My Take | Why universities in Hong Kong have flourished since mayhem
After the 2019 unrest, and with no more politically motivated riots to distract them, students and teachers can focus on studies, research
Hong Kong universities are going down the drain, according to the latest report from New York-based Human Rights Watch. There is no freedom, and students and professors alike are living in fear, and watching every word they write or say.
Then a few weeks later, the far more authoritative Times Higher Education published its latest global rankings. Four local universities have risen in the annual survey. I am not at all surprised. The two reports actually don’t contradict each other, if you know how to read them.
But let me tell an anecdote first.
The daughter of a good friend was studying engineering at Chinese University. It runs in her family as her father was a senior engineer at one of China’s biggest state-owned oil companies.
During the height of the student riots in 2019, many of her schoolmates were joining the mayhem, occupying the campus, laying waste to facilities and fighting with police. It was dubbed “the riot U” back then after all. She was already finding the courses she was taking very tough, and tried to focus on her studies. And so, she was ostracised and practically denounced at one point as a “traitor” – for trying to study. So much for personal freedom!
She has since graduated and started a promising career in engineering. I don’t know what happened to her more rebellious classmates. But I envy her.
