【明報專訊】IN her recent interview with Xinhua, Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam mentioned the need to begin in children's infancy to implant in them the "I am Chinese" idea. She said Hong Kong separatism must not be allowed to spread in the territory. Her remarks have aroused repercussions. Self-identification is in the first place a process of socialisation. Children ought to begin to be imperceptibly influenced with such ideas in their infancy. One must not object to teaching children to identify with the nation unless one aims at desinicisation. There is no need at all to regard as mutually exclusive one's identity as a Chinese and one's identity as a Hongkonger. What matters most is to make sure that self-identification education is aimed at helping youngsters to build up a framework with which to look at the nation's history instead of hard-selling narrow nationalism or ideas of ethnic superiority.