University of Rioters 

By Simon Lau

I spent 7 years of my life at the “University of Rioters”[*see note at the end], those were the good old days. I remember nothing but smiles. 

Thirty years ago, my fellow students and I were distributing supplies at Chinese University of Hong Kong [CUHK] that were to be sent to Tiananmen Square, where some Hong Kong students were setting up camp. Thirty years later, I am back at the university. This time standing next to the first-aid station, trying to go live on Facebook and dodging tear gas at the same time. At the line of defence at the No. 2 Bridge, students hid behind wooden shields, throwing Molotov cocktails at the police at every chance they got but their Molotov cocktails were no match for the police’s tear gas, rubber bullets and sponge grenades. A normal person facing the kind of brutality the police have shown since June 12th might have already been hiding and shuddering in a corner with fear. They call this place the “University of Rioters” for a good reason, the students here are willing to take a stand.

Colonialism and the Cultural Revolution

During the colonial rule in the 1980s, CUHK was seen as a second tier university. Hong Kong University (HKU) was considered as the school for elites. At the time, many government officials were graduates from HKU, while many CUHK graduates became members of the press.

Some people think that HKU’s pro-establishment stance makes it a natural training ground for future government officials. Just like the University of Tokyo, which provides talent for the Japanese government. In the same way, CUHK is considered anti-establishment therefore, it is considered a training ground for teachers, social workers and journalists much like the Waseda University of Japan. 

One would think that running a university that focused on Chinese education during the colonial rule is paradoxical. Such an education could likely result in political leanings against the colonial establishment. A training ground for anti-colonialist students would work against the British government.  It is a testament to the British government’s superior governance that the birth of a university such as CUHK was allowed under colonial rule.

Under the British rule, there were two such similar colonies in Asia - the Malay Peninsula and Hong Kong. The Communist Party of China used Chinese education as a means to spread ideas of anti-colonialism overseas.  In Singapore, students in Chinese schools and Nanyang University became anti-colonialist activists. This led to the reorganization of Nanyang University which became Nanyang Technological Institute and, without the Chinese education.

At the beginning, CUHK was an amalgamation of two colleges - Chung Chi College and New Asia College. They represented the continuation of Chinese cultural modernization attempts. New Asia College’s founders, Ch’ien Mu and Tang Junyi, were both scholars during the Nationalist rule in China. They sought for ways to modernize Chinese civilization and detested the Soviet communist ideology and class struggle. As for Chung Chi College, it represented the spread of Christianity in China. The ideologies that both colleges represented could not have existed in China under communist rule. Therefore, Hong Kong became a shelter for them. New Asia College was first set up at Kweilin Street in Hong Kong, where Chinese historian, Yu Ying-shih was once a student. 

University of Rioters

During the 50s, MacLehose (would-be governor of Hong Kong) was a political advisor in Hong Kong. He believed that an influx of Chinese refugees without an educational system to naturalize them could result in instability at the colony. As these immigrants could be easily mobilized by the communists under the name of nationalism. The Western religious elements of Chung Chi College and the spirit of reviving traditional Chinese values at New Asia College were inherently against the ideas of communism. The British were not afraid students would try to overthrow the colonial government.  Rather, they were hoping students would use their education to change the course of Chinese communist rule. Lugard, governor of Hong Kong from 1907 to 1912, founded Hong Kong University with hopes that the school could groom Chinese bureaucrats who would be well-educated in values of the industrialized Western world. However by the mid-1960s, China became a closed country. And so, CUHK filled the role of educating and nurturing modern Chinese with both eastern and western core values.

A person who understands and agrees with the values taught at CUHK would quite naturally harbour anti-Communist sentiments. As Hong Kong’s suffering today stems from the Chinese Communist Party’s anti-western values and forcing Hong Kongers to accept Chinese Communist values. During normal times, CUHK graduates would be busy with work and daily life and may even have forgotten about the values taught by the university.  However, with the university under siege by the police, they were now re-connecting with their alma mater.

On Tuesday night, the situation at the No.2 Bridge just outside the university gates had calmed down after ex-principal Joseph Sung left.  As I walked down the hill, I saw a long human chain sending supplies to the frontlines. Along the way were CUHK alumni of different ages, we greeted each other and shared our thoughts. They all said “we had to come back and take a look.”

Many of the social workers, journalists and teachers who are much despised by the police are actually graduates of the “University of Rioters”. We do not believe the present political environment in Hong Kong belongs in a modernized Chinese civilization. This is not the failure of liberal studies in secondary education or the failure of university education, nor is it about an anti-repatriation sentiment. The truth is Hong Kong and China had embarked on different paths a long time ago. This did not occur to me thirty years ago when I was distributing supplies on campus and getting ready to go to Tiananmen Square.

*Editor’s note: At the beginning of this movement, some pro-Beijing supporters started referring to CUHK as the “University of Rioters” as a denigration to its anti-establishment student activists but the students adopted this nickname with pride.

Source : Next Magazine, November 2019