What this would mean is that the students would be learning the same curriculum as those on the mainland. In 2011 the Chinese government subtly decided that it was time for Hong Kong to have similar education standards as the mainland and introduced the Moral and National Education ( MNE). At the age of 14, Joshua Wong started a movement to stop China from forcing its education system into Hong Kong and succeeded. This book is a coming of age story about a boy and his country. “Hong Kong is a city that isn’t British and doesn’t want to be Chinese, an its need to assert a distinct identity grows by the year.” Hong Kong is no longer a democracy and the facade that China has tried is no longer being tolerated by the people in Hong Kong. Things seem unchanged, at least for a little while, but the Chinese government bided its time and eventually began to press their agenda onto Hong Kong. It was at this time Britain pretty much washed their hands of Hong Kong. A deal was made between the British and Chinese governments called the Sino-British Joint Declaration and it was decided that until 2047, Hong Kong would work under a “one country, two systems ” principle with the premise to maintain some of Hong Kong’s freedoms and make for a smooth transition to whatever it is that China wants for Hong Kong. Many Chinese people fled from China to Hong Kong after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 in search of a transparent government that valued democratic freedoms so there was a big concern about what Hong Kong would become after the handover. Can you imagine growing up in a democratic country to all of a sudden being handed over to a communist government? Mass migrations of Hong Kongers left their home during this time afraid of what the Chinese government might turn their home country into by robbing them of their democratic rights. This handover was not something that Hong Kong people asked for or had any say in the matter. Hong Kong was a British colony for 156 years and was handed over back to China in 1997. Hong Kong’s history is rife with being taken over by others and Hong Kongers have had enough.Ī quick summary of Hong Kong’s history so that you have a base premise for this novel. It’s been a humbling experience and it has made me extremely proud of the people here and of the place I call my current home. I have lived here for the last four years and I have seen Hong Kong and I have witnessed first hand, its people fight for their right to their identity, culture, and democracy.

Hong Kong is my current home and while I am an expat here, I have a serious love and passion for this country that has given me so much.

Unfree Speech by Joshua Wong