Hong Kong secondary school amends textbooks after mainland Chinese customs stops 2 students over unofficial maps
- Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School says pages torn out of Form Two history textbook after at least two students stopped at border
- School management says it must ‘abide by the nation’s laws’, as local education authorities reach out to publisher
A Hong Kong secondary school is replacing unofficial national maps in some of its textbooks after at least two cross-border students carrying a copy were stopped by mainland Chinese customs last month.
The Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School vowed on Thursday to “abide by the nation’s laws”, saying it would review all other textbooks that had similar maps and update them.
The controversy came to light on social media over claims that mainland customs officers had torn a page out of a Form Two student’s history textbook because it included a national map that was not “the standard one”.
Ma Siu-leung, supervisor of the Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School, confirmed on Thursday that the incident had taken place earlier this month and at least two students were involved.
The school would overlay the unofficial map in the Form Two Chinese history textbook with an updated one, he added.
“We have to abide by the nation’s laws. The simplest way is we have already downloaded the most updated version and will help students replace [the other map] … we will do it by today,” Ma said.
“The Education Bureau said this approach was very good.”
The incident first came to light when a Facebook page called “Edu Lancet” posted about it earlier this week.
According to the page, mainland customs officers had said the textbook’s maps of China failed to conform with “the standard one” as the Diaoyu Islands were written as “Diaoyutai”, a phrase preferred by Taiwan, and lacked an up-to-date “10-dash line”.
China last year added the extra dash to the area near Taiwan when it updated its standard map, with observers saying the move was part of Beijing’s efforts to demonstrate its sovereignty rights.
The latest map includes all disputed areas that China considers to be its territory, such as Taiwan, the Indian-claimed Arunachal Pradesh and most of the South China Sea, which is contested by countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
A check by the Post found the Form Two textbook was published in 2021.
According to the Facebook page, the student mentioned in the post was scared by the incident and was told to affix his fingerprint on a copy of the pages being checked.
Ma on Thursday said he was not aware of whether either of the students had been required to provide fingerprints or their feelings during the incident.
The school would check whether any similar maps were featured in textbooks for other subjects.
“If there are teaching materials which are not coherent with the nation’s laws, we have to review and abide by the law,” he said.
An Education Bureau spokeswoman said local authorities had contacted the school after learning about the incident and would offer suitable assistance.
The two national maps from the school’s textbook, published by the Modern Educational Research Society several years ago, were inconsistent with the new version released by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources last year, she said.
“The Education Bureau will notify the publisher of the update as soon as possible and will also notify other publishers to review the published textbooks,” the spokeswoman added.
She also reminded publishers to contact the bureau for further clarification if outdated maps were found.
The Post has contacted the Modern Educational Research Society for comment.
