Sun Kwok could not apply for a place at the University of Hong Kong when he was a teenager because he did not attend an English-language school. But he has finally won a place at the age of 56 - as dean of science.
Professor Kwok says he never dreamed he would one day get the chance to join HKU.
'I couldn't get into HKU at that time. You could only get in here if you were in the English education system. We weren't even allowed to sit the exam.' He attended the Chinese-medium Pui Ching Middle School in Ho Man Tin.
Professor Kwok started his schooling at True Light girls' primary school in Tai Hang. 'Embarrassing,' he jokes. 'They took a few boys every year.' He then followed in his father's footsteps by moving to Pui Ching.
His ambition was to go to university in Canada, and to do that he had to sit GCE exams in 1967. He tells how he and a handful of like-minded students taught themselves the curriculum and carried out chemistry experiments in a make-shift laboratory set up in a friend's apartment. He passed the exams and was offered a place at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, arriving two weeks late, after being given the run around by immigration.
'There was a lot of corruption and you were told you had to visit the doctor to pass the physical even though there was nothing wrong with you.' he says.