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“China wants Hong Kong’s next generation to know how great it is and not know the bad stuff,” said Chan Yip-Long, a 9-year-old primary school student. “The booklet is very biased, so I am opposing it.”

China wants Hong Kong’s next generation to know how great it is and not know the bad stuff

The protest is the latest sign of growing discontent in Hong Kong over mainland China’s increasing influence 15 years after the freewheeling financial centre was returned to China by Britain following more than a century of colonial rule. Tensions have also been stoked by growing economic inequality and as well as an influx of free-spending wealthy Chinese, who are seen as driving up property prices and shop rents.

Hong Kongers are also angry about stunted democratic development. Beijing has pledged that Hong Kong can elect its own leader in 2017 and all legislators by 2020, though no roadmap has been laid out. On July 1, tens of thousands of people protested over the city’s new leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who was chosen by an elite pro-Beijing committee and is widely suspected of having close ties to the Communist Party.

Sunday’s demonstrators carried placards and banners and shouted slogans calling for the government to withdraw its plan to introduce the Moral and National Education curriculum.

We want the truth, we don’t want brainwashing

The government has stood firm and plans to make the subject compulsory in primary schools starting in 2015 and in secondary schools the year after, although schools are encouraged to start using it earlier.

According to the curriculum guidelines, students will learn about China’s political leaders, the efforts and contributions they have made and the difficulties and challenges they face, as well as how to “speak cautiously,” practice self-discipline and get along well with others in a rational and respectful manner.

Police estimated 32,000 people turned out for Sunday’s protest. Despite blazing heat, many parents were there, pushing infants and young children in strollers. A group of young girls chanted, “We want the truth, we don’t want brainwashing.”