"[5] Jacqueline Chak-Kei Woo, in the essay "Parental choice in the education market", published in 2016, stated that "EMI schools are still being treated as the "holy grail" nowadays".
[6] In the late 19th century British Hong Kong authorities persuaded schools to use English as the medium of instruction, rather than Cantonese, by supplying grants.
David C. S. Li wrote in Multilingual Hong Kong: Languages, Literacies and Identities that this action was "blurring" the distinctions between the two styles of schools.
[8] Historically, in many schools classified as EMI, even though all textbooks and reading materials were in English, the instructors used Cantonese in oral instruction in some or all occasions, making them "mixed-code".
[9] This usage and a decrease in English fluency in the late 20th century were factors persuading pre-Handover British Hong Kong authorities to promote CMI education.