A study of teachers' views on the development of values in Hong Kong's music education 20 years after the handover from the United Kingdom to China

After the return of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR), and the HKSAR Government promoted local and national cultures, as well as singled out national education as the sole focus of civic education and values education. With a particular reference to school music education, this chapter will examine recent developments in the dynamics and complexity of cultural identities between the state and politics in Hong Kong that have shaped values and music education in light of the twentieth anniversary of the handover to China and the construction of values education through school music education. Data were drawn from a small-scale survey questionnaire completed by 112 primary and secondary school music teachers to explore the dynamics and dilemmas of Hong Kong's music education. This chapter will argue that preparations for values education (particularly with respect to the teaching of local, Chinese, and other world music, as well as Chinese nationalism) might pose a challenge to how musical meanings and non-musical meanings should be delineated and delivered in the school curriculum, which may depend on, to a large extent, how the HKSAR Government translates the identities of local, national, and global imperatives into demands on school education.