Teacher’s contract not renewed because of "Glory to Hong Kong"

Inside the school with orange bricks, the five-starred flag is raised every day in the playground. In the classroom, on every desk is a copy of  “Tai Kung Po" and “Wen Wei Po" [Chinese state-owned newspapers]. The first lesson of each month is an assembly and broadcast of “The March of the Volunteers" on the stage. The first rule for all students is to “love China, Hong Kong and the school"......

This is Heung To Secondary School, a traditional left-wing school in Hong Kong. Heung To Secondary School was founded in the 1940’s. In the British Hong Kong era, it considered itself a patriotic school. In the early days, it was viewed as an “anti-government school". Many of the school’s students were arrested in the 1967 [pro-communist] Hong Kong Riots. After being discharged from prison, they received pennants with the words “Loyal to Ma Zedong Forever" issued by the school. 

After Hong Kong reunification, the political spectrum in Hong Kong went through a transformation. Heung To Secondary School became a pro-government school. Inside this “patriotic school" where students are encouraged to speak mandarin and singing “Glory to Hong Kong" can get you into trouble, those who participate in the current social movement are not only part of a minority - they are considered “freaks”. A few of freaks - “Bird", “Long Long" and “Egg” (pseudonyms) - told us about their lonely fight in a politically left-wing school. 

“Three students in Heung To including me were arrested," said Egg, a member of Heung To’s Indigenous Group. 

As at 31 May, nearly 9,000 people in Hong Kong have been arrested in the anti-ELAB movement. 40% of them are students, including three from Heung To, which has the national flag-raising ceremony and national anthem singing every day. Bird and Egg were two of them. Not many teachers and students in Heung To support the protest now. However, Bird and Egg are receiving entirely different treatment than those alumni who protested against the British colonial government back in the day.

A music teacher, who taught in Heung To for 12 years, was informed that her contract would not be renewed. It was suspected this happened because she allowed students to play the song "Glory to Hong Kong” as an examination piece. A physical education teacher also met with the same fate. After that, the music teacher sent an email entitled "An open letter explaining why my contract will not be renewed next year" to all teachers and students. In the letter, she stated she had received a warning letter from the principal pointing out the contradiction between her political stance versus the school’s. Hence, she suspected her contract was not renewed due to this difference in her political stance. 

After that, Heung To’s Indigenous Group initiated a human chain event supporting this teacher, but only half of the participants were students of Heung To. According to the journalist, some Mandarin speaking students declined to be interviewed. It was also observed that students participating in the human chain all faced the wall as they worried about retribution from the school. 

Form 5 students Bird and Long Long along with Form 2 Student Egg are members of the Heung To Indigenous Group. On the day of the interview, they were shy with the journalist at first. Just a minute later though, they started complaining non-stop about their school. When the journalist asked about the left-wing’s special characteristics, they expressed their disdain and helplessness at the same time.

Does school regulation expressly state to “love your country”? 

"Yes, it’s the first rule of school regulation." 

Does the school distribute Tai Kung Po and Wen Wei Po? 

"Yes, but everyone throws them into the recycling bin directly. Sometimes, you would even see a copy of the People's Daily in the recycling bin." 

Are students required to sing the national anthem every month? 

"I won't sing that song. To me, "Glory to Hong Kong" is the national anthem." 

After five years, Egg still cannot and is unwilling to sing the school’s anthem, especially the last sentence - “Because of you, China has added glory."

Essay describing tear gas experience was criticised

On the day of the human chain activity, the journalist interviewed some younger girls from Form 1. When they saw Egg, they shouted: “Big brother Egg! He is the most "yellow" [pro-democracy] in the school.” Looking in Egg’s direction, we found a baby-faced boy with a slight build. However, a closer look at his eyes revealed a maturity and steadfastness that did not match his age.

