In 2014, hundreds of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) came forward to assert unbroken Hawaiian sovereignty and reject a U.S. Department of Interior proposal that paved the way for federal recognition of a reorganized Native Hawaiian governing entity. Using Hawaiian methods of knowledge production to weave together contemporary and historical instances of Kānaka political resistance to U.S. imperialism and settler colonialism, Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua and Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada situate testimonies from these hearings within a longer genealogy of Kānaka assertions of ea (sovereignty, life, breath) against the prolonged U.S. military occupation of Hawai‘i.

In this essay, I introduce how and why minority groups and educational equity are understood and approached differently in Mainland China and Hong Kong. I describe how in the past few decades, China and Hong Kong have reformed their education systems to increase educational equity and I summarize the progress achieved. I also discuss the cultural, political, and social issues and challenges that contribute to the complexity surrounding educational equity in China and Hong Kong, elaborate on how educational equity remains a tricky issue in schools, and how different factors intersect to affect students’ access to educational goods. Finally, I argue that schools in China and Hong Kong should continue both to reform their education systems to enhance the academic achievement and social development of marginalized students and to put more effort into empowering teachers and students to recognize and address the long-standing systemic and institutional obstacles.