Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1996

then professor of Chinese at SOAS, later dean of arts, and now honorary professor of the Institute of Chinese Studies at The Chinese University. A fluent speaker and reader o f Chinese, with an enduring interest in contemporary China and Chinese culture, Dr. Wilson was now hiking steadily towards a distinguished academi c career. Unexpectedly, he changed course again in 1974, rejoining the diplomatic service, a rare feat. Three years later he was back here as po l i t i ca l adviser to the Hong Kong Government. After testing his mountaineering mettle as a member of the British expedition to Mount Kongur in China, he returned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. When he was just 49, he found himself participating in the negotiations over the future of Hong Kong and acting as senior representative for Britain on the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group. He became a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George i n January 1987. On 9th April he returned, taking up his duties here as Governor and Commander-in- Chief of Hong Kong. As a diplomat, he did not expect to be given this job. In theor y the governor has enormous power; in practice power is used sparingly. Lord Wilson looks back on it all as the most fascinating jo b one could ever do. Among his most dramatic and testing moments must certainly have been that period of anguish and doubt unleashed by the events in Tiananmen Square, after which he had to rebuild the tenitory's confidence. In January 1991 he was made Knight Grand Cross of his order, and the following year, he was the first governor t o be made a life peer while still in office, taking the title Lord Wilson of Tillyorn. His choice of title acknowledges the place where he has a cottage and also his enduring love of fantastic landscapes , perhaps gained as a young man when he led an expedition to Mount Roraima, the model for Conan Doyle's book, The Lost World. As student of contemporary China and diplomat, Lord Wilson became one of Britain's best China experts, contributing significantly to the negotiations on the future o f Hong Kong and the signing o f the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984. As governor, he had to keep three plates spinning on the end of bamboo poles: British, Hong Kong, and mainland Chinese dishes, with sometimes contrasting ingredients and of conflicting culinar y interest. Despite inevitable wobbling, he maintained stability — a key factor in our prosperity here, launching farsighted and far-reaching changes such as the new airport project, more consultation and increased numbers of elected seats in the legislature, improved highways, sewage treatment, care for the quality of the environment, and the very rapid expansion of tertiary education. We in the University strive to rise to the challenges he has set us. As Chancellor of the University, Lord Wilson always encouraged our quest for excellence through teaching, research, and many international links. During his term we acquired the famed research magnet fo r contemporary Chinese studies, the Universities Service Centre, and we established the Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology. He also helped foster our close and highly valued association with Yale University. No account o f him should omit the Wilson Trail from historic Stanley Gap to the beautiful Pat Sin Range, a symbol now of his affection for Hong Kong and its people, where, I am told, he would outpace even his bodyguards. On these cloudy peaks it is not too fanciful to see the Scottish landscape imaged fleetingly in Nature's mirror. Mr. Chancellor, this is the last occasion i n Hong Kong's history that a British governor may confer on his predecessor an honorary degree. L o r d Wi l son is a man whose background as a diplomat and whose great knowledge of Chinese people and contemporary China helped him to keep the three plates spinning. That very demanding balancing act did not always make him popular, but he managed it without sacrificing his personal integrity in public service. It is my singular and happy duty to present David Clive Wilson for the degree o f Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. • 5