Almost all 3- to 6-year-olds attend preschool programmes in Hong Kong; however, early childhood education (ECE) had been relatively neglected by the Hong Kong government until 2000 when the reform of school education system was initiated. Since then, notions of ‘child-centredness’ and holistic development have been promulgated as the core values of ECE. Against this backdrop, this paper critically examines the Hong Kong ECE context, its historical development, the major obstacles to reform from both parents’ and providers’ perspectives, and the recent key policy developments in ECE. It provides a useful reference for international audiences, particularly those in Confucian-heritage cultures, in designing and implementing educational reform and change in ECE.