Monday, July 30, 2012

Hong Kong parents protest China propaganda lessons


Demonstrators pushing prams march during a protest in Hong Kong. Thousands of stroller-pushing Hong Kong parents and activists have protested against a plan to introduce national education lessons, slamming it as a bid to brainwash children with Chinese propaganda.

Thousands of stroller-pushing Hong Kong parents and activists Sunday protested a plan to introduce national education lessons, slamming it as a bid to brainwash children with Chinese propaganda.

Demonstrators pushing prams march during a protest in Hong Kong. Thousands of stroller-pushing Hong Kong parents and activists have protested against a plan to introduce national education lessons, slamming it as a bid to brainwash children with Chinese propaganda.

The government has said the subject is important to foster a sense of national pride and belonging, although its bid to start introducing the subject in September and make it compulsory in 2015 has sparked a public outcry.

Organisers said 90,000 demonstrators took part in the noisy protest, which was led by parents and young students. Police put the figure much lower at 32,000.

"As a parent, I'm very angry, this is a blatant brainwashing," mother-of-three Sandra Wong said as she marched in the sweltering heat accompanied by her husband and pushing her two-year-old daughter in a stroller.

"The curriculum only paints a rosy picture about the Communist Party... This is just an attempt to introduce the mainland agenda in Hong Kong schools," she said.

Sunday's protest underscored rising anti-Beijing sentiments, coming weeks after the city's biggest demonstration in nearly a decade, as new leader Leung Chun-ying was sworn in before Chinese President Hu Jintao.

More @ Bangkok Post

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