a speech

The following is the speech that I was to give at today's "orientation for non-local postgraduate students". There was a last minute change in format, from speech to talk show-style, but I did manage to cover some of these points:


I wish you all a warm welcome to HKU. I myself was a non-local freshman 4 years ago.

By now, I’m sure you will have heard university officials tell you how excellent HKU is and heard university staff talk about the different services available here. I’m not here to talk about that stuff.

I have little doubt that all of you will succeed in your academic endeavours. I hope you’re all enthusiastic about what lies ahead of you, academically-speaking. But you must realise and remind yourself from time to time that you’re not here just to study. You must realise that you’re here to LIVE here as well. I know a few people who push themselves too hard or who have supervisors or profs who push them too hard and who seem to be prisoners in their labs, offices, or the libraries. While I applaud their dedication to their work, I doubt that it’s a pleasant way to live.

Having friends makes life a lot more pleasant. Ever since coming to HKU, I never stopped making friends. I made loads of friends at Graduate House, in the compulsory Graduate School classes, in language classes, in sports classes, and of course, through the PGSA. Girlfriends too, but I’ll get to that part later. And I got to know friends of friends who have since become pretty good friends of mine. You know what? You’ll never know who you’re going to meet. In the past few years, several of my friends here have gotten married to their classmates. Actually, they weren’t classmates. There’s a Law student who married a Dentistry guy, a girl from Dentistry who married a guy in Chinese Medicine, an Engineering guy who married a girl in Education. I think the lesson here is to avoid limiting your circle of friends to your department-mates. And that you won’t find love in your own department or faculty.

As for me, I’m still single. Hi ladies!

Actually, I loved and lost, and to tell you the truth, that was very rough for me. I thought that I met “the One”, but it just didn’t work out, and when things fell apart, they really fell apart. If it weren’t for the folks at CEDARS, I probably wouldn’t be able to be here. I don’t mean be HERE to talk to you. I mean ALIVE. If things get rough for you, don’t be afraid to seek help. These people know what they’re doing, and they really can help.

Moving on, I’d like to talk a bit more about life outside of the lab, office, and library. I hope you never feel bored at HKU. In fact, there’s lots to do here. Mark “September 4th” on your calendars. That’s when registration opens for courses at the “Institute of Human Performance”. The university has several sports centres where you can swim, play tennis, golf, squash, badminton, basketball, football... you name it. You can also take courses in things like yoga, kung fu, all kinds of dance, and Muay Thai. I’ve been especially fond of Muay Thai, or Thai boxing. I first took this course at the IHP 3.5 years ago and became HOOKED. But for the first 2 years, I only took the courses offered at HKU, which meant that I could only train once a week for 2 months, then stop for 2 months. In the past year and a half, I started to train at DEF Boxing in Sheung Wan once a week, year-round. In the past month, I’ve started to train at DEF 3 times a week. I might even compete sometime in the near future. So boxing, along with the badminton, plus the other sports I play from time to time, have been keeping me relatively sane and have been preventing my belly from getting any bigger than it already is.

If your professors ever tell you they think that you’re spending too much time playing sports, you should tell them that exercise energizes you and that it’s a valuable chance for you to see your friends. That is definitely the case for me now that I’m in my final year. The only time I get to see friends is when I’m playing sports. Almost nothing can keep me from playing badminton with my PGSA friends every Saturday night. You too can join us, if you want.

Ah, this brings me to my next point: challenge your professors. When I was an undergraduate and a Masters student at UBC, I was a straight A student. A, not A+. For years, I worked harder and harder, yet always failed to raise my grades from 85% to 90%, which is what you need to get an A+ over there. I later learned, from the A+ students, that to get an A+, you have to challenge your profs. I got A’s because I always answered the questions asked and did so by writing clearly and concisely. What the A+ students did was to challenge the profs’ interpretations and opinions, which they often give in the lectures, or perhaps in the choice of readings. As postgraduate students, especially PhD students, we should challenge some conventions and perhaps even be somewhat provocative. But it’s best to do it without being a jerk about it.

Okay, let’s change gears here and talk about Hong Kong for a bit. I encourage you all to get off campus once in a while. And I don’t mean to do grocery shopping. It’s easy to isolate yourself on campus. You can live in a dorm, eat at the canteens, spend most of your time at the library or your office or lab, and to occasionally go to the sports centres to play sports. But why would you deny yourself the chance to explore this wonderful city? I know.. this city can give you awful first impressions. For me, I was pretty damned impressed when I took the Airport Express from the airport to Central. But I was less than impressed when I stepped outdoors and entered the furnace. I wasn’t impressed when I stepped into a noodle shop and got yelled at.. by the server! I wasn’t impressed when I asked an old lady for directions.. and she SHOOK HER HEAD AND KEPT WALKING! Yeah, it can be discouraging. But you know what? When the weather gets cooler, after you learn a few phrases of Cantonese, after you’ve met some local friends who’ll recommend what to eat and where to eat it, you can have a great time exploring the city. It’s a very clean and extremely safe city and there’s so much to see. And not just the touristy stuff. Just 3 days ago, I decided to go on a jog late at night. I ended up exploring an area just 2 km from this very spot and saw some pretty cool things I never even knew about. Like a cemetery. A big one.

Another thing about Hong Kong is that you can get by with relative ease by speaking either English or Mandarin. Why learn Cantonese? Well, you may not NEED to learn Cantonese, and you may not WANT to learn Cantonese, but here’s why you SHOULD: do you REALLY want to tell people that you’ve lived in Hong Kong for 1-4 years and you can’t even speak a single phrase of Cantonese? Believe me, it’d reflect very badly on you. Don’t worry about how bad you might sound. Worry more about how sincere or insincere you’d appear.

One final thing before I shut up: I hope that whether you’re only here at HKU for 1 year or if you’re here for 4 years or more, that you will leave HKU a richer person. I don’t mean financially. That’d be impossible. I mean I hope that being a student at HKU will be an enriching experience for you, and that you will graduate a better person.

Thank you, and do have a wonderful time at this lovely university and this wonderful city.