The following post by Weibo user “Hong Kong Online” (香港在線) about continued resistance in Hong Kong to a proposed “national education” curriculum supported by Beijing was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 12:05 p.m. today, September 4, 2012. Hong Kong Online currently has more than 63,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

You want to win the heart of the Hong Kong people, fine. Make use of the line by [Taiwan’s] Lung Ying-tai: “Please use civilization to convince me.”

The post was a comment by Hong Kong Online to a post it made just moments earlier, which remains undeleted. This suggests that the present of Lung Ying-tai’s name in the second post resulted in its deletion:

Some people say that Hong Kong should have national education because while the territory returned [to China] in 1997, the Hong Kong people have not yet returned in their hearts. There might be some sense in this statement, but Hong Kong is a special case and it requires understanding and tolerance. Over hundreds of years, Hong Kong has gone from a small fishing village to an international city, in the process developing its own social system and set of values. It’s perhaps impossible for it to join the rail with the mainland just like that. If you want to change Hong Kong you must improve yourself first.

The following are the original Chinese posts, first the later deleted post followed by the undeleted earlier post:

要得港人心,可以。借龙应台的一句话就是,“请用文明来说服我”。
——
有人说,香港之所以开展国民教育,是因为97年香港只是主权回归,港人的心尚未回归。也许这一说法有一定道理,但是香港毕竟有其特殊性,需更多的理解和包容。数百年来,香港由一个小渔村变成国际大都市,形成了自己的社会制度和价值观,一下子和内地接轨几乎是不可能的。想改变香港,首先必须完善自己。


NOTE: All posts to The Anti-Social List are listed as “permission denied” in the Sina Weibo API, which means they were deleted by Weibo managers, not by users themselves.


David Bandurski

CMP Director

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