Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2003

Tracing the History o f the CUHK Identity Yeung Tak-lap Chief Editor of the CU Student Press The Evolving CUHK Identity Flipping through back issues of the CU student magazine gave Yeung Tak-lap an inkling of the image projected by CUHK students of the 70s and 80s. He remembers a drawing of a ‘typical’ CUHK student: his hair is short and unkempt; he is holding a book (Chinese, of course) on the art of thinking; he has the air of a poor student, a child of the mas ses—na t u r a l ly so as The Chinese University positioned itself as a university for children of the grassroots at a period in Hong Kong history when university education was considered the p r i v i l e ge o f the ‘have's’. There were a l s o c o l l e g i a t e variations of this image, such as students from United College were more d own - t o - e a r th wh i l e those from New Asia were more hot- blooded. H o w e v e r Tak-lap feels this distinctive identity of a CU student has lost much of its colour in the last decade or so. ‘Our identity has become ambiguous. Even though students t oday may be eve ry b i t as ha r dwo r k i ng as their predecessors, the Un i v e r s i t y ’s f undamen t al values have somehow changed. It now talks about internationalization, and selects students with a different set o f criteria. In the past CU students were proud of their mastery of the Chinese language, now w i th globalization being the catch wo rd of the day, English prevails in importance. Collegiate identities have also come to be defined more by the number of scholarships tenable and the merits of their canteens rather than by the flair of their students,’ he observed. There are changes too in their Chinese identity, following changes in Hong Kong's relationship w i th the mainland. ‘Reading articles penned by CU students in the 60s and 70s, I noticed that those who were eager to visit the mainland did so w i th the aim of serving the motherland and getting to know it better, which is different from the pragmatic nature o f today's exchanges. The o ld sentiments began to fade out of focus when the Hong Kong economy took off in the 80s and a more clearly defined Hong Kong identity emerged. Students growing up in the "Golden 80s" identified with middle-class values. My generation was part o f that but we also experienced June 4th as well as post-1997 calls for patriotism. We grew up in a historical crevice and we feel a bit confused by it all,' Tak-lap explained. Chinese University Bulletin Spring • Summer 2003 14