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plan to reside in, or do business with, Hong Kong after 1997.
Furthermore, it is not too difficult to recognize the emergence of a new middleman (in a sense, a new “compradore class” in Hong Kong) during the years leading up to the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997. These are individuals, usually but not invariably of Chinese ethnic origin, often with existing economic and social prestige in Hong Kong, who are attempting to serve as go-betweens with the new political masters. Even in the field of academic education, a group of facilitators and middlemen has already emerged in Hong Kong, opening doors for visits, conferences, and regular contacts with educationalists from the Chinese mainland. Mok Man Cheung was in some ways the spiritual and intellectual forebear of this group and, therefore, claims may be advanced for him to be considered, truly, as A Middle-man for All Seasons.
In a broader, international and academic context, perhaps a recognition of what can be gained from a study of snapshots will serve to open up alternatives to the classic, "hard" social-science approaches to the understanding of what is distinctive about education in different societies. Currently, at least some of the macro approaches are so much concerned from the very outset with generalization and comparison that they fail to incorporate important and characteristic aspects of a society's educational system. At the other extreme, some micro approaches are so excessively concerned, often in the manner of antiquarianism, with detail that it is difficult to see how they could possibly contribute to any important understandings beyond their own minute facts. The methodological burden of this article has been that there is a place for an inductive approach which starts from the details and, by focusing on them as snapshots, is capable of generating broader understandings. If Mok Man Cheung is accepted as a Middleman for All Seasons, a claim can be advanced for alternatives to macro-mania.
66
plan to reside in, or do business with, Hong Kong after 1997.
Furthermore, it is not too difficult to recognize the emergence of a new middleman (in a sense, a new “compradore class” in Hong Kong) during the years leading up to the transfer of sover- eignty to China in 1997. These are individuals, usually but not invariably of Chinese ethnic origin, often with existing economic and social prestige in Hong Kong, who are attempting to serve as go-betweens with the new political masters. Even in the field of academic education, a group of facilitators and middlemen has already emerged in Hong Kong, opening doors for visits, confer- ences, and regular contacts with educationalists from the Chinese mainland. Mok Man Cheung was in some ways the spiritual and intellectual forebear of this group and, therefore, claims may be advanced for him to be considered, truly, as A Middle-man for All Seasons.
In a broader, international and academic context, perhaps a recognition of what can be gained from a study of snapshots will serve to open up alternatives to the classic, "hard" social-science approaches to the understanding of what is distinctive about edu- cation in different societies. Currently, at least some of the macro approaches are so much concerned from the very outset with gen- eralization and comparison that they fail to incorporate important and characteristic aspects of a society's educational system. At the other extreme, some micro approaches are so excessively con- cerned, often in the manner of antiquarianism, with detail that it is difficult to see how they could possibly contribute to any impor- tant understandings beyond their own minute facts. The method- ological burden of this article has been that there is a place for an inductive approach which starts from the details and, by focusing on them as snapshots, is capable of generating broader under- standings. If Mok Man Cheung is accepted as a Middleman for All Seasons, a claim can be advanced for alternatives to macro-mania.
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