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Hong Kong school must submit report to authorities after video of students’ antics with national anthem goes viral

  • Video circulated widely online shows students disrupting class by mocking their secondary school teacher as national anthem is played on another mobile phone
  • One student kicks a table and dances on it, while another behind the camera can be heard laughing as she films, in incident that principal says occurred last October

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The student mockingly asks for the teacher’s hand in marriage in the viral video. Photo: Xiaohongshu

Hong Kong education authorities have asked a secondary school to submit a report after a video was spread online of its students disrupting a history lesson by mocking their teacher, and performing antics with the national anthem playing as background music.

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The Education Bureau also said on Tuesday that schools should immediately follow up when students acted in a manner that disrespected the national anthem, “March of the Volunteers”, as stipulated by the National Anthem Ordinance.

In the two-minute viral video, a female student from the Association of Directors and Former Directors of Pok Oi Hospital Limited Leung Sing Tak College in Tsuen Wan is seen interrupting the class by mockingly asking for the teacher’s hand in marriage and miming a kiss through her mask.

The girl, who is repeatedly ordered by the exasperated teacher to return to her seat, is also seen kicking a table, standing on it and dancing while the national anthem is played on the speakers of another mobile phone. Throughout the video, the student behind the camera can be heard laughing as she films.

A bureau spokeswoman said the authorities had immediately contacted the school to investigate the situation after learning about the viral video and ordered it to “handle the incident seriously and submit a detailed report”.

The student kicks a table and dances on it while the national anthem plays in the background. Photo: Xiaohongshu
The student kicks a table and dances on it while the national anthem plays in the background. Photo: Xiaohongshu

“The school should educate students on the right etiquette – to stand solemnly and comport themselves with dignity [while the national anthem is playing],” she added.

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