4 - Networks of Knowledge Production: Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and British Examination Syndicates since the 1960s

This paper examines the underexplored legacy of British imperialism on education in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. During the second half of the twentieth century, education reforms took place frequently in the region due to the politics of the Cold War, decolonisation, and state-building. In Hong Kong, colonial administrators revised official curricula to suppress anti-British sentiments and responded to political changes in mainland China. In Malaysia and Singapore, post-colonial officials produced new curricula to prepare students as loyal citizens. A common strategy across the three territories was to rely on renowned British universities to validate their new curricula. In Singapore, the Ministry of Education cooperated with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate to conduct history examinations. In doing so, Singapore used the authoritative status of Cambridge to validate its historical discourses. Similar incidents occurred in Hong Kong, where the University of London validated its history examinations. Unlike the cases of the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Council, these agencies did not simply sustain British influence overseas but also helped post-colonial officials control knowledge production. While existing studies focus much on the aftermaths of the British Empire in Africa and South Asia, this paper will give a more comprehensive picture by bringing in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. More importantly, this paper will look beyond the colonial perspective and show how Asian governments interacted with former British imperial agencies to produce knowledge that suited their late- or post-colonial visions.