Egg is a charter member of the Heung To Indigenous Group. After taking a first-aid course, he became a first-aid helper in the protests. Because he looks so young, other protesters from the anti-ELAB movement gave him the nickname "Egg”. Bird and Long Long said Egg was always the one who would rush to the principal's office for a debate. He would also follow up with emails to the principal requesting for more details about school regulation. In the eyes of the two senior students, Egg is much more mature and capable than those of the same age.

Regarding recent incidents at Heung To school, the Indigenous Group had to prepare a response to the school's statement, organise the human chain activity and have interviews with the media. Egg said with a smile: “I do feel some pressure. I haven't submitted any homework for 3 days already.”  Egg, a Form 2 student, is responsible for the Indigenous Group’s affairs, on top of being first-aid helper and a student. He has also suffered in his school exams because his political stance is different from his teacher’s.

In an exam, Egg had to write an essay entitled "I was crying at that time”. Egg wrote about his experience with tear gas which made him cry. He was the only one to mention the social movement in the exam. He said, “In the beginning, I only expected to have a low score like around 50 to 60." He did not expect to fail but the teacher commented he had strayed from the topic of the exam question. "At the beginning of the semester, the teacher defined ‘straying from the topic’ as content that is inconsistent with facts. For example, ‘going to space’ would not be factual,” Egg said. Egg did not understand how "tear gas in Hong Kong" could be compared with "going to space", but he did not really care about his exam result. Thus, he did not argue with his Chinese teacher. He just hoped that he will not be taught by that Chinese teacher anymore.

According to Egg, this particular Chinese teacher has even given an idea for writing with the topic “If you want to express hatred towards the Christmas eve Mongkok rioters”. They were also assigned to copy the well-known verse from “Love China" as their homework. This teacher does not appear to be an isolated case. According to students' comments, the school require new Form 1 students to attend military training. During the training, students have to fold bed sheets as neatly as possible and sing Chinese military songs. Also, topics for classes activities and competitions are always related to “being patriotic".

Regarding the music teacher whose contract was not renewed because she allowed her students to play the song "Glory to Hong Kong", Bird and Long Long believe that the school wants teachers with the “correct political stance” and not ones who are  “politically neutral”.

You only hear Mandarin in the corridors

On the day of the human chain activity, the journalist found many students from other schools came to support. Bird and Long Long were excited and explained, "Yes, they all studied in Heung To before. All are our friends."

According to the three Heung To students, their school tends to enrol a large number of relatively hardworking Form 3 students from mainland China who want to study in the DSE program and eventually apply for universities or post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong via the Joint University Programmes Admissions System. In the meantime, the school will ask students who have poor conduct and academic results to leave by Form 3. This changing of the student roster makes the success rate of entering local universities and the school ranking look better. Bird and Long Long described it as a “big clean up”. 

“The ratio of students changes from two-thirds Hong Kongers to two-thirds mainland China students after the cleanup. In my class, only 10 people including myself are Hongkongers. Even fewer Hongkongers are found in the English class,” Long Long explained. She described Mandarin being spoken everywhere in the school during recess, and in the classrooms and corridors. Since it became compulsory for classes to be taught in Mandarin from Form 1, the most frequently heard language is also Mandarin.

Senior students Bird and Long Long recalled their first year at the school being very different. “Most of my classmates were Hongkongers at the time,” Long Long said. In junior middle school, most of them spoke Cantonese but eventually Hong Kong students switched to Mandarin because they wanted to make more friends. Bird and Long Long became the minority since they insisted on speaking Cantonese. 

Our journalist asked them how many friends they have in their classes. They looked at each other and counted with their fingers. “In the school, I think…… fewer than ten but really only two who are in the same class,” they said. When asked why they needed to think about it, Bird felt a little embarrassed, “Actually, they are not even really good friends.”

They admired their friends who were asked to leave after the second year and felt they were lucky. They tried to escape from Heung To, too. Bird applied to another school for Form 2 but she was rejected. Long Long failed the mathematics exam intentionally, getting 10 marks out of 100. However, she still did not succeed in her escape. These days Bird and Long Long try to study hard to ensure they graduate on schedule. “When we come to school every day, we just want to finish classes and leave,” they said. 

