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Vivien Yau
A girl of Principles
A sense of justice drove Vivien Yau Tze Wei to speak out. (Eldon Chim)
By Penelope Yau
Vivien Yau Tze Wei, 20, is a fine arts student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was a committee member of the Student Union from 2002 to 2003.
She filed complaints with the university concerning abusive and sexual slogans used during the Orientation Camp in 2002.
“People think that I intended to make a complaint in the very first place because I brought a digital video camera with me.
“I only wanted to tape some shots for the orientation camp held by the Union shortly afterwards.
“Unfortunately, I taped something shameful.”
In the Orientation Camp, senior students were leading freshmen to shout abusive slogans, with posters in their hands showing insulting and obscene graphics.
Ms. Yau said that students were not brave enough to express their unwillingness to yell those slogans. Some Year 1 students hid themselves in washrooms to avoid participating.
Therefore, she decided to complain, in the hope of raising students’ awareness of sexual and racial discrimination, as well as sexual harassment.
Her intentions, however, have been misunderstood.
“Some students think that I wanted to make myself famous and gain political advantages. However, only troubles followed.
“I tried my best to minimize the effect of the complaint. I never showed the tapes and transcripts to the press,” said she.
The university wrote two reports on the incident and held a press conference in December 2002. However, Ms. Yau had neither the chance to read the reports nor an invitation to the press conference.
“When I requested to meet the vice-chancellor of the university, a high ranking official of the university said that he was too busy.”
She met more than 10 officials from the university in a month, repeating and repeating the whole issue. However, she is not going to give up.
Ms. Yau appeared on a news segment of Television Broadcasts and voiced her anger at the university in December 2002.
“Just after the news, my colleagues in the Student Union warned me not to go back to the campus for a while. They were afraid that I would be attacked.
“Within 15 minutes after the program, more than 100 people posted messages to a Chinese University newsgroup showing their anger towards me. Some even said that they wanted me to commit suicide. It was terrible,” said she.
But that was just the beginning.
“I was living in the hostel with some orientation camp organizers.
“They directed very scornful looks at me, and some of them slammed doors when I walked down the corridors.
“I dared not go back to the hostel in the daytime. For the whole December, I lived in different people’s homes for safety,” said she.
As early as September 2002, Ms. Yau had filed a request to change her hostel. Not until January 2003 was her request accepted.
“I moved to the new hostel at midnight. I sneaked back to my room to pack everything in haste.
“I felt like a criminal.
“Luckily, my friends helped me pack up.
“My family has never blamed me for getting into such a lousy situation, and my colleagues have been very supportive. They had the same idea as me: to point out the faults.
“Very often, students lack the consciousness to take up responsibilities.
“They blame the minority who dare to speak the truth.
“A lot of people supported me. Some even sent me letters showing their support and care about me,” said she.
Recalling the incident, Ms. Yau said it was not so bad as others might think.
“I have never regreted what I did. Only I could have handled it in a better way.
“This
whole incident has been a good lesson for me. I will try my best to
improve myself,” she added.