Hong Kong officials have singled out at least two schools for singing the Chinese national anthem “too softly”.
Teachers at a third school have been asked to help students “cultivate habit and confidence” in singing it.
Hong Kong has redoubled the emphasis on “patriotic” education since 2020 when China cracked down on the city’s pro-democracy movement.
Officials said students’ voices at the Hong Kong and Macau Lutheran Church Primary School were “soft and weak” and “should be strengthened”. At Yan Chai Hospital Lim Por Yen Secondary School, teachers were told to “help students develop the habit of singing the national anthem loudly in unison”.
You could have asked… I mean, you were in a building staffed with people paid to answer questions and inform you about the world.
Most of the staff likely would have told me that it is mandatory. There are news stories all the time about kids being bullied, given detention, and other negative repercussions, for exercising their right to not say the pledge.