Public attention in the US has been on student hazing in the last few weeks. Reading about the horrors of the induction ceremonies is blood-curdling.
Even more blood-curdling is that in Hong Kong similar rituals are carried out, but many people treat them as just part of university orientation camp activities.
Although our hazing US cousins are more violent, at least there it is an issue of debate and controversy, with activist groups for and against the rite. In Hong Kong, our 'cream of the crop' - university students - succumb to such acts under coercion without anyone ever seriously making an issue of it.
Sure, newspapers have criticised the moral standards of our university students regarding the profane slogans of Chinese University orientation. Sure, our hazing parties do not involve alcohol and jumping on broken glass.
But the scary part is precisely that hazing in our universities has less noticeable effects, which gradually come to light as years go by. There are no cuts and bruises, no intensive-care patients or dead bodies to raise the alarm.
Yet it goes on every year at dormitories such as Hong Kong University's St John's College, usually in August. In fact, the practices of silent treatment, no-toilet visits unless with an appointed chaperone, and the 'public forum' at which people are put alone in the catbird seat are this college's annual induction rituals.
Perhaps little is heard about these rituals because of the implicit 'silence' clause, which all inductees have to oblige. They are not allowed to mention any of their experiences at camp, or they will be criticised on their 'democracy wall'.