The old principal

I never used to think that the universities in Hong Kong are so good. Look at those students, the graduation ceremony is always a person holding a stuffed bear, not to say also thought it was the end of kindergarten it. As for the teachers, it is not bad, except that most of the research is published in English, and mainly thesis, bookstores are difficult to see, unlike mainland scholars, many people who have published a lot, see their works lined up in bookstores, a great prestige. Not to mention the campus atmosphere, many big-name scholars come to give lectures, but only a few small cats to support the audience; academic salon? What is that? Never heard of it!

It is only in recent years in the mainland to run more, have seen a lot of famous universities on the other side of the joke, listened to a lot of famous "master", understand the whole higher education sector after the way of operation; I know that the original Hong Kong universities are not too bad.

You see, the British "Times" published the global university ranking, Hong Kong has three in the top 50 it. But this is not the most important thing. The former president of my alma mater, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Charles Kao, just won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year, isn't that a great feat? But frankly speaking, I didn't think he was that great when I was a student; on the contrary, a group of us students even thought he was just a bad old man. One of my classmates, who was the editor of the student newspaper at that time, published an article summarizing Kao's political achievements before he retired, and the headline included the phrase "Eight years of the president who achieved nothing".

Not only that, at that time, Kao also accepted the invitation of the central government to be the "Hong Kong Affairs Advisor" to advise on the future reunification. Many students were angered by his move, which they saw as a sign of academic pandering to politics. They stood up at the bottom and pointed at the president on stage and shouted, "Shame on Kao!" And Kao laughed nervously, and no one knew what he was laughing at.

Later, a group of more radical students advocated the downfall of the long-established "orientation camp," which they felt was a brainwashing project that tried to instill in new students a sense of pride in their alma mater, but was in fact a hopeless form of collectivism that was highly unacceptable. On the very day that Kao gave his welcome speech to the new students, they rushed up and surrounded him, shoving a condom-covered CU student doll at him, meaning that the students were all dumbed down by the university. There was an uproar, but Kao was alone, looking down and examining the doll with interest.

Only later did we read his response in the newspaper. At that time, a reporter ran after the principal who was leaving: "Principal! Will you punish these students?" Kao immediately stopped, turned around and asked the reporter in disbelief, "Punishment? Why should I punish my students?" After graduation, I learned from my old classmates who had worked in the student union and the student newspaper that Kao would write to them personally every year to thank them for their work. Not only that, he was afraid that these enthusiastic students would be too busy to go to summer jobs like everyone else, so he would donate 20,000 Hong Kong dollars each to these two organizations out of his own pocket every year, asking them to distribute the grants to students from more difficult families. My colleague, who cursed him for his "lack of success", was one of the beneficiaries back then. Today he has returned to his alma mater to teach, and he told me laughingly on the phone, "We take the money every year and scold him every year, and he gets scolded every year and gives every year." Last month, the University of Hong Kong, which we Chinese people call the "colonial university", also made news when they awarded the honorary title of academician to the old janitor of the dormitory "University Hall", "Third Sister "Yuan Sumei, because "she has influenced the lives of the university's residential students with her own life". This 82-year-old woman, who could not even read or write, not only took care of the students' bellies, but also acted as their love advisor from time to time, and watered their bewildered green grass with her own years when they encountered difficulties in their life, so she was always named one of the "three treasures of the university hall". On that day, "Third Sister" wore a fabulous academician's round hat and a red and black academic robe, and was the brightest star among the heavyweight scholars. As soon as she came on stage, the old alumni at the bottom stood up and shouted, applauding; whether their hair was black or white, whether they were now high-ranking legislators or wealthy businessmen and celebrities, they were all her children.

I've never been so close to Kao. In eight years, I only said one thing to his face. That day when some of us came out of the library, we saw him walking in front of us and immediately rolled up a ball of paper and threw it at him. When he turned around, I pointed at another student and shouted with laughter, "Principal, look at him littering!" The principal, who always smiled a little silly, took a moment to respond and said slowly, "That's not very nice." We immediately burst into laughter and watched his back fade away.

A while ago, Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang came to CUHK to speak on "The Art of Leadership" and actually talked about "tolerance is the most important virtue of leadership", and I couldn't help but shake my head and sigh: "You came here to talk about tolerance? ?" Since last year, Kao has been suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and his memory has recently deteriorated. This is not a bad thing, because I hope he will forget all the pranks we played back then and all the things we said and did to insult him. But how much I wish that he, our old president, would remember that he had just received the Nobel Prize, remember his joy when he proposed the idea of fiber optics, remember the years when he and his wife walked around the campus together with their hands in their hands, and remember the sincerity when we occasionally ran into him on the street after graduation and bowed to him with a smile and "Hello, President. We remember the sincere respect we had when we occasionally ran into him on the street after graduation, smiling and bowing to him and saying "Hello, President.