The Making of an Alienated Generation

First published in 1997, this volume examines the political apathy of the Hong Kong Chinese, with a particular focus on children in secondary schools. While most previous studies have been of adults, Leung’s approach exposes a generation who are politically uninvolved and disenchanted. He examines teacher-student encounters in a depoliticized school context and through a curriculum in which explicit political content is absent. The study throws light both on Chinese youths and the interaction of older and younger generations, and its macroscopic implications are distinctly ominous, suggesting trouble ahead for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.