter how far or how tough the journey, we are never afraid,” goes the refrain sung by Kwong, 62, a former beauty queen and popular Cantopop singer from the 1980s and 1990s.
Kwong – also known as Kuang Meiyun – performed the song alongside a student choir at the West Kowloon Cultural District on the eve of China’s national day on Sept 30.
Karaoke versions of the song, first released in September, will be distributed to primary and secondary school students across Hong Kong in October, the working group said.
Our Home appears to be Hong Kong’s first pop song written specifically for national education purposes.
There have been other pop songs related to the same theme, such as late singer Roman Tam’s Chinese Dreams in the 1980s, but they were not produced specifically for any campaign, according to the University of Hong Kong’s Professor Stephen Chu.
“The use of a pop song (for Our Home) seems aimed at attracting wider public attention, especially that of the younger generation,” Prof Chu, who teaches Hong Kong culture, film and music, told The Straits Times.
But while the song is easy on the ears and has references to the Lion Rock Spirit in the lyrics and visuals, “the ‘top-down’ approach is not usually very effective”, he said.
“Society has changed so much that I’m not sure if the style and the spirit still appeal to the general public, let alone the younger generation.”
A video of the song shared on YouTube has received some 25,000 views as at Oct 2 noon, drawing more than 150 comments.
Many comments were in praise of the song, with one netizen describing it as “very genuine, inspirational and forward-looking”.
But some also criticised it for sounding “old-fashioned” and “outdated”, questioning why younger, trendier singers, such as local boy band Mirror, were not invited to sing instead.
In his annual policy speech in 2023, Mr Lee promised to integrate patriotic awareness into Hong Kong’s education system to “lay a good foundation for national unity and solidarity”.
However, it will be a long-term effort to nurture a sense of belonging to the motherland among Hong Kong people, many of whom still find the compulsory singing of the national anthem at local schools a foreign concept.
It became mandatory in 2022 for all public schools in Hong Kong to hold a flag-raising ceremony with the singing of the national anthem once a week. But the move – while implemented – was met with contention, with the media reporting at that time that many residents viewed it as a form of indoctrination.
Professor Anthony Cheung, a former official who is now a research chair professor of public administration at the Education University of Hong Kong, said while national education is “normal and necessary in any country”, the notion has for decades been marked by ambiguity in Hong Kong due to its “unique historical legacy”.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997 under the “one country, two systems” framework that promises the city a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not typically enjoyed elsewhere in China.
“As we move into the future, patriotism and national education should be normalised…
“One should not need to feel either that patriotism is something negative and uncalled for by default, nor should one feel constantly under pressure to prove that we are patriotic all the time,” Prof Cheung told ST.
“We should do away with this kind of baggage. We can be proud of our country and also be critical of it when we have not done things well enough.”