The school is apathetic and schoolmates asked if they were paid to protest

Bird, Long Long and Egg are typical student protestors, wearing black outfits, first aid packs and a smoke extinguisher pouch. They would always bring these things to the protests, but were arrested and detained for having them in their possession. 

Long Long still remembered when all exits had been blocked in a large scale protest. Protestors who were secondary students sat next to her and communicated with their school. She said, “Other principals were worried and student affairs directors kept asking the students their whereabouts. But, no one cared about me.” The journalist asked her if any teacher knew that she was there. She said only one teacher knew and kept in contact with her. However, this teacher was one of those whose contract  was not renewed. 

”Since the social movement started, the school has been providing counselling. But I dare not speak since the social worker is close to the student affairs director. A teacher reminded me to be careful of what to say to the social worker.” She was able to escape from the protests that time but Long Long still finds herself in tears from time to time. Still, she refused to seek help offered in the school. Instead, she asked for  a week of sick leave. After coming back from her leave, a few mainland students   suspected she had participated in the protest and asked her, “Are you rich now? How much did you get paid?”

“I would go to school every day and wish to leave as soon as possible. I really want to leave this place,” Long Long reiterated.

Neutral political stance? What is the ideal Heung To…..?

On the day of the interview,  Bird, Long Long and Egg were shy in the beginning. However, when they started talking about physical education teacher Mr. Kan and music teacher Miss Lee, they chattered with volubility. They said these two teachers whose contract had not been renewed were popular in the school.  Egg said everyone in the school liked the music teacher. He was still in bed when he received the emailed open letter from Miss Lee. He felt shocked because Miss Lee was humorous and mild-mannered. He could not imagine that she would send a letter to everyone in the school. 

Egg brought a lot of sports medals along for the interview. When the journalist said he must be a good athlete, he frowned and said, “Without Mr. Kan, I couldn’t have gotten all these medals.” Bird added that the school focused mostly on academic results. It was because of Mr Kan’s efforts that they started having intramural and extramural sports competition. Long Long was part of the school team. She said Mr. Kan would try to understand school team members’ academic standing and provide support. He would ensure their academics would not to be affected by their sports training. “He is a teacher with heart. He is not just an average teacher.”

“Miss Lee is also good and tough,” Bird said. She remembered Miss Lee would let students who forget to bring their recorders use smelly ones from the music room. Because of that, nobody ever forgets to bring a recorder. “We always enjoyed her lessons. We would always laugh so hard in her class.”

The three of them thought that the school was unwise for not renewing the contracts of these popular teachers. The school has lost a few good teachers. At the same time, many fellow students agreed with how the school managed the situation. Chris Wat, an alumni and a pro-Beijing writer, criticized teachers and students for not recognizing that Heung To was never a “politically neutral” school from the beginning. She also questioned why the students did not change schools if they had a different political stance. 

Egg never considered changing schools and said, “The school can have its own political stance, but that should not affect how teachers educate. Even to the point where it doesn’t matter whether something is right or wrong.” He thought it would not be fair to compare Heung To with other schools because every school has its own issues. “As long as I am still in Heung To, I have the right to speak out.” He hopes he could express students’ dissenting opinions through the Indigenous Group. “It’s the only way to change Heung To and change the public’s views of Heung To,” he said.

Whether a school should be politically neutral or not has always been a controversial topic among schools. Nowadays, what is the meaning and extent of “political neutrality” to students at Heung To? When the journalist asked what would be his ideal Heung To,  Egg responded: “The ratio of students from Hong Kong and China should be 50/50. The teaching philosophy doesn’t need to be neutral, but teaching style should be politically neutral, and the school should not suppress teachers and students.”

He had one more wish: “Stop forcing me to read Tai Kung Po and Wen Wei Po.”

Source: The Stand News, June 2020

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