Bulletin No. 1, 2013

28 Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2013 Postscript On the coach from Tianshui to Dangzheng Village, the driver wondered aloud, ‘Where is the whole gang of you off to?’ A volunteer replied, ‘We’re off to build a bridge.’ The driver then asked what many people had in mind, ‘Isn’t it cheaper and easier for the universities to donate money and hire locals to do the rest?’ From a cost-efficiency perspective, he was right of course. But as Professor Ng said, the aim of Wu Zhi Qiao is not just to build bridges, but to educate students. Returning from the country to the city, the students will have no problems re-adjusting to the habits and rhythms of the city. They will walk on paved roads and steer clear of people coming their way. But the week in Gansu will have become a part of them and that will change their lives forever. It’s in this that the true value of the project lies and it’s not measurable by money. Prof. Joseph Sung quotes Mu Jun, a former volunteer who obtained his PhD in architecture from CUHK, that throughout the developments in China in the last century and the rapid urbanization of the last 30 years, rural China has unilaterally given itself up for the causes of urban China—its produce, its natural resources, even its people. We owe them a lot, too much. What we are doing for the villages now is a kind of repayment.