The Making of an Alienated Generation: Political Socialization of Secondary School Students in Transitional Hong Kong

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

1. From Consensus to Dissensus: a Theoretical Reorientiation. 2. Political Socialization in Hong Kong: an Historical Review. 3. Working Hypotheses, Definitions and Methodology. 4. The Socialization of Alienation by Political Events, Parents and Stereotyping. 5. The Depoliticization and Trivialization of Civic Education and the Making of Political Alienation in Secondary Schools. 6. Quality of School, Grade Level, Subject Group and Political Alienation. 7. The Making of an Alienated Generation and its Implications. 8. Conclusion.

Author(s) Bio