| Abstract: | Despite China's assurances about 'one country, two systems', adult education in Hong Kong is in for some big changes. This paper maps the present adult education landscape, reviews research, posits four scenarios concerning the future and identifies challenges to be faced by adult educators in Hong Kong after 1997. Returning Hong Kong to the bosom of a Maoist, MarxistLeninist state is not necessarily good news for Marxist adult educators. Functionalist orthodoxy will be permitted but those committed to Marxist (critical, emancipatory) approaches to adult education will be in jeopardy because of laws about subversion. Adult education is shaped by the context in which it occurs and what happens to critical adult educators in Hong Kong after 1997 will signal the extent to which ''one country, two systems'' is reality or illusion. |
