HKCT has bittersweet victory over disrespectful students

Agenuine leftist tends to be more steadfast in his allegiance, as in the case of Chan Cheuk-hay, president of the Hong Kong College of Technology (HKCT), who was applauded for standing up against local young self-haters at the school’s graduation ceremony on Dec 16.

During the event, two graduates refused to stand up during the playing of China’s national anthem, which is not only disrespectful and soon-to-be illegal, but against rules of behavior the school laid out to students before the ceremony, especially regarding the national anthem.

When the national anthem began to play, the two students in question remained seated while others stood up. School officials courageously stopped the music and paused the ceremony to take care of this disrespectful act. The two students were ordered to leave the ceremony. As the two students were walking out, about a dozen students followed them in a show of solidarity. The ceremony resumed 20 minutes later without them.

After the incident, Chan spoke with the graduates involved.

“As a school that loves both its motherland and Hong Kong, HKCT will always remain patriotic and this is not negotiable,” Chan said. He emphasized that if students are not aware of the school’s position, then they have chosen the wrong school.

These are heroic words but behind them was a very sad history.

The HKCT was formerly known as the Mong Kok Workers’ Night School, which was established in 1957. As the old name implies, the school’s history intertwined with the city’s leftist movement. Being affiliated with progressive elements back in the 1950s was no joking affair and people in this circle knew first-hand what “colonial oppression” meant.

In the revolutionary years, Hong Kong leftists were beaten by police batons on the streets while workers on the Chinese mainland were seen as the “leading class”, or big brothers.

In the 1980s, when Hong Kong’s transition and the Chinese mainland’s opening-up came hand in hand, they were further and doubly marginalized: Hong Kong’s capitalist system tilted more toward the capitalist.

And here it is, the HKCT, continuing stubbornly with its focus on vocational training — again at odds with the “global trend” toward university-type liberal arts/general education, or its watered down version of associate degrees.

But at the end of the day, it is organizations like HKCT and people such as Chan who remain truly patriotic against all this marginalization. This should count for something.

“As a school that loves both its motherland and Hong Kong, HKCT will always remain patriotic and this is not negotiable,” Chan said. But how many schools in Hong Kong would proudly and openly proclaim themselves loving both motherland and Hong Kong? For those that do not, which are the majority, does it mean that how students behave vis-a-vis the national flag or anthem is negotiable?

It is time we infuse the phrase “loving both the motherland and Hong Kong” with substance. How do we distinguish between patriots, dissidents and opportunists? How do we distribute consequences accordingly?

By consequences I mean those within laws and procedures. The government has many rewards and honorary positions that it can award to the right kind of people to encourage the right kind of behavior.

Then there are government positions that are politically appointed, meaning the appointment will inevitably involve political considerations. The dissidents like to ask the government to appoint people who are “popular” or “competent”, knowing that these attributes work in their favor. The reality is, popularity is overrated, competence can be nurtured, but the basic worldview of a person — such as his political allegiance — is the most difficult to shape.

And we can also help the patriots systemically as a group. Think about the workers we have neglected, and think about those who attended the patriotic vocational school of HKCT, who will soon join the army of marginalized workers here in this city. Whether these students attending HKCT have chosen the right school or not is for us to determine.