A Public Church School in a People's Republic?

I feel a bit strange that Hong Kong government has assigned my son to an Anglican/Episcopal primary school while I am drifting away from Christianity. Is it a call from God that I should reconcile with Christianity? I don't know...

And I feel a bit strange that the local government has allocated him to a church-run school. I grew up in a country whose constitution clearly states the separation of religion and government (it is the Japanese version of the separation of Church and State) so the government allocation and a church-affiliated school do not fit nicely to each other, at least in me.

In addition, we are now living in one the few people's republics that still exist in this world! But in this southern tip of the People's Republic of China, much of public education is provided by various churches.

Well, this is a part of Deng Xiaoping's "fifty years no change" promise to Hong Kongers upon the return of Hong Kong to China in July 1997. As it has already been nine years since this city was handed over from the United Kingdom to China (and the handover was very smooth), I often forget that Hong Kong used to be a British colony...

The line between government-run and non-government-run schools is very vague here in this former British colony. Although all Hong Kong kids can receive free education, there are not so many pure government-run schools here. The majority of schools are affiliated to religious organisations (mostly Catholic and Protestant churches but there are some Buddhist, Taoist and Islamic schools) and provide free-of-charge primary school education. These church schools can teach their religions when the secular school kids are taught common sense.

I guess it is because the former British colonial government was reluctant to spend much money to educate the local Chinese people and church schools could be used to keep the local population away from the influence of the Communist Party of China, especially during the Cultural Revolution that ended 30 years ago...

As less than 10% of Hong Kong's population is Christian and most kids are allocated to church schools by the local government, I guess I should not be worried about rigorous indoctrination.

And I believe that some contact to traditional moderate religion would be helpful when my son faces spiritual problems many years later. It will work as a good immunisation against so-called cults. (Well, it's funny that I say this. To many Christians, ACIM and Jungian psychology - the spiritual guidance I now subscribe to - are nothing but new cults!)