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previous life had led her to the Directorship of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, the first person to hold the post after the Government of Great Britain returned Hong Kong to Mainland China on 30 June 1997.
'I had come to love Chinese people and culture with a passion, yet over the years I always felt like a guest, honoured and cared for, but never fully accepted within Chinese society. In a way, this was inevitable, given China's socialist system and the kinds of roles I had played in China. Now, however, the government and people of a Hong Kong returned to China had entrusted me with leading the institution responsible for preparing teachers for their schools... It was an awesome responsibility and an honour that made me know, deep within myself, that I was now one of them. Somehow I had been searching for that acceptance all of my life.' (pp. 238-239)
With Full Circle as a teaser, I look forward to the Biography, which might perhaps suggest that Hayhoe's desire to speak out (even apparently for others) is a product of her previous membership, through her family, of the Christian Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, where women had (and possibly still have?) no voice (p. 59). It might suggest that Hayhoe's embrace of the notional worldwide university and its ordered enclosed ways derives from at the same time as it is an escape from -- the narrow discipline that the Brethren imposed on her early life.
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In the meantime, we have this Autobiography; and it is compelling and inspirational reading. The first edition of Full Circle is bound to sell out quickly. Perhaps the publishers will then take the opportunity to pay attention to the couple of dozen editorial lapses, including one on the book jacket. If possible, it would be good to enhance the already useful index to reflect Hayhoe's feelings and thoughts, as well as to indicate some themes; and also, the addition of a bibliography and List of Illustrations would do the book better service. Some errors of fact could also be corrected.
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was not
For example, the Hong Kong Institute of Education -- Hayhoe considers her position there as the apogee of her career to date created out of 'five traditional teachers colleges' (pp. 208, 211, 227), but was constituted of four Colleges of Education and the much newer Institute of Language in Education, the latter established and staffed at a higher academic level than the Colleges. In fact, the Institute formed the