Hong Kong students kicked out of graduation ceremony for not standing for Chinese anthem
As they left, about a dozen of their classmates followed
A pair of college students in Hong Kong were kicked out of their own graduation ceremony on Saturday after refusing to stand up for the playing of China’s national anthem.
Prior to the ceremony, school officials at the Hong Kong College of Technology (HKCT) had warned students about new rules which defined disrespecting the anthem as “misconduct.” However, when the “March of the Volunteers” began to play two social work students remained seated.
The playing of the anthem was promptly stopped, the ceremony halted, and the two students were ordered to leave. As they left, about a dozen other students got up and followed them in a show of solidarity. Reportedly, none of these students were given their certificates.
Afterward, HKCT President Chan Cheuk Hay spoke with graduates.
“As a university that loves both its motherland and Hong Kong, HKCT will always remain patriotic,” Chan said, according to the People’s Daily. He added that students who did not know the school’s position on the matter had chosen the wrong university.
Meanwhile, the students who had left the ceremony said that they believed the Chinese government was not doing a good enough job of serving the people and felt that it was their duty as graduates of social work to speak out, the South China Morning Post reports.
Of course, the Chinese national anthem has been a point of contention in Hong Kong in recent years, particularly at sporting events where Hong Kong fans are known to boo and turn their backs as the anthem plays.
Back in October, mockery of the Chinese national anthem was made illegal in mainland China. About a month later, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress included this new National Anthem Law into Hong Kong’s Basic Law, though the controversial legislation has not yet been finalized in the special administrative region.
However, in its write-up of the incident at HKCT, the People’s Daily warns that people in Hong Kong ought to start respecting the anthem (and their families), instead of seeking the attention of foreign media:
The National Anthem Law is practical and easy to understand. For those in Hong Kong who have been acting disrespectfully while China’s anthem is played, especially at sporting events, need to stop kowtowing to Western behavior for the sake of foreign media attention.
The two students and the others who followed them out of the ceremony spoiled the day for the young graduates and their family members who came to see their child, grandchild, niece or nephew, walk across the stage and receive a diploma from HKCT. It was a selfish act and a failed attempt at tarnishing the importance of academic achievement and what it means to start a new life.
Of course, these kinds of symbolic displays are nothing new for the youth of Hong Kong. Back in 2014, a student at the Hong Kong Baptist University walked up to receive his diploma, stopped, and popped open a yellow umbrella, causing the school’s vice-chancellor to refuse to hand over the certificate, and instead shut down the graduation ceremony.
[Images via hk01]
