The sociopolitical transformations and Hong-Kong secondary music education: Politicization, culturalization, and marketization

The transfer of Hong Kong's political sovereignty from the United Kingdom (UK) to the People's Republic of China (PRC) was effective as of July 1, 1997. This paper uses an historical perspective to analyze the social context of the Hong Kong music curriculum with reference to the return of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1997. It focuses on secondary music education in Hong Kong, which is presented as an arena of conflict between the state and nonstate actors such as the market and cultural forces. Struggles over the content of musical knowledge and musical meaning exist both inside and outside the school environment in Hong Kong. Developing the theoretical model proposed by Lucy Green (1988, 1997), this paper suggests that an understanding of music and music education in Hong Kong is enhanced by seeing music as a sociopolitical construction, and it describes and analyzes the pattern of Hong Kong music education with reference to a survey of secondary school teachers completed in 1995.