Forget about the controversial, yet magnificent, campus design, it was the students there who had surprised me. I went into the campus on a school day, but there were not many students in the podium, which is the main entrance to the lecture halls. There were only a few students sitting on the benches reading.
The campus was extremely quiet. Even if there were some students passing by, they seldom laughed loudly or yelled. They just walked "decently". It was the same during lunch time.
So, where are the students?
According to one of my friends studying in the HKUST, most students go nowhere after lessons but the library. That's true. When I went into their library, I could see no empty seats. Students were ducking their heads studying or busily finding books on the shelves--really hard working.
Back at The Chinese University, the picture here is totally different. Groups of students often walk on the boulevard playing and laughing as if there was no other people. Canteens, instead of libraries, are always packed with students.
As an outsider from a different world, I would think that students at the HKUST are a bit reserved. It is not to say that students at The Chinese University are lazier or brighter whereas those in the HKUST are dummies. In fact, there are different cultures on the campuses.
Yet, I don't think there is any implication of absolute good or bad about the difference. But it would be an interesting topic to explore and compare the different cultures among the tertiary institutions.
Vivian Leong
Chai Wan
What has changed the mind of society? What makes women are carefree to do whatever they want to? What makes women to support their own lives instead of "relying" on husbands? In short, why is remaining single today never out of question?
The prime reason is that women are getting more and more educated to express themselves, developing an independent mind, and not submitting to the male-dominant social conventions.
Education also enables women to be exposed to Western cultural values such as "equality", "individualism", "independence", and more importantly, "feminism".
Women also provide a vital labour force. With equal chances of being educated, women are now capable of doing jobs precedently dominated by men, such as chief managers, senior exectives and bosses.
In many cases, women have proved to be equally competent as men. More importantly, women's status is raised every now and then. Many women are now financially independent to support their own lives and need not to live off men. As a result, marriage is no longer indispensable for women.
Not only is being single now socially acceptable, more and more women are preferring to be single instead of getting married. They even point out the disadvantages of marriage: unfaithfulness, loss of independence and so forth.
It is now clear that "marriage" is not the ultimate destination of women, and remaining single is not an alien act to society anymore. Rather, more and more women are reconsidering the question of marriage.
Wong Wing Hang
Mei Foo
Although they are considered bright students in Hong Kong, they do not study hard. They just waste their time and money contributed by the taxpayers and the Government. They skip lessons unreasonably, just attending lessons whenever they like. When examinations are approaching, they will borrow notes or books from friends and classmates, and then burn their midnight oil in order for a passing grade.
Some students also speak foul language on campus, just like those who have never been educated.
Worse still, the students do not seem to be polite and considerate. During assemblies when the speakers are giving their talks or announcements, some students just chat, whisper or burst into thunders of laughter all of a sudden. I understand that some of the talks are boring, but we should keep quiet and try to behave ourselves so that we will not embarrass the guest speakers.
If we behaved ourselves and were considerate to others, how nice it would be!
Lai Chi Wai
Kwun Tong