How Chinese University vice-chancellor Joseph Sung promotes vision of holistic learning
Chinese University's popular vice-chancellor Joseph Sung enters his second term eager to extend the institution's holistic brand of learning to its soon-to-open Shenzhen campus, writes Sijia Jiang
It is a rare university president who is amenable to students greeting him by his first name. Joseph Sung Jao-yiu, the vice-chancellor of Chinese University, is one such individual. The gastroenterologist came to public attention in 2003 as a frontline Sars hero who helped lead Hong Kong's fight against the deadly viral outbreak.
As the university board in April extended his term as vice-chancellor to 2018, Sung has become known as an unconventional - and well-liked - university leader whose students might call out "Jao-yiu" when they spot him on campus.
That the Chinese online community and students have given him nicknames such as "Jao-yiu BB","Sung moe-moe" speaks to his popular image. So much so that when he joined pop star Khalil Fong Dai-tung last year on a panel discussion about their faith (he's Christian and Fong's Bahai), the moderator joked that the 2,000 students in attendance were as much Sung's admirers as they were the singer's fans.
I believe the arts are diverse expressions of the value of life and freedom
His political nous was put to the test soon after taking the helm of Chinese University in 2010. At the time, student leaders had installed a Goddess of Democracy statue on campus to mark the 21st anniversary of the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square. The move was in defiance of the outgoing vice-chancellor, economist Lawrence Lau Juen-yee, who objected to receiving the sculpture honouring Tiananmen victims on grounds of political neutrality. As vice-chancellor designate, Sung described the stance of university authorities as "immature".
Recalling those early days, Sung, 54, insists he was not "siding" with the student union. It was just that he regarded the university as "a place for freedom of research and freedom of expression", he says. "When students decided that expressed their views, I did not intervene."
The statue remains in place outside the MTR's University station to greet visitors upon arrival.
The symbolic sculpture aside, perhaps the most visible impact that Sung has wrought on campus has been the I-Care programme that he initiated in September 2011. Aimed at fostering civic engagement among students, it quickly gained a reputation even beyond Hong Kong for presenting inspirational events that have been unprecedented in their range of content and level of participation.
A talk by mainland scholar He Weifang on China's constitutional development in October last year attracted 1,500 students to the university's outdoor amphitheatre - and has been cited as sparking an interest in public discussion that harks back to the traditions of Socratic questioning.