[Yi Lan, Global Correspondent, Hong Kong Journalist] The Hong Kong Secondary School Diploma Examination continued this year after the history exam questions asked candidates to comment "Japan brought more benefits than harm to China from 1900 to 1945." Controversial exam questions appeared on the 21st China History.
According to Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily, the secondary school diploma exam on the 21st day in the history of science, one of the mandatory questions shows two anti-Japanese war propaganda materials, one of the flyers shows excited Japanese soldiers holding weapons to celebrate Victory, with the words "Xuzhou lost" and "The Japanese in North China and Central China are completely in contact"; another poster shows many Japanese fists slamming their fists towards the ground, and it reads "Everyone vowed to destroy the Japanese pirates". The question asks if the candidate agrees with the Japanese army ’s propaganda, “try to cite historical facts and explain.” Li Weixiong, president of the Chinese History Teachers' Association, believes that the flyers listed in the exam questions clearly have the intention of downplaying the Japanese aggression, and candidates should consider the motivation behind the Japanese army's promotional materials when answering. There are also people in the education industry who are worried about the intention of the test questions, and may be misled by the cheering scene of the poster to get an answer to the Japanese invasion of China. On the 21st, the Examinations Bureau argued that the question was to assess the candidate ’s understanding of the war against Japan. The question content was also found in various textbooks and other related works, in line with the general knowledge of candidates.
In response to the controversial test questions that have appeared in the historical exams in the past few days, a statement published on the Sing Tao Daily said that Japan killed me thousands of compatriots and caused deep suffering to China. Everyone can't bear to recall this history of blood and tears. It is impossible for the question-proposing team to be without this alertness, but the questions still appear, indicating that a group of people in Hong Kong are playing with fire and have openly challenged the Chinese people's bottom line through the college entrance examination. The article bluntly stated that the 2020 Hong Kong History test questions will inevitably become an international joke, and the HKEAA has already shamed Hong Kong. An editorial in Sing Tao Daily said that everyone who knows history and international issues knows that different countries and nations have some fundamental values of right and wrong, and they must not be violated. There are no pros and cons to discuss. This test question is precisely against the "right and wrong" of the Chinese nation. It is unacceptable from the perspective of the country or the Chinese.
A social commentary published in Hong Kong ’s Ta Kung Pao said that this incident squeezed a pustule out of the education problem in Hong Kong and shed yellow purulent venom, while also providing a good opportunity for education to chaos anyway. The article bluntly stated that if this evil force in Hong Kong is not rectified, the problem of education will only endlessly endlessly.