Hong Kong Moves to Make Disrespecting Chinese Anthem a Crime

HONGKONG, LELEMUKU.COM - Hong Kong lawmakers are set to consider a bill that would make disrespecting China’s national anthem a crime.

The bill, expected to be introduced to the Legislative Council Wednesday, recommends a three-year prison sentence and a $6,373 fine for anyone found publicly and intentionally disrespecting the anthem "March of the Volunteers."

The bill will also make it mandatory for schoolchildren to learn the anthem, including those enrolled in international schools.

The bill has raised concerns, with some saying it is just one more way Beijing is trying to exert its influence on the former British colony, and flouts the “one country, two systems” framework that was set up to protect its judiciary and freedom of expression after British rule ended in 1997.

In recent years, booing the national anthem has become a popular means of protest at sporting events on the island.

China adopted a similar law in 2017 and it is also being considered in Macau, which is also a Chinese special administrative region.

The bill is expected to come to vote in the Legislative Council and easily pass before summer. (VOA)

Results Uneven in Hong Kong’s Voluntary Sex-Ed Program

HONGKONG, LELEMUKU.COM - When university student Zack Lee was younger, he received no sexual education at his Christian high school. The reproductive system was explained in science class, but further questions from students were not answered by the teacher.

“I didn’t have any sex education class during second school, and they didn’t teach me anything,” Lee said. “Most of my schoolmates are just like me, didn’t know how to use condoms and didn’t know how to have sex with girls.”

Instead he and his friends resorted to the internet to answer most of his questions, a common phenomenon in Hong Kong where standards of sex-ed can vary dramatically between schools.

Not a mandatory subject

Sex-ed is not taught as a mandatory subject in Hong Kong schools but is instead integrated into a curriculum on moral and civic education, the Education Bureau said by email, intended to help students learn “whole-person development to cope with challenges of the 21st century.”

The Education Bureau said that rather than focus on simply the “physiological aspect” of sex-ed, it also aims to teach students about “personal growth and development, making friends, dating, marriage and gender equality.” In practice however, results can vary with schools left to determine for themselves how to teach sex-ed.

The mixed results have raised concerns among rights groups as well as the Department of Health and the Hong Kong Family Planning Association, according to a study by Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.

Students on average receive around three hours of sex education a year, according to legislative council survey. During that time 60 percent of students learn about HIV prevention while 80 percent learn how to use a condom, according to the latest 2012 survey of 134 schools by LegCo.

Results uneven

“What we see is that the situation is very uneven. Some schools may have comprehensive sex education with enough hours but some schools just have none, they don’t have any sex education,” said Julia Sun, the director of Sticky Rice Love, an online forum for sex-ed issues.

Similar to much of Asia, the city’s cultural attitudes toward sex also veer toward conservative, with Sticky Rice’s website observing that “Hong Kong people seldom talk about sex” and conversations are often surrounded by shame and guilt.

Organizations like Sticky Rice are often invited into schools to give sex-ed talks, but what they are allowed to discuss often varies from government guidelines.

Many schools are eager to talk about how to prevent pregnancy, with a particular emphasis on abstinence, Sun said, but skip important lessons like emotional development, communication and consent. LGBT issues and gender identity are also still controversial topics, she said.

The Hong Kong Aids Foundation, which also works with schools, said many were reluctant to allow the organization to distribute condoms, even at the university level.

High educational standards

The mixed track record is at odds with Hong Kong’s otherwise high educational standards within the region.

Hong Kong secondary school students ranked second in the world for math and reading in a 2015 global study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, while its universities are regarded as some of the best in Asia.

Its regional rivals Singapore and Taiwan, which have similar levels of economic development, also have mandatory sex-ed programs. Mongolia, while still a developing country, also stands out regionally for its advanced sex-ed program, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

Instead, Hong Kong has more in common with neighboring China, where sex-ed is also not mandatory and often limited to discussion of physiology and HIV prevention, without discussing greater issues of gender and sexuality, according to Jo Sauvarin, adviser on Adolescents and Youth at the UNPFA.

Prominent role of religion

Such an approach is often found across Asia, which as a region lags behind much of Africa and Latin America, where many countries ramped up sex-ed years ago in response to local HIV epidemics, Sauvarin said.

The cautious approach of many Hong Kong schools may in part be because of the prominent role religious organizations have played in educating Hong Kong youth.

Over half of all students attend schools with some kind of religious affiliation, varying from Christian to Buddhist to Sikh, according to government data. Many local organizations also point to the additionally conservative influence of Confucian thinking in Hong Kong’s education system.

In such a climate, pushback can also come from parents, who fear sex-ed might encourage their children to experiment, according to local groups. Sauvarin said, however, that simply telling them not to have sex or limiting their education can have the opposite desired effect.

“A number of programs in our region would focus more on those elements [like abstinence] and so they don’t have any effect on adolescent pregnancy or reduction of HIV if you just tell young people don’t have sex without giving them the information that they need,” she said. “In fact, in contrast programs that have comprehensive sexuality education actually delay the initiation of sex.” (VOA)

Hong Kong Turns to Virtual Reality to Honour Ancestors

HONGKONG, LELEMUKU.COM - A lack of space for cemeteries in crowded Hong Kong clashes with the age-old Chinese tradition of reverence for one's ancestors.

But one entrepreneur uses virtual reality software to reconcile the two, allowing people to honour Confucian traditions of filial obligation in the territory where it can cost up to $130,000 to store the ashes of loved ones.

Anthony Yau's firm, iVeneration.com, offers users the ability to create virtual headstones anywhere in an augmented reality landscape of Hong Kong, including such unlikely places as a downtown park.

Apart from the cost savings, Yau expects his business model to appeal to more eco-conscious young residents.

"The dead are taking so much more space than those who are still alive, as those buried use that piece of land for many years," said Yau, as he manipulated his mobile telephone to correctly position a candle in front of a virtual headstone.

"For those who are still alive, they won't stay on the same piece of land forever."

Yau, who hopes to launch the website to the public in the first quarter of 2018, has already attracted 300 users.
   
Filial piety, or respect for parents and older people, is a paramount virtue in the Confucian tradition.
 
"We need to educate the next generation on filial piety, no matter how you show it, as long as it comes from the heart," Yau added. "We think the next generation might use these services for their parents.

Alex Lee, a 46-year-old employee of a technology company, uses iVeneration to pay his respects to his departed grandfather.

"Everyone is aware the lack of land is a problem in Hong Kong and the government has been encouraging green burial," said Lee, as he leafed through an album of family photographs.

"For me, you dont have to go to a thing to remember those passed away, its all in your heart." (Antara)