Divine mission

Excerpts from Jeff Gomez's Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age (London: Macmillan, 2008):

"when a person, or even an entire industry, is convinced that they're on a divine mission, then they're going to be even less, rather than more, inclined to change their ways and try something new. And the more that publishers ignore the drive (much less temptation) to change, the more they will marginalize themselves, pulling away from the rest of the culture, and instilling an us or them worldview that may take years to shake" (p. 40-41).

Although he refers to the publishing industry, his point could also apply to the field of education, in particular humanities education and to be more specific, in my field, Chinese culture education. With the mission to disseminate Chinese culture to local HK Chinese students, mostly second or third generation from the mainland China, who were born and bred in colonial setting (e.g. law and manner), and received colonial education with next to nothing so-called cultivation of Chinese culture and national education, it is WE who essentialize, marginalize, and museumize Chinese culture into something merely to be comprehended (as a kind of knowledge) and appreciated (as a kind of heritage) rather than consumed and practiced in everyday life. After all, everyone of us is completely Chinese by upbringing in a Chinese society.