The focus of this article is on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese university student reactions, in two time periods, to national themes in education as part of state attempts to establish and maintain legitimacy. The author argues that among these reactions is one of resistance to the process of state hegemony. To make this point, the article builds on several arguments derived from the literature on citizenship education in mainland China and in colonial and postcolonial Hong Kong. According to these arguments, national themes were neglected in civic education in colonial Hong Kong but gained prominence within educational policy discourse with the return of the territory to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The analysis presented in this article brings the concept of hegemony into the discussion of state claims to legitimacy in order to emphasize that numerous such claims form a constantly shifting complex in the state's attempt to maintain popular consent in a society in which oppositional politics are always present. In turn, the concept of hegemony and its need for continuous adaptation in the face of opposition brings the analysis to its focus on resistance, entailing perceptions of hegemony, reactions of critique, and potential effects on citizens' attitudes and behaviors that are contrary to the state's intentions. With critical-thinking dispositions operationalizing resistance, the remainder of the analysis focuses on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese university students as the targets of state hegemony and on the interrelationships among their attitudes toward the nation, perceptions of political socialization, and critical thinking. The article attempts to capture the possibility of change at a critical moment by examining differences between two cohorts of students attending universities in 2000 and 2005. (Contains 8 tables and 4 footnotes.)