Sources evaluation and assessment methods

¶ … Lowe, Kate. "Hong Kong's Missing History." History Today, 41.12 (1991) [8 Jun 2012]

http://www.historytoday.com/kate-lowe/hong-kongs-missing-history

Category of the source

"Hong Kong's Missing History" is an electronic version of a journal article. History Today is a journal that is geared towards a popular audience, but is written by journalists with strong academic backgrounds in history.

This article was written upon the eve of the takeover of the prosperous, capitalist British colonial possession of Hong Kong by China. It suggests that the cosmopolitan identity of Hong Kong is unique, and still evolving, and cannot be subsumed under either a British or a Chinese national character.

Q3. A quick list of key points

Hong Kong's status as part of China is described as inalienable, in terms of legitimate historical clams. However, despite the dubious nature of Great Britain's dominion over Hong Kong for so many years, the people of Hong Kong did not necessarily embrace Chinese rule with eagerness. The embarrassment of Britain's former colonial past prevented Britain from allowing the residents to declare national independence vs. automatically allowing Hong Kong to be subsumed into China without a referendum.

Q4. How (specifically) this source can be useful to write history?

This source paints an evocative picture of recent history: it illustrates the anxieties many Hong Kong residents felt about China assuming control over their nation and some of the historical background and controversies that have since been forgotten, now that Hong Kong is part of China.

Source 2

Kan, Flora & Edward Vickers. "One Hong Kong: Two Histories 'Chinese History' and 'History' in the Hong Kong School Curriculum. Paper presented at the Australian Curriculum Studies. Association Biennial Conference, Perth, September 29 -- October 2, 1999. [8 Jun 2012] http://www.acsa.edu.au/pages/images/99_kan_one_honk_kong.pdf

Q1. Category of the source

This is a paper that was presented at an educational conference.

Q2. Summary of the source

The construction of history shapes how citizens educated within a nation's educational system view their lives and leadership. In the Hong Kong curriculum, 'history' and 'Chinese history' are separated as two different subjects. This paper examines why and how this division evolved and the consequences of this for Hong Kong.

Q3. A quick list of key points

History textbooks in China usually contain anti-foreign references. Until recently, world history was taught in English in Hong Kong schools, although this has gradually changed. However, what has not changed is the maintenance of different national curriculum standards for both Chinese and general history and both subject areas possess different philosophical aims: history has been presented as an analytical subject; Chinese history with a moral, dogmatic orientation.

Q4. How (specifically) this source can be useful to write history?

This illustrates the 'divided consciousnesses' of many Hong Kong residents, a divided consciousness hard-wired into their experience of history from school-age onward.

Q5. The specific limitations or drawbacks of the source

The