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Explore the history of Hong Kong during WWII with your students through topics and themes of British Citizenship, Evacuation, War experience, and Propaganda.
Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon Peninsula from Victoria Peak, 1940s. Photographer Harrison Forman. Digital ID: fr301552 From University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries.
Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997, all those born and raised there were British subjects and were under the protection of the crown.
However, when war was looming near the borders of Hong Kong in 1940, only pure European and British citizens were evacuated, no Chinese or Eurasian women or children were included in the evacuation scheme enacted by the British colonial authorities. This website explores the concepts of British identity and the consequences of racist governing policies that essentially led to the abandonment of Chinese and Eurasian children during the invasion of Japan. To understand the consequences of this, the website then goes on to study the experiences of war in Hong Kong in comparison to those who were evacuated to safety in the UK or other British colonies such as Australia.
This website is dedicated to providing a learning experience for children aged 11-15 by helping teachers expand their curriculum beyond Eurocentric history and political narratives of World War Two. The resources can be used chronologically or thematically; it does not follow need to follow a rigid lesson plan; therefore, the resources are flexible for you to use how you wish!
Key learning skills that the resource engages:
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Understanding of impact and consequence
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Comparative skills to identify differences and similarities
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Knowledge recall of the British experience of WWII to compare
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Primary source analysis
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Reading comprehension with primary sources
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