CUHK Freshman Recreates Campus in Minecraft; Alumni Attend to Take Virtual Photos in Protest Gear
This school year for Hong Kong's post-secondary students has been anything but usual: it saw the Anti-ELAB protests sweeping the city in the summer; classes starting and then suspended; and now the Wuhan Pneumonia outbreak. Students found themselves away from campus more often than not, and now most schools have canceled their commencement ceremonies due to the epidemic.
Owen, a freshman at Chinese University of Hong Kong, has spent over 3 months to build a virtual version of the school campus in the game Minecraft. On Apr 12, the 5-month anniversary of the "Battle of CUHK", he hosted a commencement ceremony in Minecraft for this year's graduates. Many attended the virtual event in graduation gowns; lit virtual fireworks; took photos with a virtual version of Vice-Chancellor Rocky Tuan; and visited the Minecraft version of No. 2 Bridge, the site of the violent clashes with police on the night of Nov 12.
Owen had originally intended to recreate the battle scenes, but eventually decided against it for fear of trivializing the events of that evening. He said that the protests over these months, especially the Battle of CUHK, left a deep impression on him as a freshman: "I found that so many CUHKers love this place very much."
Owen is in his first year studying towards a Social Sciences degree. He has been playing Minecraft for 4 years. A railway enthusiast, he used to build rail systems with friends on Minecraft servers. Since attending CUHK, he spent about 2 hours every day building the virtual campus, about two-thirds of the exterior structures of campus buildings are now complete. After the school announced that the graduation photo day would be cancelled, Owen's seniors suggested he host a photo event in Minecraft, like similar virtual events hosted for Japanese primary school students. He began adding graduation-themed decorations such as balloon arches, and officially opened the server for graduates to register. He hoped that they could get a taste of the graduation festivities, even when they could not be on campus in real life.
The virtual campus was well received far beyond Owen's expectations. Over 100 people attended the first "open-day”. The most frequently asked question on his forum was "Did you build the No. 2 Bridge?" Regarding the virtual bridge site, Owen said that he tried recreating the battle scenes of Nov 12, even adding police vehicles, fires, and tear-gas smoke, but ultimately decided not to continue with it. "Am I making a game out of No. 2 Bridge? Impossible. Also immoral,” he said. ”We haven't won, why should we celebrate?" Thinking back to the clashes, Owen felt that the scenes of alumni rushing back to CUHK to defend it was incredibly stirring. "Although this was not the main reason I built this map, but it made me love this school even more." The virtual campus still includes many remnants of the protests, including the vertical black banners and Lennon Walls decorating the University Mall at the start of the September semester.
Matcha, who is graduating from CUHK this year, has been active in protests over the past months, including the clashes at CUHK and Polytechnic University. He attended the virtual graduation with his character in full protest gear. "It's gonna be a long time before I can go back to the school, what with everything that happened last year. I do want to come take pictures for the memories." Having been away from Minecraft for over a year, Matcha got back online after hearing about the CUHK map. He felt that the mapmaker put a lot of heart into building the map, and was tirelessly responding to requests during the graduation event. "The admin even doubled as our photographer." Matcha's girlfriend said she didn't understand the point of having a virtual graduation day, but he felt that it had a different and special meaning.
"I was born in 1997, and it seems like I witness a significant event in Hong Kong at every stage of my life, so I do want to have this graduation photo to remember this year."
Owen is also a student union officer at the university. He heard about the school cancelling orientation camps due to the epidemic, as well as its effects on the new students' experience. "They really have it tough - they lost the info day, they lost all the orientation talks." According to his plans, the virtual campus will host an open day every two months for everyone to visit. In June, he plans to host Hong Kong's first-ever virtual orientation camp. "I can't promise this will let them make friends like in a real-life o-camp (orientation camp), but I hope I can give them a good welcoming experience that they wouldn't have otherwise."
Source : Stand News
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