Towards Decontextualized neutrality - Modern Chinese History as Portrayed in the History Textbooks in Hong Kong

Abstract

‘Textbooks matter.’ (Fuchs & Bock, 2018, p.1). Textbooks is not just an agent in delivering knowledge to students. textbooks, usually presented in impersonal and objective tones, are unconsciously perceived as the authoritative source of knowledge (Oteíza & Achugar, 2018). Therefore, textbooks have the power in legitimizing the ‘truth’ and constructing or reconstructing the reality (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991; Foster, 2011). Apple and Christian-Smith (1991, p.1-2) described textbooks as ‘the results of political, economic, and cultural activities, battles and compromises ... conceived, designed, and authored by real people with real interests, ... within the political and economic constraints of markets, resources, and power’. Not only do textbooks impact students learning and the society, but textbooks are also influenced by various factors and considerations imposed by different stakeholders. As such, textbooks have a very complex nature which deserve much research upon. As for History teaching, textbooks have an important role to play (Bod, 2014). Textbooks are served as the repository of historical knowledge from which teachers can select and present to their students (Gautschi, 2018). In Hong Kong, the wide use of textbooks in History lesson is observed (Jackson, 2015). Moreover, the change in textbooks published in Hong Kong through time is also worth investigating given her local history – Hong Kong was a colonial city under the British rule and now has been returned back to China in 1977. The textbooks have been changed for several times to match with the different social climates. Considering the portrait of historical events as an important factor shaping how the expected messages are delivered to students, this work is going to analyse on lexico-grammatical features of local History textbooks published in different political periods with the application of Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It is believed that clauses, as the combinations of words, have their role to play in producing social and cultural practice and shaping the society by sustaining or transforming the status quo (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Locke, 2004; Wodak & Meyer, 2009). However, the use of SFL in historiography in Hong Kong is limited. The application in the formal education of History in secondary school is even scarce. The only recent History textbook analysis using SFL approach is a thesis done by Akashi (2017). She compared a local junior secondary History textbook with a Japanese textbook. It is concluded that history education in these two places also has a role to play in national identity and global citizenship building. This study conducted a symmetric comparative study across regions. However, a comparative study across time is still absent. Given that History textbook analysis deserve more attention in the discipline in Hong Kong and that the comparative study of History textbooks in Hong Kong through time is absent, this work was aimed at filling in this gap. To do so, the study aims to address the research question: How did the portrait of modern Chinese history change in History textbooks in Hong Kong? This research seeks for both qualitative and quantitative method within the SFL framework for analysis. To provide a more holistic picture, the general trends are supported by the quantitative data and illustrated by qualitative examples. It is hoped that this study can provide implications for teachers, publishers and policymakers in using, choosing, designing and reviewing textbooks. Some shortcomings and merits of the textbooks is hoped to be outlined. It can provide constructive comments for the future History textbooks generation. Further implications would like to extend to teachers of other subjects and increase their awareness towards the hidden patterns and ideologies behind the narratives in textbooks.