評《Hegemonies Compared: State Formation and Chinese School Politics in Postwar Singapore and Hong Kong》

Hegemonies Compared gives a fascinating historical account of the interrelations among hegemony, state formation and Chinese schools in Singapore and Hong Kong during the period of 1945-1965. It is a theoretically sophisticated and empirically engaging comparative study that illuminates how differences in the state institutions and the racial structures gave rise to two very different state strategies of controlling Chinese schools in the two societies. It draws on an opulent reservoir of exemplary works on state formation and education while challenging and rethinking some of the conventional theoretical assumptions in the Western literature. One of his ambitions, as the author himself puts it, is to advance theoretical reformulations, or to 'decenter' the West and the earlier modern biases of prevailing theories in state formation and education.