A year of change for Hong Kong: from east-meets-west to east-clashes-with-west

Abstract

In this essay, I consider the impacts of the pandemic and the recent political challenges to the global position of Hong Kong's higher education. To reveal the impacts, I examine what makes Hong Kong's academic model special, and assess the sustainability of this model in a post-pandemic era.

Global pedigree and national imperative: Hong Kong universities’ response to China’s grand strategies

“…The unbounded nature, which echoes the internationally shaped approach, refers to the situation where the cultural mixtures are nested in the global knowledge networks (Wang 2009). This conceptual understanding of Hong Kong's HE is consistent with arguments in favor of political ambiguity (Richard 1997) because the inter-referential awareness about building worldview exists only when the Chinese state appreciates or at least tolerates the cultural differences and the associated incongruities in a hybrid model (Lo 2020).…”

The role of university leaders in a political crisis: Students' perspectives from Hong Kong

“…These research findings highlight the significance of territorial identity in promoting university students' social–political participation (Fong, 2022) and forming solidarity in the 2019 protests (Lee, 2020). They also explain how student activism was driven by the localists' philosophy and demands (Chow et al, 2020; Lo, 2020). These localist characteristics distinguish student activism in Hong Kong from that in some other places (e.g.…”