Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1996

It is an equal honour and pleasure to find myself in the company of three such distinguished fellow honorary graduates — Mr. Thomas Chen Tseng Tao, Prof. Jonathan Spence and Mr. Tang Hsiang Chien. The honouring together of these three distinguished persons is surely symbolic also. What do they represent? Two very successful, public spirited, Hong Kong businessmen (one of whom established one of the early joint ventures in China) and a very distinguished expert on China's history who has an ability to bring excitement to the study of the past which is the mark of the truly great historian. Why symbolic? Here are two of the pillars which sustain this community — knowledge as one pillar and the creation and public-spirited use of wealth as the other. What's more, all three of these distinguished new honorary graduates — perhaps I could say all four of us — have the common thread of involvement i n varying forms with China as well as Hong Kong. We, as honorary graduates, are very much the older generation. It is a great pleasure for us to become part of the University i n this way — and to do so without taking exams ！ But universities exist fo r training generations muc h younger than ours; and those who wil l be graduating from The Chinese University of Hong Kong — and doing so after some pretty strenuous exams — are this year a particularly important and precious generation. They will be starting their careers as Hong Kong once again changes its appearance, outwardly at least, and becomes a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. I have watched with keen admiration how our universities and colleges have coped with the massive programme of expansion which the government has called for over the past several years and which has been continued, Chancellor, under your leadership. Hong Kong needs those well-educated students to be its leaders i n every area of society over the next decades. They have a momentous and fascinating task ahead of them. What can one say to those whose careers wil l be starting in the new Hong Kong? Perhaps Prof. Jonathan Spence can help. He talks about the excitement of learning. He called the most recent I have seen of his splendidly readable books Chinese Roundabout. Why? Because he liked the sense of ‘carousel' . It conjures up, he says, an image of children — ‘those scholars of the future, knees gripping the painted wood, hands holding on for dear life, heads thrown back with laughter in the vertiginous wind .' There is an excitement in learning — and a sense of never knowing where all that learning will take you, just as we never know where our own lives w i l l lead us. The communit y knows that we need these scholars, even though the community doesn't know, and never can know, what those scholars w i ll do in the future; where the leaders of the future w i ll lead; what new issues they w i l l face; nor how they w i l l face them. We only know that we need people with knowledge, wisdom, and a commitment to serve the community that gave them their own chance in life. Perhaps the experience of those like our two business leaders honoured here today can help to show how our younger generation should tackle its own future. For years, since the end of the Second World War at least, the Hong Kong community and its business leaders have been adept at facing realities, often uncomfortable realities. They have made them into advantages where others would have seen only problems. The UN embargo on trade with China; threats of protectionism in the Western world; transformation from manufacturing to a service economy; the need for massive investment in Hong Kong's own infrastructure; uncertainty about the future after 1997; all have been faced and dealt with vigorously and successfully. That uncertainty about the future cannot be expected to vanish or fade away. There are no precedents for the way in which sovereignty and administrative authority i n Hong Kong wil l change in 18 months' time. There are no precedents for the detailed arrangements set out in the 14