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Hong Kong universities move cautiously with graduation ceremonies amid Covid-19 anxiety, with some holding events online
- Graduates looking forward to their big day dismayed by pandemic restrictions, curbs on guests
- Untraceable Covid-19 cases prompt Chinese University to drop plans for in-person ceremonies
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Rita Lam completed her accountancy degree at City University last year, but the 25-year-old is still waiting for her graduation ceremony.
It should have happened last November, but was cancelled because of anti-government protests.
“I had already bought my graduation gown and my friends got flowers for me,” she recalled. “My mother even took a day off, but in the end, she couldn’t take pictures with me in school.”
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The ceremony was rescheduled for March, but the Covid-19 pandemic got in the way.
If the ceremony is cancelled yet again, I’ll just forget it. It’s been a year, and I no longer feel like a fresh graduate
Now she is hoping she will be third time lucky, as the university is planning in-person ceremonies for 2019 and 2020 graduates between January and February next year. In light of social-distancing measures, graduates can only invite up to two guests, and Lam hopes her mother and boyfriend can attend.
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